LovesTailWags: John Deere Tractor

Many American families have in their family or genealogy (somewhere) a family farm. Growing up my Uncle Bud and Aunt Ginnie on my Mom's side farmed the same farm my grandfather farmed in Warsaw, Indiana.

While it was thrilling for me as a kid to visit this old farm house in northern Indiana and see the animals and the crops in the fields, I know it was a hard and demanding life for my cousins.

Me and Walt on the John Deere...

Eric and me on the quad with Bobby nearby

Walt and Juanita

Well last month on my visit to Indiana I had the treat of experiencing the fun aspects of visiting a farm once more. As friends of an Aunt and Uncle (in Ft Wayne, IN) on my dad's side have an awesome farm. And they delighted in sharing it with us. When we arrived from Ohio, we called Dad when we got into Ft Wayne to see where we should come. The answer - "come on over to Walt and Juanita's". So my brother, nephew and I were welcomed at their kitchen table and had root beer floats and Juanita offered us REAL whole cow's milk- not pastur OR homogenized.

Walt offered Bobby a ride on the swing in the barn and I was not going to miss this, as I LOVE to swing- and this one was amazing. This old barn was built in the 1800's with hand hewed log beams and the swing was suspended from a beam in the ceiling about 60 feet up, you could really get going!

We ended up climbing over and exploring farm equipment that seemed more like a cock pit in a jet with all the control panels; we learned about the incredible farming technology of today.. How the computers tell the farmer their exact yield per acre and they are guided by precise GPS systems as they track, plant, fertilize and nurture their crops until harvest time.

Walt knows farming inside and out and boy did I learn a lot. Technology does wonderous things for farming and I learned some enlightening information about modern farming versus so-called organic. It's not like the old days of blasting a pesticide and wiping out the good with the bad bugs.

We got to ride Walt's quad runner; Bobby and Eric were in heaven and I think Bobby was ready to come back at harvest time this fall for more farming fun. Walt even taught me to drive his John Deere tractor! The photo evidence is above.

Walt and Juanita are good people. I even took some cool photos of the neat old windows in their home...it was a nice treat to get to see them again and share an afternoon. And we returned later that evening at their insistence as they were having their kids and grand kids over to launch fireworks and enjoy s'mores by the bonfire.