A Day in the Life of a Farmer Kid Edition

A Day in the Life of a Farmer Kid Edition

A Story by Dearantlers
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This is a story/essay that I wrote for a contest, and won $75 for it. Not that great, but it's okay. It's kind of long, but I hope its worth it!

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My eyes cracked open enough that I could see out of them, but no one could tell they were open. I vaguely heard my name called, almost as if from the dream I was having a few minutes earlier. It sounded just like my dad, so I was afraid to let him know I was awake. From the tiny slits that were my eyes, I could see his form in the doorway. I knew he had some work for me to do, otherwise he wouldn’t have ever came and got me this early in the morning. It was only 7:30. He usually, unless we had to do wheel lines, let me sleep in until 8:00.

“Josie, wake up,” he said. “Josie, wake up,” he said again, this time with a touch of impatience. I couldn’t blame him. This was the probably the third or fourth time he had told me to wake up before I actually heard him. Fully awake now, I groaned just loud enough that he could hear me. “The linear is stuck again,” he said, talking about one of our irrigation systems. I just groaned again.

“I don’t want to get the linear unstuck,” I moaned, my words slurred together. The linear getting stuck was like a daily occurrence. It actually had only happened five or six times this year, but it seemed like a whole lot more. A linear is a watering system that is about fifteen feet tall, has small hoses hanging down from the top that the water comes out of, and giant wheels that make giant ruts in the field. In order to get the linear unstuck, you have to carry rock after rock after rock to the wheel, and stick the rocks in the place that the linear needs something to grab to as it tries to get out of the hole. The linear may be a hundred yards from where you can get rocks in the field, but since you don’t want to smash your precious corn or hay, you have to carry them all the way. Then, when fall or spring comes, and you plow, disc, and level the field, you have to come pick up all the rocks that you just put in that summer so that you can plant the field.

“Come on Josie,” my dad said as I rolled out of bed. After making sure that I was not going to get back in bed, he left me alone. I pulled on a pair of holey and stained jeans, and an even dirtier and stained shirt. I ran up the stairs to grab a bowl of cereal for breakfast. As we waited for my sister, who was a lot slower than me at getting up, I ran around with my four dogs, playing fetch with one, and chasing the others.

When my dad, mom, two sisters, and brother all got outside, my dad jumped in our backhoe, and the rest of us jumped on our 4-wheelers. It was only a short ride up to our linear and we jumped the fence while we waited for my dad to get a load of rocks. He finally came with his backhoe bucket full of rocks and dumped them just inside the fence. We grabbed as many as we could, and took the long trek through the tall corn to the wheel. Even though it was warming up pretty fast, I put on a light jacket to keep the corn leaves from cutting me. It took almost until noon and two more loads of rocks to get the linear out of the hole, and fill the hole up with rocks. When we got back to the house, I was exhausted, and there was sweat pouring down my face and back. I wanted to just go lie down, but of course I couldn’t.

After a short lunch break we all piled into the truck and drove to another of our fields. This ones irrigation system consisted of big eighty pound pipes. The water runs down the pipe, out little gates in the side, and into furrows dug in the field. The water runs down the furrows, and the field is watered. We were just about ready to cut one field of hay, so we had to take apart the pipe so that the swather could go through that part of the field. The line we had to do was running straight through the middle of the field, and so, unlike the ones on the edge of the field, it has to be took apart. Two of us had ropes that we hooked on the edge of a pipe. Then, with enough pulling, you could get the pipe to come out of the next one in line. The first five pipe, and the last five pipe, were carried out of the field with two people on each pipe. This is every ones least favorite job because it’s hard to carry big bulky eighty pound pipe, and it requires the most work. I, luckily, usually get stuck on the pulling apart job.

That job took us until about two, and for the second time that day, I had sweat pouring down my face, but this time it was from the heat, not working too hard. I gladly took a long drink of cold, refreshing water as we went back home, and soon, between the six of us, our three water bottles were empty. The rest of the day I relaxed, only feeding and watering the calves horses, and sheep, and checking eggs in the chicken pen. The rest of the day I wasted, doing this or that. That night when I went to bed, I told myself that the linear would never get stuck again. Boy was I wrong.

© 2011 Dearantlers


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Reviews

Quite intriguing and gives a vivid image of their life. Shrewdly done.

Posted 11 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

Excellent writing!!!! Very well written!!!

Posted 12 Years Ago


love it. Im glad i live that life on the farm. great job with description,.

Posted 12 Years Ago


2 of 2 people found this review constructive.

I really did enjoy this story. I learned a bit, and it kept me interested~I would hate working as a farmer, I don't think I could do it. I was raised for intellectual work, not physical labor haha

Posted 12 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

its great i love it very different in a good way

Posted 12 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

This is an intresting story. You do a good job of showing your readers some of the drudging tasks involved in daily farm life. Most of your readers won't know anything about filed linears, and will come away knowing something about them.
Good job!

Posted 12 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

This was a very fascinating story. It is well written. I like reading about other people's lives and really enjoyed the picture into your life.

Posted 12 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.


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Added on June 4, 2011
Last Updated on September 2, 2011

Author

Dearantlers
Dearantlers

Where unicorns roam wild, dragons soar overhead, and pickles sing



About
I'm either a girl or a boy. I live somewhere. I like to read and write, though I'm sure you figured that one out since I'm on writerscafe. As of when I'm writing this, I'm 8672487 minutes old. Never m.. more..

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