814-Lancasler Farming, Saturday, August 1, 1998
Life With The Hoovers
(Continued from Page B 2)
how to process information.
Not only do the Hoovers attend
numerous agriculture-related
seminars, they also send full and
part-time employees.
their reasons for investing in
seminars for their hired help is
two-fold. Hoover said, “We want a
life for our family. We also want a
life for our help’s families.”
Another reason is the awareness
that farmers need to compete for
the labor market.
As farm employers, he believes
it is necessary to offer comparable
benefits as that of non-farming
occupations.
“We have excellent help and we
want to keep them,” he said.
While the farm is run like a busi
ness, the Hoovers strive to keep
farm and farming in perspective.
“We don’t want to be workahol
ics but enjoy life as we go along,”
said Hoover.
Top priority for the couple is to
build family relationships. Music,
relaxing in the family swimming
pool, vacationing, and participat
ing in church, farming, and com
munity activities are part of the
family togetherness.
Church activities are a prime
commitment for family members.
Hoover is chairman of the admini
strative board at the Limeville
United Methodist Church. Carole
is director of the church preschool
program, and participates in choir
and a Bible study group.
The couple serve as leaders of
the Pequea Valley 4-H Dairy Club.
Carole also is a 4-H leader for the
beginner’s sewing leader and is
secretary of the county dairy prin
cess promotion committee.
“I like to be involved with things
where my children are active,”
Carole said. At her children’s
schools, Carole is a room parent, a
soccer mom, and helps with the
music booster's band and chorus.
She cares for the large house and a
big yard.
Daughter Jill is a dairy ambassa
dor and both she and her sister
Brenda are former dairy darlings
for county dairy promotion.
Jill is a 10th grade FFA student
at Pequea Valley High school,
where she is a member of march
ing band, chorus, and the soccer
team. She is president of both the
4-H dairy and community clubs.
She also takes piano lessons and
plays the bells, bassoon, and clar
inet. At church she helps with kids
programs and is a member of the
church youth group.
Brenda is in sixth grade at Con
Bidding family relationships Is a top priority for Gordon and Carole Hoover with
daughters, Jill 15; Brenda, 11; and Leslie, 7. “We don’t want to be work alhollcs but
enjoy life as it goes along,” Hoover said.
estoga Christian Day School. She
also plays soccer, piano, and flute
and is active in 4-H dairy and com
munity clubs.
Leslie is in second grade at
Salisbury Elementary School. She
likes living on a farm, playing with
kittens, swinging on a rope from
the bam rafters and jumping in cot
tonseed when stored in the bam
“I still find time to visit my fam
ily in State College,” Carole said
of overnight trips in which she usu
ally takes one or all of the children
along.
Hoover finds time to accom
pany his wife to State College dur
ing football season. He said, “I
married into a family that has “blue
and white blood.” As a dairy pro
duction graduate of Penn State,
Hoover enjoys having season foot
ball tickets and tailgating with his
wife’s family at the game. The
Hoovers spend overnight visits
during the season.
Although it is difficult to man
age time off from demanding farm
schedules, the Hoovers believe the
gain is well worth it.
They have one full-time
employee and two part-time high
school students. The children help
with farm chores every other
weekend. Although he was raised
the old-fashioned way of seldom
taking off from farm chores.
Hoover now makes it a priority to
take every other weekend off and
to take annual vacations.
This past year, they combined
the family vacation with the Land
O’ Lakes board meeting in
Minnesota.
This summer Gordon and
daughter Jill participated in Appa
lachian Service Project. The
Hoovers traveled with seven team
members from their church to join
about 60 other volunteers in a Ken
tucky.
“We stayed at a school, where
we had two showers few 60 peo
ple,” Jill said.
The volunteers repaired mobile
homes for low-income families.
They replaced skirting, patching
roofs, replaced windows and
floors, and other upgrading jobs.
Although Jill did not have previ
ous carpentry experience, she said,
“I have a pretty good hit with a
hammer.”
“I got to see how other people
lived. Some homes looked great
but right next to it would be a
pathetic dump where a family
lived. It helps me appreciate what I
have.”'
The father and daughter team
said that at first they were tempted
Instead of taking a family vacation one year, the Hoovers put In a swimming pool,
which has proved to be a sound investment for promoting family togetherness In
between farm chores.
to be critical of the way many of
the Appalachian population spent
their money.
“They would have a falling
down house with no indoor plumb
ing, yet have a satellite dish and a
big screen T.V.,” Jill said.
A person who grew up in this
environment explained that this
happens because of the easy avail
ability of the buy now, pay later
policy. Residents can’t get a loan
to install indoor plumbing, but it’s
easy to purchase a television and
satelite dish on credit.
‘They have the same desires as
we do, but it’s more difficult to
attain them,” Hoover said. “They
buy what’s easiest to obtain.”
Hoover is a former president of
the Lancaster County Farm
Bureau. He serves on the legisla
tive committee for Sen. Noah
Wenger. When he was elected to
the board of directors for Alantic
Dairy Cooperative, Hoover
slowed down his involvement with
the Farm Bureau. With the recent
merger, Hoover’s involvement
with ADC was transferred to the
board of Land O’ Lakes, where he
is now secretary of the board.
Although firm believers in the
advantages of volunteering for
farm organizations, the Hoovers
know it is a huge challenge to find
the time for farm, community, and
church involvement.
“People are more independent.
It’s hard to get people involved in
volunteering time, but it’s impor
tant to remember that many of
these farm organizations have
brought us a long way. Many are
not aware what those organiza
tions did for us (farmers). Some
want to reinvent the wheel instead
of promoting a spirit of coopera
tion, and by doing so gives fanners
more negative competition.”
Hoover thinks it’s important to
understand the reason behind laws
and why policies need to be modi
fied. He pointed out that the gov
ernment got involved in agricul
ture pricing in order to guarantee
adequate food at an affordable
price for everyone.
“Many of the same farmers who
were screaming ‘get the govern
ment out now,’ are the same ones
who are now screaming to get the
government back into it to protect
market prices,” he said.
Hoover believes agriculture
must go through a culling process
in order for law of supply and
demand to stabilize prices.
The Hoovers are grateful that in
the early 1980 s they were selected
as former participants in ADC’s
Young Couples Program and in the
National Milk Producer’s Young
Couples Program.
“We were exposed to other
farming techniques and young
couples facing the same challenges
we are,” Carole said.
For 15 years, they have been
part of an advisory council, which
is made up of couples about the
same age who get together and dis
cuss isses and send it recommen
dations for legislation. The council
started with six couples. Today
only two couples are active in
farming.
The Hoovers admit that the
lifestyle of having a freer schedule
is appealing and generates a lot of
peer pressure when attempting to
socialize with those from non
farming occupations. Socializing
with the non-farming community
forces the Hoovers to be more
eight to five o’clock, a goal that the
Teachers
Ag Awareness
(Continued from Page B 12)
Awareness Foundation of
Pennsylvania. The theme of this
year’s workshop was “Travel the
Harvest Highway” and its main
goal was to help teachers edu
cate America’s youth about agri
culture.
The teachers came from
urban, suburban, and rural
backgrounds Many of the teach
ers came from urban areas to
gain hands-on experience about
Pennsylvania’s number one
industry Everyone had an
enjoyable introduction to the
week by hearing John Rodger’s
speech about the “Thresholds of
New Frontiers ” The group then
journeyed to the Penn State Ag
Arena to meet farm animals up
close. The 4-H youth of Mifflin
County proudly showed and
explained the animal’s attribut
es.
The paiticipants had a won
derful opportunity to take field
trips to a family-operated dairy
farm, a fruit farm that uses inte
grated pest management, the
Mushroom House, and the Penn
State Dairy Research Center
The evenings were spend
enjoying a pig roast, a pizza
party, a banquet, making tin can
ice cream, and visiting the Pasto
Farm Museum Each teacher
received fnany ideas and materi
als to take back to their class
rooms to use with their stu-
During the remainder of the dents.
Hoovers see as beneficial to their
quality of life.
At the same time, Hoover
doesn’t think that being the only
farm couple at church and many
community functions is isolating.
“What career outside of agricul
ture is one we can’t relate to?” he
asks then answers his own ques
tion. “We certainly relate to those
with their own businesses. We
relate to those who work with com
puters, to the bench chemist, to the
financial manager, to the
mechanic.. ..”
“It’s always been my dream to
farm and to own the farm,” Hoover
said. At the same time, he believes
it is important to encourage child
ren who want to lake over the fami
ly farm to get away from it and
look at the farm from a different
perspective.
As a college student and as a
member of the National Dairy Sci
ence Club, Hoover received a dif
ferent perspective on farming that
he believes has made him a better
manager and farmer than he would
have been without those
experiences.
Although he’s lived on the farm
all his life, the thrill of the history
surrounding the farm still brings a
sense of intrigue to Hoover. With
in eyesight of the place is the oldest
mill in the U.S. The mill, which
still has its original stone walls, is
said to have been commandeered
during the Civil and Spanish Wars
to make gun powder and undercar
riages for cannons. Also nearby is
a farm used as a boys’s school,
which was later moved to N.J., and
is said to be the beginnings of Prin
ceton University.
Taught
week, teachers attend classes
covering many ag-related topics
They learned how agriculture is
the keystone to civilization and
how to find ag topics using the
internet
Workshops covered a variety
of topics like “Seed Sense,”
“Hydroponics,” and “Barnyard
Basics ”