Farmers are problem solvers. Naturally thrifty, we save everything because someday we’re going to need it: to fix equipment, retool machinery, or create a new gadget. Getting around to the fixing, after a day in the fields, can be a challenge.

We have been very lucky these past couple years to have a dedicated tinkerer/fixer in Dennis DeVries. When Dennis learned about the farm, it reminded him of childhood memories of working on his grandfather’s Midwest farm. Retired now, the idea of helping out around a farm appealed to his love of projects. And there is no such thing as a farm without a project.

Dennis volunteers his time a couple days a week, working with the dairymen, helping with building repairs, tinkering with machinery, and generally taking care of the “little” things that can really grind the work to a halt when not in working order.

Dennis has done everything from fix a toilet to build a recycling corral, fix a tractor to painstakingly file the individual teeth on a hay baler’s cutting edge. He offers us his ideas, his wisdom, and his need to get things done. We offer him our warm thanks, a return to simpler times, and a place to keep his 4-wheeler.

Together, we make a very happy team.