Butler and Edmonson Counties
"And we did make plenty of sacrifices, people would talk about going on vacations, when school was out. We never thought about leaving town in the spring of the year, there were no way.”
"I don't, I don't think that the general public really realizes how hard our employees work. I mean it's not, as much physical now, as it is mental. They've got to know the right computer to use. They've got to know how to figure chemicals. They’ve got to know how to figure fertilize. They’ve got to know that a truck’s running right. They've got to know that that sprayer is running right. And, you know, knowledge and wisdom is two different things. And they've got to be wise enough to know what to do at a certain time."
“I think, I probably think it sounds easy to most people. You throw a few seeds in the ground, and you get something, you get it right. But no, there's no way that they understand the long hours, the time. I mean, you can't, you can't really plan for anything much. You learn that after a while, you get used to it, and how to handle it. But, it's tough, when you can't make plans, and you don't get to go do the things maybe somebody else is doing. And you have to go out at night, check the corn. I mean, it's all kinds of stories, get up in the middle of the night and go out check the corn and see if it's dry, drying in the grain bin right.”
"Yeah, and another thing I think talking about farmers. One thing when you were talking about getting equipment ready, farmers, they don't really just till the ground and plant the seeds. Or my farmer here has always worked on the equipment, repair. I mean, and if something didn't work, he'd figure out or make something, make a piece to make it work, not just maybe go buy one, but figure out how. So you know, there's a lot that goes into it, and probably everybody is not able to do that, and have to take their equipment somewhere. But it's a lot better if you can work on things. And that's what he has tried to teach our son and daughter you know, that also. They work together and try to learn how to repair things and, which that's a good thing. And I think they don't think about that. This equipment breaks down a lot. And I mean, a lot. So it's pretty valuable if you're able to repair most of your breakdowns."
"That's the main thing our Dad taught us is stay diversified. We would say, 'Dad we want to milk 20 more cows.'
'No, stay where your raising tobacco, stay where we're raising our own feed.'"
"I don't think any of us would be here if we was doing something we didn't enjoy doing. I think that's another thing I wanted to bring up about farming is, I know very, very few that quit farming, other than finances. The passion…My wife, she introduces me to people, here's my husband, who's a workaholic because he absolutely loves what he's doing."
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