Eli was grinding the tractor down the road, two bales on each end. The snow was blowing; the thermometer read 20 degrees below zero and the heater halfway worked. He hopped out of the tractor and tugged to open the gate. His hands were too cold they had gone numb. He finally got the gate open. The cows and calves were huddled out of the wind in a draw. He unrolled the two bales and headed back home. It was hard for Eli to go to school, then come home every night and work for four hours, but he did it. Eli and his dad didn’t always see eye to eye.



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See when Eli was younger his dad drank a lot every night and would beat him and his mom. It was kind of traumatizing for Eli because all the beatings and throwing stuff at each other. That went on for ten years until Eli’s mom had enough. She told Eli’s dad to go to AA and anger management classes or she was walking out. His Dad had already went through a divorce and lost both kids so he finally straightened up because he didn’t want to lose Eli. He was a huge success to their family farm, expanding every year. As the years passed and Eli became a teenager, he played football and baseball. So that made for long long days, after practice he would go to work. Yet Eli never showed any tiring and never complained.
It was October 12, 1998 Eli had graduated and was out of school. He decided to stay home and work with his dad. Eli had been learning a lot about financing and the money end of the farm which was huge and very confusing. It was smack dab in the middle of harvest season and even on Sundays; Eli’s dad would go run by himself. He told Eli he could have the rest of the afternoon off after he checked all the cows. So Eli spent his afternoon stretched out in the recliner, feeling a little shame for not helping his dad. Eli would always worry about him. For example if he was ok, or if he was struggling, or broke down. Eli

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woke up two hours later to police lights and the screaming of his mother. Eli knew his dad was in trouble.
After Eli’s dad was paralyzed from the waist down his family was devastated like a hail storm had wiped out all there crop fields. Eli had to step up and take over just about everything with the help of both his grandpas and some of his dad’s friends. It was right in the middle of harvest time and Eli had to learn a lot fast. One of his biggest obstacles was the 2388 Case AFS Axial combine. Eli taught himself how to operate the machine by many many hours of simple seat time.
But anyway, one late late night Eli was almost done. He looked at his watch, it was two in the morning and he could barely keep his eyes open. As Eli was finishing up the end row he dosed off for just a split second and that was enough. Eli had accidently cut beans in the joining field, at a time like this there was no room for error. Old Don Newcomb was very unhappy with Eli. Don cornered Eli at the gas station one early beautiful morning.
“I’m going to sue your **s for all those beans you cut on my side you ungrateful little***T!”
“Hey you better cool it old man it was an honest mistake and I promise to pay you back in full”
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“I don’t just want your money I want your land to, see you in court Goodson”
Eli walked over and raised his fist.
“Hit me boy! See what happens”
Eli thought to himself, “He wasn’t worth it.”
“Your just lucky I’m in the position I’m in, if it wasn’t for my pa you’d be in the dirt!”

“Your pa was no good anyway!”

“Don’t listen to him man he’s just trying to get into your head,” Eli thought to himself.
Old Don Newcomb knew about Elis dad’s condition and Old Don always wanted to buy Eli’s family’s land of 400 acres to join his continuous bottom ground.

After the crop was out, it was cattle feeding time for Eli. He left the fieldwork up to his grandpas’, Grandpa Vaughn and Grandpa Tommy. The winter flew by and before he knew it he was calving 500 heifers and that wasn’t easy. He would check them three times a night in case he would have to pull one or put one
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on the tit. It couldn’t get worse until he needed to start planting. You could just say he didn’t get much sleep. One Sunday evening Eli’s Grandpa Vaughn came to him and said they needed to talk. So that night when Eli was done choring he went over.
“Anybody home!” he heard a deep crackly voice in the back of the house. “Come on in just leave your boots at the door” In the living room the lights were off but the yellow lamp beside his chair was on.
Grandpa Vaughn said “Eli I’ve got to sell the farm to Don, you can’t handle it. Just the row crop portion and besides he’s offering top dollar and I’m getting too old to help you.”
Eli said “NOOO! NO WAY am I not doing that to my pa! He’s worked too long and to hard for all his land to be given to some jerk that doesn’t know how to farm.”
His grandpa started to talk but Eli cut him off.
“You have always been jealous of dad anyway. He made it way farther than you ever did. He wasn’t scared to invest and expand to survive. Just give me a year, if I cant handle it then we can sell.”

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Grandpa Vaughn said “Ok. One year that’s it, then I want to see your cash flow. To see if you broke even.”
Eli left without saying another word, slamming the door behind him.
When Eli got home he was stressed out from the conversation and the bad news. His girlfriend, Isabel, had food on the table waiting. He went and cleaned up before he ate then talked to Isabel about what grandpa had said to him.
“So what did Grandpa need?”
Eli mumbled under his breathe, “Nothing it’s just that Grandpa wants to sell the crop land to Don and you know how I feel about that.”
“Why would he want to do that?”
“He says I’m not capable and need help, I told him to give me a year then I’ll prove it with my cash flow.”
“That’s a big responsibility Hon, but I have faith in you and I will be by your side all the way.”
She was always up lifting and had a way of easing Eli’s mind. Later that night before they get into bed, Eli was telling Isabel about all he had to do and how the days aren’t long enough.

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“I don’t know how I’m going to handle all this you know, I mean its going to be hard and I’ll need your support. Tomorrow I have to feed then make time to go to the bank, then I have to fix the ripper…..ect.” Eli was talking in a stern kind of complaining way.
In the middle of all this blabbering Isabel says “Eli I’m pregnant.”
It took him awhile then he stopped talking and said “What? Really?”
“Yes babe we are going to have a family”
Eli was excited but it was going to be hard for him. “How the hell am I going to get through all this?” he thought to himself. You could say he was ready but then again he wasn’t.
It was a new year 1999, and Eli’s goal was to show his grandpa he could run the farm. He started out good in the early spring doing field work and taking care of the cattle. Then planting season came around and he didn’t sleep hardly any. On top of that Isabel wasn’t in the best of moods either. He struggled but got the crops in. In the summer he sprayed crops and watched the crops with his most main intentions. Come fall the crops were looking strong. He had high hopes, but at the same time a ton of stress on his shoulders.

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See, back in the spring, Eli ripped all the stock ground and fertilized all the bean ground, and then in the early summer he side dressed all the corn with fertilizer once again and sprayed every acre down to a tee. So in all reality he had a lot of huge expenses to pay for. Eli fired up the old 2388 Case that early August morning and headed out to fulfill his dreams.
The night before Eli and Isabel figured up to cover the expenses, the corn would need to at least average 160bu/acre and the beans 40bu/acre. Eli started into his first field with a whole whopping 5000 acres to get out before it freezes in December. The weeks pass by Eli was working 15-20 hour days only going on a couple hours of sleep. One late night Eli was tired and was having trouble staying awake. He knew he couldn’t make the same mistake twice.
He radios his Grandpa Tommy, “Grandpa I’ve got to shut her down I can’t stay awake.”
Grandpa came back with “Hold on I’ve got something to do the trick.”
Eli stops and Grandpa climbs up into the cab with him.
“Here have you a dip of Copenhagen.”
“What the heck is Copenhagen?” Eli replied.
“Its chew and it’ll keep you awake until we get done.”
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Eli threw a chew in and took back off. It made him feel a little dizzy at first but if its what he had to do before it froze to get the crop out then he was going to do it. The next morning came fast, well it seemed like to Eli.
He was all amped up after going to the store and buying a can of Copenhagen and a sweet tea. He was down to only 300 acres to go. (In farming if you get 200 acres in one day you’re lucky.) He serviced everything and went over everything twice; if he was going to make a run at getting done everything had to be perfect. It was now the next morning Eli had run all night. Only a hundred acres left and he would be done.
The sun coming up in the sky looked like God himself had painted it. Eli was determined to finish. He was by himself and had three empty hopper bottoms setting at the edge of the field. He got the first two filled and was praying the last one would hold the rest. Eli was finished but he still had to off load into the hopper bottom. He didn’t think it was going to hold, but with it way way over full it did. Eli tarped the trailers then locked everything up. Eli said a little prayer thanking God, then went home with a sense of relief.
After resting all day Eli and Isabel downloaded the GPS computer information from the combine to their computer. Eli figured it up and the corn made 165bu/acre and the beans made 43bu/acre. He had done it. All his hard work
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paid off. Eli walks into Grandpa’s house with his brief case in his hand. Takes off his boots and walks in.
“What do you want” Grandpa asks.
“Here. There’s my proof down to the last penny” Eli threw the papers on the table.
“Well let me see” It took Grandpa awhile but he finally got it checked out.
Well done son I’m proud of you, you done it when no one thought you could.”
“Thanks Grandpa and I understand your cautiousness, not wanting to lose the farm as a whole because I couldn’t run it.”
“Your welcome, and Eli, yes you can, I doubted you and shouldn’t have.”

Eli was happy. That was the first time his grandpa had showed any sympathy toward him. When Eli got home, Isabel was doing laundry even though she was about to pop, she still wouldn’t quit.
“Honey let me get that.”
“No its fine……….ah gosh.” Isabel cried out in pain.

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Isabel went to the floor and there was blood everywhere. Eli rushed her to the hospital. Later on Eli heard from the doctor she had hemorrhaged. Isabel was ok and so was the baby. He was 7lbs 14oz and 19in long. They named him Brian Eli Goodson. Eli, Isabel, and Brian are all doing great, they have had some bumps in the road but when you have love you can make it through anything and that’s exactly what the Goodson family had. Eli now thrives in the farming business. He is currently one of the top producers in South Dakota. THE END
BASED ON A TRUE STORY