https://www.washingtonpost.com...nYxEjSamrt_52miZrczU

This story shows there are people who still care for neighbors.

It is a long read but well worth it.
God Bless the Farmers and Ranchers as well.

Proud that it is the rule rather than the exception!!!

I remember a very similar thing happening where I grew up. A local farmer was dx with cancer and many folks got together harvested his crops and plowed his fields.....me included. I was a teenager at the time, but it made me feel proud to help out.

I've been away from the farming community for many years, but in the 50's/60's, that was common practice and not just for an illness.

I can't recall the year, but given the tractors I remember being in the field, I must've been around 1965, give or take. We had a very late, very wet Spring and nobody could get on their fields to till and plant. This was before no-till had taken off and everybody plowed and then "fitted" (disk harrow, drag harrow, cultipacker or combinations thereof depending on type and condition of the soil) them before planting.

When the weather finally cooperated it was perilously close to the "drop dead" date for planting. Rather than each farmer busting ass to get HIS fields ready, they formed up a "plowing bee". Whichever farm had ground ready to till, ALL the neighbors showed up with their tractors and plows and plowed - around the clock if necessary - until all the fields were done, and then moved to the next farm. There might be as many as a dozen tractors in a given field.

What's more, the women and kids were there with fuel, food, coffee and in some instances, relief drivers as needed.

Nobody thought anything of it, it's just what you did when the chips were down.

The investment that he made over many years made it very much worth all of the time and effort.

He never expected it and they all rode home feeling like Kings of the county.

He probably did that two or three times in his life time for not only his neighbors ,but for farmers he barely knew.

I've heard of it in our vicinity, a few times but the stories were so poorly covered, I did not bother posting it here.

'This' is what America is all about. Not the other BS we see in the media.

Thats a great story...thanks for sharing. From the pictures, looks like they are not big fans of John Deere in that neck of the woods (International Harvester???).

My Dad lost four fingers of his left hand in a corn picker accident when I was about 10. (Never wear six finger gloves around machinery). He was hospitalized for a week, but all the neighboring farmers showed up with their equipment to get our crops in, in a single day. The wives came and served meals and did my Mom's chores. My folks were forever grateful for that day. My folks paid it forward several times over the years. I learned a valuable lesson as a young lad about people helping one another in time of need, and it has been heartwarming to see this kind of thing play out time and time again over the years. God Bless those who answer the call.

A common practice in the Farm community, also recently a Farmer was to lose his farm and it was to be auctioned off. When the bidding was to start not one person put a bid in even though one could buy a farm on the cheap.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
I've been away from the farming community for many years, but in the 50's/60's, that was common practice and not just for an illness.
<snip>

I was going to post exactly the same comment. When a farmer’s crop was ready for harvest the neighbors came with their farm implements.

I remember when I was a teenager a storm came through killed a lady and injuried her husband. It completed destroyed their home and the only tractor they had. The local implement dealer "loaned" us a tractor to use to farm his land for a few weeks of the summer.

Echoing what others have said, this is not an uncommon practice and things like this happen every year all over rural America. When range fires or flooding wipe out hay and feed, convoys of trucks loaded with hay, grain, and fencing materials are assembled in other rural areas of the country, sometimes traveling across several states to bring needed aid. There are great people in rural America, I guess WaPo just found out.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
'This' is what America is all about. Not the other BS we see in the media.

Yep. It takes government to fuck it up.
Charity is individual and voluntary. It creates a sense of community. See signature quote below.

Man, that's a community!

I am being part of the harvest community driving truck for a few farmers in mid west MN. To watch how they all work together, and support each other. We had a hydraulic hose break at 3 AM on a tractor, the local business opened and made a new hose it was repaired within a hour. The kids of each family were driving equipment, trucks. A teenager in high school when my trailer had a problem. Diagnosed the issue, had a forklift pulled out of the shop and repaired in no time. It is amazing experience one I missed from the days of helping my Grandfather when I was 14. I will be back next year and making it a yearly event to help out. We still have about 5 1/2 days left to get the beets in and on the pile.

quote:

Yep. It takes government to fuck it up.

then again w/o
the government giving the American farmers fist fulls of money annually .

it would be a very interesting farm situation