Write Field: 'Farmin' With My Lad'

After many years of “Farmin’ With My Dad” being my most requested poem, a number of people have asked, “Isn’t there a sequel?”

For three years now I have farmed with my oldest son. Opportunities for me off the farm have allowed enough work here to keep him around. This fall my youngest son came home for harvest. There are some indications he will be back for planting. So here now comes “Farmin’ With My Lad.”

Farmin’ With My Lad

The pickup moved, his age was five.

I asked him, “Where’d you learn to drive?”

He said, “From watching you, my Dad.”

The start of farmin’ with my lad.

Off the school bus, on the run.

He seemed to think to help was fun.

He’d get so greasy, Mom was mad.

But I was farmin’ with my lad.

School is where distractions thrive,

Especially when you start to drive.

Baseball took the time we had.

There ain’t much farmin’ with my lad.

College started, he moved out,

To see what life is all about.

I really missed, good times and bad,

When I was farmin’ with my lad.

He had to go and look around,

To see what better could be found.

I needed to see what to add,

To make this more than just a fad.

Can this farm be more than a dream?

Can we work out here as a team?

Is there enough work to be had?

To keep them farmin’ with their dad?

We’ve changed from when he was so small.

We’re hard to recognize at all.

As I sit here with pen on pad,

I dream of farmin’ with my lad.

Now life and time are never still.

And we turn out the way we will.

As for me, I’m awful glad.

He’s back. I’m farmin’ with my lad.

David Kragnes farms near Felton, Minn., and is a former chairman of American Crystal Sugar Company.