Farmer Goals

Role models to emulate

Henry & Tracy Hill

It was a very hot, dry late July afternoon. We had been working on a chopper most of the day. This isn’t a brand new chopper. In fact, it was a farm sale “bargain” that my father-in-law found last year. He has a habit of finding these great “treasures” at sales and hauling them home for my husband to fix. This chopper’s life on our farm was quickly coming to a close if it didn’t produce this year. (Last year it sat on the side of the field while the other chopper did all the work). This year was going to be different. Matt had spent hours and hours working and tweaking and fixing it. Finally, he said the words I had been dreading hearing for two weeks — “Get the four wheeler, the wrenches, hammer and meet me in the field-we’re going to cut”.

First alarm bell — he didn’t say go get the truck. He said, bring the four wheeler, meaning we had a quick ride back for more tools and he didn’t intend to get a truck full. Second alarm bell — by the time I had rounded up the aforementioned items and topped the hill to see the field, the chopper was already stopped 50 foot into the field. Third alarm bell — after arriving at the chopper the head was jammed with corn and My Forever was pulling it out by hand.

At this point, I was ready to call the professionals to get it custom cut. (I dislike silage chopping season so it doesn’t take much for me to want to throw in the towel.) We’re talking days Matt had spent working on this chopper and it doesn’t make it 50 foot! My Forever, a pro or con I’m still trying to figure out, won’t give up. We fight with it, making it only about 500 more feet in about 2 hours.

Then, driving down the waterway to the chopper and four wheeler (now overflowing with tools after about 5 trips back to the shop) came Matt’s uncle and aunt, Henry and Tracy Hill. They have had a chopper similar to ours for quite some time. Apparently, in that time Matt had sent Henry a text for some advice. Instead of simply texting back a quick reply, they showed up in the field!

Henry got in the chopper with Matt while I started chatting with Tracy. After a quick run through the different levers, Henry fired that baby up and off they went! In about 10 minutes Henry had the wagon filled. After deciding the corn was not quite ready to chop all of it, the chopper headed back to the shed for some more tweaks before really getting started.

The next evening, Henry and Tracy again showed up at the shop with parts off their machine, their work clothes on ready to help us fix it and supper to boot. The silos were eventually filled this year with that machine. After getting the kinks out of it, it worked like a dream.

There are not many people like Henry and Tracy. Coming into a new family can be intimidating. They have always welcomed me, included me and truly made me feel like a part of the family. Both of them have the patience of Job. They are willing to help anybody and everybody and don’t ask anything in return. They have this unhurried approach to life that few have. Anytime I’m with them, the world gets a little brighter, the problems a little smaller. They work together on a daily basis and yet still love each other, still want to spend time together. They truly are one of the few couples that we look up to in our marriage and say, “when we grow up — we want a marriage like that.”