More Proof That The Midwest Is the Best Part of the Country

In August, a meme hit Facebook and exploded, as it continues to make its way around social media. Maybe you saw it.

It made you feel good, as it's a great thing to see. You may have liked it, then moved on and forgot it. Why? Because it's nothing new to you. It's just the Midwest farming way.

The rest of the nation seems to underestimate the Midwest, and more specifically the farming life. The farming community is family. They take care of their own. And while everyone else is going nuts about how amazing it is when people are truly nice and help out those in need, it's nothing out of the ordinary here. When there's a farmer in need, the community helps out.

Last November in Bondurant, Iowa, one farmer had just lost his dad to cancer and had a 7 year old son fighting cancer, leaving him commuting to Kansas City often, and away from his fields. And then friends showed up armed with 5 combines, several semis and more. They helped him clear his more than 300 acres across the area.

Last September in Galva, IL, about an hour south east of Davenport, so many farmers showed up to help out a farmer struggling with cancer, that they had to turn people away. 40 people in combines, grain carts, and semis cleared 450 acres in about 10 hours.

It happened in 2014 in Dixon, IL when the 7 farmers showed up to help out a 6th generation farmer who ended up in the hospital with meningitis, as his wife was battling cancer. The previous summer, they teamed up to help build a sunroom for the wife.

It happened last October in Crooks, South Dakota, as 20 farmers showed up to help another farmer battling cancer. Some of the farmers came from roughly 20 miles away to help out.

It happened last November in Carson, Iowa, dozens showed up to help a fellow farmer who just found out he had liver cancer. They reportedly pulled out 25 to 30 thousand bushels in about two hours.

It happened in October of 2011, just north of Sycamore, Illinois, as a farmer's wife had come down with cancer. A parade of volunteers showed up, and gathered up 80 semi loads of corn in just under five and a half hours. It would have taken the farmer about 4 weeks to do that.

To be clear, I'm not trying to belittle these awesome and amazing acts. Each one was a welcome surprise for the farmer, and totally unexpected. But it's just part of farm life. As one farmer in one of these stories said, when the going gets tough, the community has to help out. And in Midwest farming, as you can see, that happens often.  The rest of the world is just surprised, as they don't have it as good as we have it here.