Guest post by: Kathy Meyer
(Photos by Callihan Photography)
Having only moved here to southern Indiana in the last few years, the area is new to me. Since I was raised on a farm in Missouri though, it’s not all that different. So many of the things from my childhood are the same here. The land is flatter, but the smell of hay being cut and bailed remains the same. What memories our brains/noses have!
As fall has come, I eagerly watch the harvests beginning. How familiar the dust from the combining of the soybeans. It’s a pleasant sight as long as the wind is blowing away from you and your open windows! Another familiar sight is the corn being harvested. Over the summer we watch the corn grow, the crop dusters flying ever so close to our roof, the tasseling of the corn, and then they dry to brittle stalks. The smell of the corn when it’s green is pleasant and sweet. Less pleasant are the corn flies, or as we called them, sweat bees. Persistent and annoying, my family was happy when their season is passed. Then comes the harvest of the corn. The roads are busy with much larger equipment than I ever witnessed in my younger days! I am always on the lookout and ready to dodge into a driveway to let the huge vehicles pass. And with the corn harvest comes more dust!
The leaves are changing and making a beautiful background for the tan stalks of corn. The smell of the decaying leaves is musky sweet and brings memories of falls past.
Another harvest is happening—pumpkins! So many pumpkins! Never having witnessed this before, I am very interested in the picking and lining up of the pumpkins, then the loading and transporting of the produce. Tractors, wagons, cut up buses—all sufficient modes of transport.
Mums, mums everywhere! From small to huge and in a large variety of colors.
As you can see from the pictures, fall in Indiana impresses with the best of them.
How lucky we are to have farmers and all this beauty around us!
I'm only a farmer.
I know the sun better than anyone, and the soil, and the wind, and the rain.
I am the man who works with them, who loves them, and sometimes fears them.I'm only a farmer.
I am the sower of seeds. I am the tender of stock. I am the reaper of harvest.
I am sweat, and tears, and pride.I'm only a farmer.
I am the man who feeds the young, and the old, the weak, and the strong. I am the black earth of Spring, the green hills of Summer, the harvest gold of Autumn,
And the cold white stillness of Winter.
I'm only a farmer.
I am warm memories of the past, the steely reality of the present, and a hopeful dream of the future.
I am a optimist, a thinker, a watcher, And a doer.I'm only a farmer.
I live in a complex world, made of simple things; and they are my source of joy, and hope, and comfort.
I have walked the morning fogs. I have paused for the summer song of the meadowlark
And I have savored the breeze off freshly cut hay.
I have paused, remembering, by the stream I knew as a boy. I have felt the power of a thousand storms
And rejoiced in the fresh world left in their wake.I'm only a farmer.
I am an accountant, a chemist, and a doctor.
I am a midwife, and a mechanic. I am a seller, a trader, and buyer. I am husband, helper, and partner to my wife.
I am a father, comforter, and teacher to my children.I'm only a farmer.
Not a man of riches, but a man of great wealth. I have learned to treasure life and all things living.
To respect their maker and my own.
I am humbled by the earth's bounty and awed by endless rebirth.
I am fascinated by the marvelous minutiae of my world and enriched by their beauty.I'm only a farmer.
If a man can be truly free, then I truly am. The day, the week, the month
they have been entrusted to me. They are mine to spend. They are mine to invest. They are mine to use wisely.
It is a solitary profession I have chosen; Or, perhaps, that I have been chosen for.
A profession where there are no certainties. Where no guarantees are granted,
No promises given, no excuses taken.
I have but one man to answer to, one man to depend on, one man to confide in;
And in the quiet of the years, I have come to know him well.I'm only a farmer.
I am perseverance, and creativity, and courage.
I'm only a farmer.
I am confidence, and ingenuity, and intelligence.
I'm only a farmer.
A seeker of excellence, and I will endure.
Poem by Himal Jasani http://agropedia.iitk.ac.in/content/i%E2%80%99m-only-farmer
