Farm Wife
25 August 2008
I can't imagine being a Kona coffee farmer without a good wife. A good
wife is even more important than a good farm truck.
My wife is Valerie and she's the best.
Valerie grew up in Hanford which is a small town in the middle of
California. Hanford is surrounded by farms, orchards and dairies but
Valerie grew up in town and had never lived on a farm before. She also
had never been to Hawaii before except once while on vacation. At the
time, I think her opinion was that it was a nice place to visit but she
wouldn't want to live here. Shortly after that is when I quit my job
as a computer game programmer and decided to
move the entire family to Hawaii.
Not only did Valerie go along with my decision to move the family to a new
place and adopt a whole new lifestyle, even more surprising is that she was
willing to make the move without having seen the farm or house first.
I showed her pictures and told her all about it but she had never actually
seen the house until the day we moved in.
I don't think I could get away with that again but it has worked out so
far. I think there are times when Valerie wishes I had a normal job
with a steady income. I know she wishes she could visit friends and
relatives on the mainland more often. For the most part though, we all
like the farm. We could never have so many pets and so much garden
space if we still lived in the city.
Valerie and I have a fairly traditional relationship. I earn the majority
of the money while she does the majority of the housework and child raising.
That may not be fashionable in these modern times but it works well for us.
If I ever had to feed myself I'd probably starve. I know that big cold box
in the kitchen has food in it but when I look inside I can never find anything
to eat. Valerie is a bit challenged when it comes to fix-it type
stuff. She has occasionally hung pictures on the wall but when she does
they have a tendency to fall off. Given the choice, Valerie would prefer
to fold the laundry while I'd prefer to change the oil in the truck. We
both think it's a fair trade.
In addition to all the housework, Valerie works around the farm quite a bit
too. She tends to several different gardens (which I'm
not allowed in because I offer too much "advice"),
she takes care of all the pets and she is growing several hundred baby coffee
trees. She also likes to mow. Mowing the entire farm is a two day
job. I mow the more difficult areas but she mows the rest.
When we go out, Valerie cleans up pretty nice too. We recently worked
a booth at a fair selling coffee. Any time someone asked a question
I'd eagerly tell them all about farming Kona coffee until their eyes
glazed over with boredom. However most of the time people just wanted
a free sample in which case they preferred to talk to the pretty lady
standing next to me. Valerie easily made more sales than I did.
Some day I may trade in my farm truck for a newer model but I think
I'll keep my wife for as long as possible. She takes care of the farm,
the house, the pets, the kids and most challenging of all, she takes
care of me. Yup, we'd definitely be lost without her.
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