Last week, I had an interview with a farmer named Mr. Talley. I went there because it was a home schooling unit about the economy of the Northern Neck.
First, Mr. Talley took me for a long ride in his truck through a large forest that.t he owned. We saw A Fox family. There were three members of the fox family; A mom [that was looking straight at us.], and two baby foxes wrestling. The mom looked like a rabbit. She had big ears. The two baby foxes did not look like rabbits. [ Rabbits don’t wrestle.] there also was a sign that said : do not feed the bears and cougars. I got so scared! But Mr. Talley told me that it was just to keep the people from trespassing . Mr. Talley told me that I might see some wild turkeys on our drive, but we didn't. This is the end of my paragraph and I am gonna move on to the next one.
After the forest ride, Mr. Talley showed me his tractor. It was something called H-U-G-E! Here’s what it looked like on the outside: It was green and yellow and part black. It had tires taller than me!!! Here’s what it looked like on the inside: I saw all these funky computer thingees. I also saw a steering wheel that dropped right on my lap. The wheel weighed like twenty-five pounds! When it dropped, it hurt!!
After he showed me the tractor, it was time for the interview.
Mr. Talley became a farmer because his father and grandfather were farmers. His grandfather wanted to sell the farm to Mr. Talley’s sister, but she lived far away, so Mr. Talley bought it. Mr. Talley grows corn, soybeans and wheat. He grows his crops to make a little money and also just because he likes to grow crops. He plants his winter wheat in the fall, his corn April fifteenth, and the soybeans on Halloween. He uses machines to plant his crops. They are called combines. For the soy beans,it takes ten months until harvest time. For the corn, six months. I forget winter wheat. He harvests his crops with these machines called harvesters. His crops change from when he plants them like this; they change color, and size. The corn gets twelve feet high! He sells his corn to Perdue, he keeps his soy beans and his winter wheat after he harvests them. A farmer gets the soil ready for spring, and a machine flips the soil over. He doesn’t do this anymore because it takes the moisture out of the soil. Mr. Talley thinks I need a couple more birthdays before I can plant my own crops. This is what else he wanted to tell me about farming: He loves farming a LOT! He owns 250 acres of land! He planted pine trees about eight years ago, and I was born seven years ago. I am four foot two, and the eight-year-old pine trees were like twenty feet high. The pines are way taller than I am!
I loved my interview with Mr. Talley. I thought it would be boring. I thought we were just going to ask him some questions and leave. But it was much more than that. He took me around in his truck to see the forest , he put me in his tractor so I could look around in there, he showed me his huge corn storage tower, he let me pick two stalks of wheat so I could take it home and show it to my sisters, and more. If I ever become a farmer, I want to be like Mr. Talley.
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