I'm still sore from yesterday. Gary, a friend and mentor died in a silo accident just over a year ago.  The last of his beef cattle sold last weekend and now his family is going to bulldoze all the former animal lots.  So they offered us most of the fencing at really good prices.  We have to take most of it down, load it and haul it.  Additionally they had a scrap pile that we could salvage through.  I found about 40 cinder blocks that I want to use for raised garden beds. I also pulled some good old wooden posts, either for the garden beds or as a border for a path that would hold pea gravel.  Maybe we'd end up with less mud on our feet.

Gary was a farmer from birth.  He never thought we were crazy for wanting to live this life.  His confusion was why everyone didn't.  He LOVED farming.  When we met him he did crops, including hay which is why we sought him out.  We then discovered he did pigs and steers as well.  We bought our first pigs from him.  When he got out of pigs a short time later he gave us quite a bit of his equipment.  He bought our first calves for us.  Helped us a bit, and then got mad at us for asking too many stupid questions when he was trying to get corn in.  Oops.  He planted our hayfield, and then baled it.  We paid him for his services, but his knowledge was invaluable.  We'd do our research and have our ideas and we'd tell him what we wanted to do, and talk it over with him.  He'd have his suggestions and I always felt we got what we wanted.  He never pretended to have all the answers, but he had a lifetime of experience.  We could not by that.  When we bought our breeding pigs he came and took a look at them, he thought they were nice looking pigs.  I'm sure he was thinking what in the world were we doing breeding pigs when there was no market for them.

Now we needed feed for those pigs.  Gary offered to deliver feed at cost.  He'd find out the current market prices, mix our feed, and deliver it for cost & fuel.  I really don't know what he got from it, other than knowing he was helping us out.  We'd chat a bit.  He'd commiserate with us on keeping the pigs in.  Told us he never heard of a pig that could climb, but we had one. He might feed our ducks.  He liked ducks, but too messy for his farm.  That was one of our last conversations.  He wanted some ducks when we butchered them.  He helped us fix our barn cleaner.  Invited us to come swim at their swimming pool. Talked about how I couldn't believe he was celebrating his 62nd birthday.  Farm living had been good to him.  We saw Gary frequently between feed deliveries and hay cutting.  A lot of small talk happened. While we only met his wife and son, who both got roped into helping Gary help us, we got to know all of his family through his stories, whom he loved dearly.

Gary was the janitor at the school for health insurance.  It had evening hours and was less work in the summer, so it worked nicely for a farmer. At one point he arranged a meeting with the band teacher at the local school so our kids could be in band. On a Friday we went to the school to meet the band teacher, and I mentioned Gary as being very helpful  in relation to setting up this meeting.  Mr T the band teacher agreed.  We talked some more about band.  We were interrupted by another teacher asking when Mr. T would be at a wake. We talked band some more and again Gary came up as being helpful.  Mr T agreed that Gary was a great guy and very helpful.  Then he paused... and asked me if I knew.  Knew what? I asked.  Already knowing this wasn't going to be good.  Gary had died on Wednesday.  There was a silo accident.  His leg was seriously injured.  He was picked up by helicopter and flown to Madison. He died of a heart attack in the air and was pronounced DOA. It may have been the leg injury and the blood loss.  It might have been silo gasses.  It might have been shock. In any case a healthy, vibrant man, who was healthier than a man half his age was gone. Just like that.  Most of his organs and bones were donated to others.  Seems he would have wanted to keep on giving, from what I knew of him, that was who he was.

Thanks to Mr. T we made it to the wake and funeral.  We waited in line to pay our respects to Gary and his family at the wake for over 3 hours.  There were hundreds of people there.  When we finally made it to the family they all knew us.  All this time he was talking about his family, he was telling his family about us.  And apparently it wasn't all bad because they didn't start laughing at us.  No, instead they embraced us and we embraced them and we shared our misery and memories for a short time. Being farmers to the core, Gary's son let us know that our hay had not been forgotten and he'd be by to cut it within the next week.  Even now it leads me speechless that our needs and his father's obligations were in his thoughts at that time.  But I guess it makes sense.  Our hay getting cut was definitely a concern for us, but that was our problem, not his.  A farmer's obligations don't stop for anyone dead or alive.  Animals, still need to be fed and crops still need to be harvested. It needs to be done, regardless of what you'd rather be doing.

We are reminded of Gary constantly.  The hayfield he planted, the barn cleaner he fixed, the pig feeder he gave us, the comments he made, and now his fencing.   We are thankful for having known him and all the guidance he gave us in our first 2 years on the farm.  And I give thanks to all of the farmers and friends and family who have helped us get to where we are.  Life is good, and for the most part people are good.  We just need to live it, because tomorrow it might be gone.  But the pigs will still need to be fed.