September 14, 2008. Chevy Chase, Md. Farmer Life.

"I still love my job, even after all these years." This was spoken by our friend Alan Jay. He is my age, and as he was brought up on the same farm and as all farm children work from the time they can walk, I guess he has been on the job almost seventy years. We were sitting around the butcher shop having a drink late in the afternoon on Saturday. The day was very hot and humid. Ken and I had just finished taking our meat over to our freezer from their freezer, which meant loading and unloading and arranging the meat. It took two trips so we were hot. Alan, Bryan and three men had been butchering hogs so their task was much more strenuous and tiring. Of course, Bryan and Tammy still had to milk, prior to attending their daughters' Volleyball game, and Alan still had to cut more hay before calling it a night. We were all chatting about the day and the politics and the real estate, in other words, we were jumping around and having a good time. I asked Alan which time of the year he liked the best, and his response was that one of the things he liked best about his job is the variety from one season to the next. He ended the conversation by saying, "I still love my job, even after all these years".

Now Helen and Alan are very interesting and hard working people. Very smart too. Alan can do almost everything mechanically, which is a good thing on the farm because the big machines are always in need of repairs. His skills include lumbering too as once in his life, in order to raise some cash. he worked in his own wood bush and sold the wood. In the farm area where we live, Alan is the one to call if you need help. Alan is the third Jay member to own and make their living from their farm. Yesterday he told us that he and his Father worked very hard together, where as Alan and his son Bryan work hard too, but they use the machines. He has had one day off work in the past twenty years. In the previous twenty years, he went hunting in Montana for three days, and that is the extent of his time off. He works seven days a week, except on Sunday afternoon he will watch either a football game or a car race.

Helen was also brought up on a farm, just north of Clearville, except her Father had a PHD and taught at the closest University, and farmed in the evenings and the summer. She learned on the job, after she made the decision to marry Alan rather than going to College. She is a skilled seamstress. She taught herself to decorate cakes, so now she makes a lot of money decorating these fancy cakes and delivering them all over the county. Of course she does all the things that a farmers wife is expected to do too. Both Helen and Alan are competent people and are both happy with their jobs. But for the life of me, it looks to me that many of us city folks would never apply for their job. I told Alan yesterday that we are very happy that they love his job, because that allows Ken and I do what we are able to do. We could not get the pleasure we get from our farm without the Jays working our farm. And that is the truth.