I'm a Farmer's Wife (and proud of it)

I wear the title proudly.

Many years ago, I was quoted as saying, "I will never marry a farmer, especially not a hog farmer." Here I am, married almost 12 years to a hog/grain farmer, and loving it.

I grew up on a dairy/grain farm. I really disliked the non-schedule in busy times and the chaos that sometimes accompanied it. I absolutely loved the country, however. I guess I dreamed of someday living on an 'Old McDonald' type farmette with my husband and kids and definitely living happily ever after.

When we married, Leon was working at a Napa store, in the parts department. It didn't take us long to realize this was not his 'thing'. I quickly discovered that there are few things worse than a man not enjoying his job. Several years later, he switched jobs, and began working for an earthmover/excavator and they also did field tiling. He worked much longer hours than before, got a lot dirtier, but came home much happier. He loved his job, his boss, pretty much everything about it, except he wasn't at home with his family as much as he wished. After working there about 4 years, we bought our little 'farmette' with hog buildings and became hog farmers. His boss was very understanding about giving him time off when he emptied out hog buildings and filled them up again. Things got a little crazier because we were now juggling a full-time job, plus almost another one at home. The 20 min. drive to work wasn't much fun.

The farmer we custom fed hogs for asked Leon to work for him full-time. He lived a quarter mile from us which was a huge perk. Leon could work from 8-5, (except for the busy season) with all meals at home. That sounded really good to us. After seven years of doing dirt work, we made the change. I think the scariest thing was not knowing for sure if Leon would enjoy this as much as he had his previous job.

We have since had the opportunity to rent land from Leon's Dad, and buy some of it. Leon uses his boss's equipment whenever he needs it. He gets time off to put in his own crops. We see him driving past with the tractor. The kids can ride with him. It's almost like being at home. And the best part of all-Leon loves being a farmer!

If you remind me of my famous statement from years before, I just have to laugh. How little I knew then. I do remember after being married only a month or so, I was out mowing the yard, and something happened to the mower. I had to wait until Leon got home that night to fix it. I remembered how growing up on the farm, there was always someone around to fix stuff like that. The thought actually crossed my mind that a farmer husband would be very nice!

There are still times when farming ain't so fun. It's real life. We have more to do than what we have hours in a day. We have bills to pay and equipment to buy. The pigs get sick and we don't always know why. The weather is unpredictable. We pray for rain. We pray it stops. You can't always hang the laundry out because of that 'east wind'. The 'honey-do' list gets pushed aside. The grape arbor doesn't get built. The wife has to drop everything and race to the field with more seed corn, at the worst possible time of the day. You made a great meal only to discover Daddy won't make it for supper tonight. You just want a family night together, but it's not going to happen anytime soon. You are afraid the house smells like pigs.

But the perks to farming-there's plenty of those. Even though the farmer is busy, he's out in the shop where you can go talk to him at least. The children get to spend lots of time with him. You get to listen to him talk about markets, weather patterns, insects you never heard of before, and insecticides with every other farmer you meet. You get to sneak out every fall after the kids are in bed, and ride on the combine with him. You get special celebratory dates after the crops are planted and after the crops are harvested. You get to hear him dream about farming in the future. (At least dreams are free!) You get excited with him when he buys his first tractor. He plants your sweet corn in the field with his planter. You get a hug every time he stops in the house, if you can catch him before he's out the door again.

But the bottom line is this: A man's got to love what he does! Embrace your husband's calling. Support him. Be interested in it, even if it doesn't make any sense to you. You are doing more for him that you can possibly imagine.