Anyway, remember some decades back when you came into some money not long after my great uncle had died and his farm operation fell apart… remember? You added a small (20 acre) farm to your portfolio and hired me to manage it – in addition to some nearby properties I was already overseeing – since farming was my business after all.

After a while you came to me with concern about our low yield, and so we grew the operation to 40 acres.

A few more years went by until you came back around to this concern over yield. You explained to me that some fellows’ farms had higher yield and that by that you meant yield per acre. Remember now? I made a convincing case about the relative sizes of operations, about how other farms were scaling up, and how there are structures to all those subsidies and such that largely establish how we needed to operate. After you worked out some complicated financial arrangements, we grew the operation to 80 acres.

Now I know you remember now. At first I thought you were mad about the new fencing, but it was the fertilizer, seed, and labor. We weren’t just buying more; it was also more expensive. You were absolutely furious when I sent over the updated accounting. We renegotiated my fees since the additional acreage had run them up. I stood up for our labor – those fellows have to be able to feed their families; besides, those were the guys that could do the work. So you had to carry most of the costs until we could pass along expenses. Paying back your investment was a longer proposition.

When our situation didn’t improve after a few more years, I was certain you would have fired me if I wasn’t by then married to your cousin.

I sure do miss the good old days.

But I’ll have you know that I’ve put my wages to good use since moving on to greener pastures. Matter of fact I’ve been taking classes and reading an awful lot. I’m learning how there’s a lot of fine tuning that can be done with irrigation, weed control, and such – numbers and formulas One of my teachers says soil management is like science.

Is the bank still trying to foreclose on you? Have you noticed all the farmer’s markets lately?