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>> Bringing the people behind our food to life.
[ Silence ]
>> I was raised three miles south of here.
We lived in Gettysburg until I was 5 years old,
and then the folks -- we moved to the little town of Gorman.
Dad ran the grain elevator for Peavey.
Good morning girls.
>> Good morning.
>> Sheila, I have to come and talk to you one day, too,
about the, about getting them other farms going too.
[inaudible] Yeah, yeah.
He probably wants you, but --
>> -- the army?
>> Yeah. Karen, I went ahead and I did the Teff Grass, right,
so I don't know if you --
[background talking] and so I grew up around the country
and knew all the farmers that come in,
and harvest was a big exciting thing with the guys pulling in.
Now they have trucks that haul 1200 bushel, and back then,
people would pull them with trucks that are holding 100,
150 bushel, and grew up in that environment.
I always wanted to be a farmer.
That's, that was my goal.
I wanted to be a farmer.
You know, a lot of times people set goals to,
like how much money they can make in their life,
and I think there's a lot more to this world than, than money.
And I just -- the happiness, the presence of the Lord --
I just think there's a lot of things,
a lot more things important in this world than money.
Right out of high school, and Cindy and I married young,
and I was looking for a job and Dan offered me a job,
and so I came to work here in 1969.
At that time we were really a diversified farm.
We raised pigs, cattle, and then we farmed,
and we weren't very good farmers.
We thought we were, but nobody
around here was a very good farmer
because no-till hadn't come along yet.
I've been farming for 40 years, the land.
But all this land, I'm just a steward of the land
because I think if you take care of the land,
it'll take care of you.
That's a saying I've had forever.
And I just really think that the better you take care
of the land, it's going to pay you back.
It likes it.
That's along with the no-till, the cover crop, the building
of the organic matter.
You take care of the land, it'll take care of you.
There's nothing I like better than to be out in the field
and be digging and having that in my hands, in the dirt,
and the smell, and I'm just passionate for the soil.
I mean it just -- the more I can learn
about them, the better I like it.
Look at that, look at that aggregation.
Another thing you find, you guys, if you smell this,
it smells like, it'll smell like potatoes.
We never paid enough attention
to what was going on below the ground.
We were always looking on top of the ground.
Everybody said, boy that corn looks good,
boy that oats looks good.
And there's just as much [inaudible] underneath the
ground as what there's stuff on top to grow.
And I just, I just totally think that the more we can learn
about what's underneath the soil surface and how to take care
of it, the better producers we'll be.
We were ready to start farming, we were dry and boy,
we needed the rain, and our beans weren't really close
and so, basically, a week ago, we were just ready
and all we needed was just a few more days, and then all
of a sudden we went to being too dry to --
I'm not going to say we were too wet,
because we're never too wet here, but,
we've had two-and-a-half inches of moisture,
just like we had another 30-hundredths again today.
And so that kind of changes your plans.
>> Morning.
>> You ready for this?
>> You betcha.
>> Dan, what they did, was they asked me, they said,
well what do you do on rainy days, and I said, well,
you know, I do a lot of things, but what I really need
to do is I need a hair cut.
I just hope this isn't your first one today, is it?
>> Well, it is actually.
[laughing]
>> On camera, and the first one.
>> I've never had a hair cut on camera before.
[laughing]
>> Uh-oh. [laughing] You plan your time as well as you can
and then you just go with the flow,
and whatever happens, happens.
There's never a day I wake up and say, I wish I didn't have
to go to work this morning.
That's never happened.
That's one big reward about farming.
And this is a good life.
This is a good life out here, you guys, I mean.
Thank you, Dan.
>> Well thank you.
>> You have a good one.
>> I shall.
>> Everybody knows each other,
and it's just a small town environment,
and the air is fresh, the air is clean,
and it's just a good life.
[ Sound of car starting and running ]