Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 14 : Fall 2012 | Page 33

they knew more of what was being planted than I did. There came the time that I was asked to “break down” ground, which I did willingly, still not knowing what was going into the ground. My two girls were gone off to explore a new world for themselves, and my son was old enough to operate much bigger machines on the farm. So, I had to help. Oh, I knew we planted potatoes, buckwheat, soybeans, corn, canola and oats…”stuff” like that, but I didn’t pay too much attention to what the harvested product looked like. I just did what I was asked to do, filling in when I was needed. I have mastered the skill of driving an articulating tractor pulling a HUGE implement (as I learned that these plow things were called), tearing ground up ahead of planters. I have driven 18-wheeled trucks, with all of their gears, with near perfection under the boom of a potato harvester (that should be an Olympic event) and I have been the designated “pull” tractor operator during those extremely muddy and snowy falls. I tried a few other “implements” and figured if I mastered these too, I would be asked to operate them at some point in time and I didn’t really want to do that. I mean, after all, the windrower HAD to put the potatoes in the rows and not the road for the trucks or the tractor to run over, and forget the harvester, I never wanted to learn to run that thing. But, my point is, I was involved physically but my mind wandered what other Aroostook County farmer’s wives might be doing. Certainly not doing what I was doing! (Here is where I will add that after all of these years, I did speak with other wives who were also physically involved in the business. We were a rare breed for sure.) After some time, I was no longer asked to work here and there on the family farm. Enough help had been employed so that I could do my own thing. (My own “thing” is photography and writing.) And, this fall when I decided to shoot fields of canola and of my farming husband, I went to the field where the canola was being harvested. I took pictures of the massive combine lumbering down the field picking up it’s reward. When my husband got to the end of the field, he stopped and I asked where was the canola that this huge machine had gobbled up? He pointed to the bulk truck that was sitting at the field’s edge, and the Joseph Bouchard Janice Bouchard Authentic French Acadian Food Products C’est Magnifque 207.834.3237 1.800.239.3237 [email protected] 3 Strip Road, Fort Kent, ME 04743 www.ployes.com 3 LOCATIONS TO SERVE YOU 611 MAIN STREET, PRESQUE ISLE, ME 207 764-5553 118 BENNETT DRIVE, CARIBOU, ME 207 498-2707 98A BANGOR STREET, HOULTON, ME 207 532-2100 213 EAST MAIN STREET FORT KENT, MAINE 04743 TEL: [phone] CELL: 207 631-8856 TOLL FREE: 877 215-1760 WWW.PELLETIERFORD.COM