A Big Adjustment

A Big Adjustment

When I first saw Phil Duncan’s farm, I felt elated. The trees and bushes were wild, the gravel path led down the hill to the barnyard, and silos and a barn stood silently nearby. Within a few months we married and moved to the farmhouse. My  handsome suitor disappeared into his work, and I became a farm wife, with only a romanticized idea of what that meant. Phil farmed about 800 acres with his father and brother and we bought the farm next door a while later. Phil also raised pigs, eventually expanding to include a confinement for birthing, another for piglets, and another for finishing. At its peak, Duncan Farms sold about two thousand hogs per year. 

My first adjustment to farming was the work farm wives were expected to do. In the suburbs, the men take out the garbage and mow the lawn. Now it was my job. I also learned to amuse myself. This took me several years, but there was no movie theater near us and no great restaurants. I tried every craft I heard of and began sewing again for the first time since high school. Maternity clothes were the first thing I made.

Our first child arrived ten months after we married. My mom came for a week, and I didn’t want her to leave. Then, I was on my own. Son #2 and daughter came within seven years. I started a big farm garden, canned vegetables, and froze corn.

The advances in crop yields led to record production. Then inflation caused the Fed to raise interest rates, which led to a drop in the value of farm land. I worked as a substitute teacher for two of those years between kids, to supplement our income. Another aspect of the Farm Debt Crisis of the early 1980s.

Coming up next: The drought.