.....Pete
Presta farmed land near Phillips' farm for years and still lives in
the area. "When he developed the Ponderosa, he was developing
his home," Presta said. "He didn't take any shortcuts. He
did it right."
.....That
included underground utilities, a community pool and park. "He
developed the land we couldn't farm," Presta said. "It was
just well thought out. If it weren't for his long-range planning,
a guy could have made a real fiasco out there."
.....Like
Phillips, Presta remembers fondly the years spent coaxing a living
from the earth.
....."All
of us farmed together," he said. "We helped one another
because no one had all the machinery they needed."
.....Presta
recalled the winter of 1968, when heavy snow kept them from going
anywhere. Phillips plowed the family out. "We plowed for 13 days
straight," Presta said.
.....The
sense of community wasn't a one-way street. More than once Phillips
got heavy farm equipment stuck in the mud. He would sit there patiently
until his neighbors brought their equipment to get him out.
....."The
one thing I learned about mud is the more you fight it, the deeper
you go," Phillips said.
.....Phillips didn't farm alone all those
years. He had a hired hand, Cecil Kafka, for 37 years.
....."Not constantly," he said.
"We'd get in arguments and he'd quit. Then he'd call me up and
ask me if I needed help."
.....He
sold the dairy cows in 1973 with relief. Phillips had chafed at the
seven day a week
schedule that running a dairy farm required. The cows didn't care
if it was Christmas, they had to be milked. "It was so confining,"
he said. "I couldn't do anything. The whole family was tied down." |
|
.....Phillips
ran beef cattle and grew his own hay for years. He hasn't farmed since
1992 and sold off the last of his cattle in 1997.
....."My
body is no longer up to working like I used to," he said. "What
I used to do before breakfast takes me all day now."
.....In
1990 Phillips managed to find love again. A longtime neighbor dropped
by for a visit one day, her widowed niece, Faith, in tow. "I
had just come in from the field and was eating a peanut butter and
jelly sandwich," he said. "I was covered in dirt and dust."
.....Faith
didn't mind. She knew her aunt wanted to set her up with Phillips.
"It worked," she said.
.....Faith
proved to be a good fit and they
married in 1991. "I liked doing the outdoor stuff," she
said.
.....She drove a truck during harvest
time," Phillips said. "It's been a wonderful deal. We've
gotten along great."
.....He has 200 acres of land left, which
he leases to a cattle rancher. He spends his days restoring a 1948
Ford farm truck, a 1935 Plymouth 2-door sedan,
and a 1920 Model T. "He's seen a lot and done a lot," his
wife said.
....."I bought
the Ford truck from Jay Bell Trucking. I kept his books for him as
his officeman and kept him out of jail," joked Phillips. "I
spent a week in 1949 going over his books with a man from the IRS
and was able to keep him out of any trouble. He was pretty happy with
me. The following year I mentioned to him that I was going to buy
a new Ford and asked if he could get me a better price
because he bought so many trucks for his company. He had this one
cab-over that he bought in the hopes that he would be able to pull
a longer trailer. You were only allowed so much combined length |
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back
then and he thought the
cab-over would save him about 4 feet. The cab-over body didn't seem
to hold up as well. It jiggled too much for Bell's liking."
....."For
a brand new 1950 truck I'd been quoted $1800, but that was with
just a chassis - no box or bed, size 7.50 tires, and only a straight
4-speed transmission. He offered to sell me his lone cab-over for
the same price. It had bigger 8.25 tires, 2-ton axles, an auxillary
3-speed Browning transmission and hydraulic seats for the same price.
When I bought it in 1950 it was the classiest truck around Chester."
....."The
first thing I did was move my secretary and
her new dentist husband over to Seattle. We went over early Saturday
morning with all the furniture we could carry and made it back as
far as Will and Mary's in Almira by 9:00 that night. Old Man Bollman
watched the store for us that day," explained Phillips.
.....Phillips
doesn't have much hope that one of his children will take over the
farm. They all have established careers and these days it takes
more than 2,000 acres to make a farm work, he said. "There's
not much left in farming."
.....He does hope that one of them
will move into the original farmhouse that still sits on the land,
which Phillips has restored and remodeled.
.....Neighbor Art Hess has lived across
the street from Phillips since 1986 and is pleased with how well
the old farmhouse looks. "They're always making it look nicer,"
he said.
....."Phillips is a fine neighbor,"
Hess said. "We rag on each other a little bit. If he's out
cutting the grass I'll go over and disturb him."
....."They're just superb folks.
He's a dear, dear man. It wouldn't be the same without him."
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