Well, as most of you can tell, this little ole' blog is about farmers. As a 5th generation farmer, growing up in the inter-mountain west, i have grown up with a deep passion for agriculture, and especially farming. I really dont have a whole lot to say about myself, except that i am only 19 years old, and currently am working on our family farm.
My point in making this blog, is to express my love, passion, and dreams about agriculture and farming. I dont think I am alone when it comes to having a love for farming, so i hope to get some followers that will share their love for it also.
My entire life, i have lived and worked on the farm, going day by day, week by week with my grandpa, uncle, and dad doing various things. I think that i am blessed for what i have been given, and how i have been raised. You always hear that working on a farm does a person good, well, its the truth. Did i realize it while i was young? Heck no! There were days when i would have to go to work, whether i liked it or not. But oh how down the road, it would make me who i am today.
I spent the majority of my days up until i was probably 13 or 14 with my grandpa. He is the most amazing man i know on this earth. No single person has influenced me more than he has. I spent hours and hours sitting in the pickup, the tractor, and his house while he would tell me stories from back in the day. I think that out of all of his grandchildren, I have heard the most of his stories. I think that if I were to write a book with all of the stories he has told me, it would be at least 4 or 500 pages long. And every day, i am still hearing more and more new ones.
I think that I am the way i am because of him. I have looked up to him my whole life. I think that through the past 16 years or so, i have eaten lunch every day in the summer months with him and my grandma. Oh how i love spending time with them.
My grandpa was a dreamer, and a big dreamer at that. He was always dreaming of schemes for me to do to make money. From bottle feeding baby Holstein calves, to show steers, to my own cow herd. He has been there every step of the way encouraging me to live my dreams. He always says, "you only live once, so you might as well make the most of it." And how true those spoken words are. You will never get anywhere in life if you don't try, so you might as well try.
At about my mid teens, that is when i really started to work on the farm with my dad. He instilled in me the reality of what hard work does for a person. He has been a rock for me my whole life. I think some words that best describe him are, "if you dont do it right the first time, you might as well not do it." He always made sure that if i was going to do something, that i learn it the right way. I spent most of my days running errands with my grandpa, and when i started working with my dad, thats when i started the real work. At that point in time, i started running the tractors, and the largest majority of my job now, irrigating. Oh how through the years my perspective has changed of my "job." When i started out, i have to say, i did not like it very much. It was a lot, and i mean a LOT of work. I would spend my days irrigating, and tending to other farm jobs, and then all night long, irrigate. I was quite the grump i have to say. But over the next couple years, i realized that i actually loved it.
When going out at night, there is a peace in the fields. All the birds stop chirping, and the crickets and frogs come out. Almost all people have never heard the sound of the bubbling when when you irrigate. On a still night, when the water is flooding the fields, the air pockets in the earth come up to the surface. It is like a HUGE jacuzzi. It is probably the coolest thing to hear at night. And like i said, it is unique, and most people have never heard it.
Its little things like that that make me really love farming. Whether it be planting season in the spring and fall, summertime irrigating, swathing, and raking, fall work sitting in the tractor for hours working the earth, and much more, it has really opened my eyes on how vast and amazing this earth is.
My love also comes from a program that i was in in high school called, the FFA. I think that in high school I spent more time out of school going to FFA activities and events, then i did going to school. My advisors were amazing. They made me realize that i really really loved agriculture, and that i wanted to spend the rest of my life doing what i love, Agriculture.
I could expound with stories for days and days, but when it comes down to it, i really love what i do.
I am currently a full time student at a local University studying Agriculture Education. This degree is a general degree in agriculture with an emphasis in education. While in high school, i realized that i have a passion for sharing things about agriculture, and teaching people about it also. What better degree than Ag Ed, to hopefully one day become one of those people that i so looked up to when i was in school, an Ag teacher and FFA Advisor. It fit perfectly with my life plan. I wanted to farm, and i could do that being a school teacher. And what would i be teaching? What i loved, and practice myself. Agriculture
So all in all, this is just a little look into my life thus far. I am only 19, so you see, i am still very young, and have lots of life lessons to learn. But my ultimate goal in life is this: I want to get my college degree, and hopefully find a job close by teaching. And if not, then i would like to be a full time farmer. But if i do become a teacher, i can still farm. But on a smaller scale. I would also like to live close to home. I have loved growing up with most of my aunts, uncles, and cousins within a 1mile square block, and i want my kids to grow up close to family also. I have hundreds of dreams, and hopefully one day, they will all come true. But the only way of making them come true, is by trying. Like my grandpa said, "you only live once, so you might as well make the most of it."
