Salute to Agriculture Proud to be a farmer’s daughter
Sixty years ago my mom and dad moved from an apartment in Great Falls, Mont., to a farm near Larimore, N.D. My mom and dad had both grown up on farms, she a couple of miles away from the farm they moved to, and he near Stanford in central Montana. My dad had just graduated from college with a business degree and was working as an insurance salesman when my grandpa asked my dad if he wanted to farm with him. My dad and mom, along with their two young sons, moved to the farm southeast of Larimore where my grandpa grew up. My grandpa and grandma lived a couple of miles to the west where she had grown up. I’m glad my dad’s answer to my grandpa’s offer was yes. While, I know, realistically, if he had rejected it, I never would have known what I was missing out on, it’s still hard to imagine how different my life would have been if my dad hadn’t been a farmer.
Farm living
For me, the farm was the ideal place to grow up. I loved the freedom of having several acres of woods filled with trees to climb, a haymow with a rope I could swing on and pastures filled with cows. I liked having friends over to ride horses, riding in the combine with my dad and riding to the elevator in the grain truck with my brother, then getting a bottle of Nesbitt’s orange soda from the dusty pop machine at the elevator. I sometimes didn’t like walking up and down rows of pinto bean fields and pulling out volunteer sunflowers, cleaning grain bins and trudging through mud and manure to help take care of sick calves. But somehow, doing those chores with a sibling or one of my parents, made the work a little easier to swallow. Working alongside of a family member, contributing to the collective farm effort gave us a sense of satisfaction that outweighed the distasteful part of the job.
Staying in touch
After I graduated from high school and moved away to attend college, I looked forward to weekends when I could go home and visit the farm and often brought friends with me. Usually, my friends loved the farm as much as I did, commenting on the large yard, beautiful fields that surrounded the farmstead, and, of course, my mom’s cooking. I didn’t know until I was in college that all mothers didn’t cook like mine. To me, fresh gar-
den vegetables, homecanned pickles, roast beef, ham or chicken and a different of fromscratch pie every day of the week, were the norm. It wasn’t just my mom who cooked like that, either. Home-cooked meals I ate at the houses of my farm friends also were hefty and tasty. The moms usually were cooking not only for their kids and husbands, but for some farm hands as well. When I graduated from college, I lived in apartments for several years, and then, after I got married lived in a house in Grand Forks for several years. The farm remained an important part of my life, and during those 13 years, I often visited, pitched in with the chores and rode horses with my dad and brother. Being out on the farm helped keep my life in perspective and reminded me of what is really important. If I thought my career as a newspaper reporter was a busy one, all I had to do was visit the farm where my dad, mom and brother were juggling dozens of different tasks and often working twice the hours each day that I was.
Coming home
In 1993, after my grandma died, my parents asked my husband, Brian, and me if we wanted to live on her farmstead. Brian, who had grown up on a farm near Thompson, N.D., and I were ready to move back to the country. We’re glad we did and so are our children. They love living on the farm as much as we do and, like me, can’t imagine what it would be like if they were growing up in town. Although we don’t farm, they know neighbors and friends who do, and have an admiration for farmers and the work they do. I also tell my sons and daughter a lot of stories about work I did when I was growing up on the farm and how their grandpa and uncle took pride in being stewards of the land. It’s a Herald tradition to do a newspaper section each fall that focuses on agriculture and elsewhere in this section you’ll read about farmers, guys who work at grain elevators and others who work in the agricultural industry. It is with heartfelt appreciation that I say thanks to all of you who contribute to, and work in, the industry. I salute you all.
Grand Forks Herald Sunday, October 24, 2010
A year-round enterprise
Jackie Lorentz, staff photographer
Argyle Cooperative Warehouse Association employee Glen Smidt loads a truck with fertilizer.
Work never ends at Argyle (Minn.) Cooperative Warehouse Association ■
By Ann Bailey
Herald Staff Writer
ARGYLE, Minn. – The farming season has come full circle at the Argyle Cooperative Warehouse Association. A year after fertilizer for the 2010 crop was applied, applications are under way for the 2011 crop. In between times farmers, planted and harvested the crop and hauled it to the elevator and workers there unloaded and marketed it. All elevators require a joint effort between farmers and elevator employees to make the harvest successful. Some, like the Argyle Farmers Cooperative, also have a cooperative legal arrangement.
History
The Argyle cooperative has it roots in a corporation. In June 1905, the Farmers & Merchants Elevator Co. YEAR ROUND: See Page 3
Bob Kasprowicz unloads the combines in Wayne Bergeron’s field near Argyle, Minn. Rain in the background makes it even more important to get the last strip of hard red spring wheat off the field.
Eric Hylden, staff photographer
Ken Hanson, Argyle Co-op Warehouse Association assistant manager, checks a bin as soybeans are elevated into it recently.
Jackie Lorentz, Special Features staff photographer
28th Annual
Harvest of Knowledge Agri-Women’s Conference
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2010 • RAMADA INN, GRAND FORKS, ND (need not be a member to attend)
Sponsored by Minnesota and North Dakota Agri-Women Keynote Speaker
Annelee Woodstrom, Ada, Minn. “War Child - Growing Up in Adolf Hitler’s Germany.” Registration info: Registration is $35. Workshops - Entertainment - Door Prizes including a drawing for $200 cash! Men are invited to attend. Must be present to win. R001508295
W O R K S H O P S • E N T E R T A I N M E N T • D O O R
FOR REGISTRATION INFORMATION CONTACT: Karen Landman, 805 44th St. NE, Northwood, ND, 58267 e-mail: klandman@polarcomm.com 701-326-4523
For general information contact: Donna Ulseth, 29165 365th St. SW,
Crookston, MN 56716 e-mail: ribeye@gvtel.com
P R I Z E S