Bob Martens

The above is who I call Farmer Bob.

This post is nothing more than a little post about what I’ve been doing over the past two weekends. I’ve been helping with something I never really helped with before: harvest.

First, let me say that I would not have been able to help if not for Laura watching our two boys by herself for the past two weekends. She does the same thing during the week and I don’t know how she does it, and then I abandon her for two weekends to help take the corn out with my dad and brother. So, thank you to Laura, especially, for taking care of our boys while I played with the big toys in the field.

Now, you need to understand that I spent the first 24 years of my life pretty much distancing myself from the farming operation on the family farm as much as possible. I went ahead and focused on music and technology (among other things) while my younger brother spent his time learning the family trade side-by-side with our dad.

Sure, I got in on baling hay, loading hogs, and other smaller things but Kevin spent his time out there fixing the machinery, combining crops, running in loads, working up the fields for the next year, planting crops, etc. He was learning how to be a farmer and I was imagining myself coming back and visiting for fun.

Little did I know what happened during all of those years. I think the quote goes something like this:

You can take the boy from the farm, but you can never take the farm out of the boy.

I’m probably messing it up, but the gist is that in getting away from the farm I grew up on I began to enjoy doing those thing I had distanced myself. It really came to a head last year when I was able to help take loads into the co-op and found that I … enjoyed it. I enjoyed working on/for the farm.

It was strange.

It was strange in the way that you find something out about yourself after years of trying to deny it. I actually do like farming, or at least certain aspects of it. Laura likes to point out that I would not do very well with the mundane, everyday tasks that are involved with farming (I have a hard enough time getting up in the morning for my sons … animals would had to wait), but there is still a part of me that enjoys certain aspects … and harvest is one of them.

Am I going to get into farming full-time? Probably not. The idea is there, but at this point I don’t think I would be happy doing that. However, I do look forward to spending some more time out there during critical junctures of the year and helping out where I can. An extra hand at times can mean an expanded operation without needing to get more help.

Plus, Jamis loves to ride in the tractor and combine.