Diving In to Rural Life

We made it to Hartington safe and sound yesterday. The roads were a bit hairy in parts. I made the mistake of telling everybody that I had never seen a snow drift before...boy, did I regret that statement. Needless to say, I now have a very clear idea of what a snow drift looks life after my classmates pointed out every snow drift that we encountered for a couple of hours. Some of the snow drifts were large enough that roads were closed or reduced to one lane. That's us making the trip from Omaha to Hartington in our borrowed bus.



Upon arrival in Hartington, we had the pleasure of visiting the farm of Linda and Martin Kleinschmit. The Kleinschmits have made their livelihood through sustainable, organic farming, as opposed to more conventional, commodity-driven farming. Martin enlightened us to many of the differences between organic farming and conventional farming. Organic farming seeks to utilize the resources that are already present in the earth, as opposed to using chemicals and pesticides. The Kleinschmits encourage sustainable farming because it promotes greater harmony with the earth’s resources and is more sustainable than a model in which the only measure of success is the constant push to grow larger. In addition to helping around the farm, Linda also advocates for smaller farmers by working on policy matters. The Kleinschmits ultimately see their work as care for God’s creation, being good stewards of what God has given us.

I had the privilege of enjoying the hospitality of Kelly and Steve Grube last night. Unfortunately, I’ll only have that one evening with them because we arrived to Hartington a day late. It was wonderful to stay at their place, enjoy a hot-cooked meal, and engage in good conversation after being on the road all day. Kelly is the third-grade teacher in Hartington, and Steve works for the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), a division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). One thing you quickly learn in a rural town is that everybody knows each other and is intertwined in some way. Through his job, Steve helped to provide funds to the Kleinschmits when they were transitioning between conventional and organic farming. The transitional period can be very costly for farmers, and the work of the Kleinschmits and Steve Grube has helped to establish a permanent government subsidy for farmers who are making the transition.

If any of you are interested in following our trip in real time, one of my classmates, Carmen Retzlaff, is twittering. You can follow her at www.twitter.com/cretzlaff