I grew up dreaming of spending my days on the farm. As a boy growing up in a small farming town in central Mississippi, I idealized my grandfather and uncle who were local farmers. Happiness in my 12-15 year old mind was spending every day on a tractor, combine or cotton picker. However, my career and calling led me in a different direction.
In October 2005, my wife and I accepted an appointment in Des Moines, Iowa. We moved into a new house in one of the crowded new subdivisions where we lived 16 feet from our furthest neighbors. We lived there for seven years without learning any of their names. We tried, but they did not want to be bothered. I would clean their driveways with my new snow blower but never even a wave.
Two years ago, my wife and I bought a 40 acre tract of land in northeastern Clarke County. My dream of living on a farm, be it ever so small, was about to come true. We moved a new mobile home on the land, because of my extreme impatience, but we had no permanent driveway, no carport and no garage. To say the least we were not ready for that first winter. But my neighbors were.
We had not gotten moved in completely before we began to meet our neighbors, most of whom live close to a mile away. When our first big snow fell and evening had come, I heard a strange noise outside and lights were shinning into my windows. It was my neighbor clearing my makeshift driveway with his side-by-side so I could get out for work the next day.
I went out to help and he said “get back inside, it is cold out here. I’ll finish up.” On our next snowy night, my neighbor spent an hour helping me dig my car out of my snow-packed ditch. The next spring, one of my daughter’s dogs, which lived at our house, was hit by a car. My neighbor and his wife spent a great deal of the day helping us look for her. When we found the dog and told my daughter the dog had been hit, my neighbor and his wife had to come console her.
Then, I decided I would buy some hay equipment and begin my adventures in farming, of which I knew (know) nothing about.
I did not know the rules of land leasing (spoken or unspoken) much less what it meant to “do it on halves,” but I forged ahead. Then, I bought horses and goats and my fences were terrible. Needless to say, these said horses did not always eat from my pasture but my neighbors never complained. I had dogs that stayed in the road. My place has not shaped up as nice and neat as quickly as I would have liked. But, my neighbors did not complain.
My second year of cutting hay, I told my neighbor the day before my first cutting that my goals were to “do some square bales and not get my tractor stuck like last year.” The next morning before noon I called him and asked him to pull me out because I was stuck. I could not get my small baler to bale more than two bales correctly. One of my neighbors said he would fix it for me. I took it to him to be repaired and when I picked it up he would not allow me to pay him.
There are so many other things that have been done for me and my family over the past two years by our neighbors I can’t mention them all, but I felt the need to say thank you. I have many times individually, but I wanted to let more people know that some of the best people in Iowa live in Clarke County. So thank you Ed and Janice W., Donnie and Carolyn W., Dan and Kim W., Matt and Sue M., Sue C., Richard and Connie M., Larry M. and Jeff W. for all you have done. May God reward you for your generosity.