Close

Type anything to search the archives

 
 

For love of land & family

story by Maura Friedman

A mottled red apple fills a child's sticky hands. Baby August spits out the peel as he runs in circles around the shed.

"He's the real boss around here," Richard Jones says, laughing and pointing to his 15-month-old grandson – the sixth generation of the Jones family to stir up dirt on Happy Jack's Pumpkin Farm.

Richard has lived on the same 200 acres since before he was August's age. In that time, he has diversified crops, watched both sons go to college, and welcomed his sons back to work alongside him.

When Adam, 23, and David, 27, work the field, Richard is rarely far behind. When they move a log, he tells them where it should go. When the goats get out, they report the news to him.

Not even sickness redirects Richard's watchful eyes. When leukemia kept him in a hospital bed in 2001, Richard spent visits from his wife, Lee Ann, reviewing lists of farm chores. Richard wrote Lee Ann a detailed letter describing each season's work schedule to ensure the farm would continue running smoothly. After another health scare in 2007, David and Adam stepped up, and they've stayed on the soil ever since.

"They could probably make more money doing something else, but they don't want to be doing something else," Richard says.

When August reaches toward the tractor, that legacy continues for a moment.

Richard's mother owns the farm. When she dies, the land will be shared among her six children. Divided parcels are often sold part-by-part. It's a common demise for family farms.

However, before that more certain scenarios exist: a cold snap, disease in the pumpkin patch or a quiet afternoon spent with family.

"It's a possibility that this might not be around in my lifetime, so the time to come back and do it is now," David says.

IMG_2

Richard Jones hauls bags of corn that are grown and ground on his family's farm from his truck to feed cattle. He calls out "Wooo, cows!" as he works so the animals learn to associate the sound of his voice with food.

IMG_3

David (from left), Lee Ann and Katie hand pumpkins to Adam who is loading the truck bed for a farmers' market. Richard prefers selling his produce directly – no middle man, no interference. He says his sons work so fast they're "like squirrels."

IMG_4

When Richard and his wife, Lee Ann, took full responsibility of the farm in 1996, they needed to change direction. Tobacco money had previously sustained the farm but that market was plummeting. They broadened their horizons – more produce, more variety and a field filled with pumpkins.

IMG_5

Richard runs the show at Happy Jack's Pumpkin Farm. When cancer hospitalized him in 2001, Richard wrote chore lists for Lee Ann and their sons while keeping track of their progress. He enjoys the independence and flexibility that farming affords him. He also loves that only an oversized bucket hat separates him and the open sky.

IMG_6

One-year-old August is scooped up by his father, Adam Jones, while his mother, Katie Ramsey, watches. After a long day working on the Happy Jack's Pumpkin Farm, the family often gathers in the farm's shed to dote on August, the newest generation to live on the land.

IMG_7

Richard holds his 1-year-old grandson August after the boy returns from preschool. August is the sixth generation in the Jones family to live on Happy Jack's Pumpkin Farm and Richard says August's "the real boss around here."

IMG_8

August plays in the bed of a truck loaded for the market while Richard looks after him. Everyone in the Jones family says they want August to do whatever makes him happy, even if it's not farming. August loves riding farm equipment – his first word after "mommy" and "daddy" was "tractor" – but he is afraid to feed the goats.

IMG_9

Richard and Lee Ann take a break from the pumpkin shed before sharing a lunch of homemade beef and vegetable soup made with ingredients from the farm. "If nothing else, I know I can always serve beef," Lee Ann says.

IMG_10

A hand-carved sign points customers down the farm's mile-long driveway to the farmhouse and the pumpkin patch. When he and his wife took over, Richard renamed the family farm "Happy Jack's Pumpkin Farm," after a beloved donkey. There's a chance the generational farm will be divided and sold among the six children when Richard's mother passes, but Lee Ann says you can't worry about the future because it's a wasted effort and there's plenty of work to be done in the present.