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putting that farm together and keeping that farm together.” Mary Jo was the farm’s combine operator in 2009, and it proved to be a chance to teach one of her grandchildren even more about agriculture. “The oldest granddaughter rode around on the combine three days with me this summer for my first summer combining,” Mary Jo said. “She enjoyed that.” While the farming operation demands most of their time, both Joe and Mary Jo are active in other organizations and their community. Mary Jo is in her 32nd year of teaching at Drummond. She is enjoying an active retirement of working half days as a librarian and working with students as the school’s yearbook adviser. “It worked in so well with the farming,” Mary Jo said of her teaching career. “It was a little busy at the first and the end of it, when we’re trying to get ready for harvest or when we’re sowing wheat, but most of the time it’s worked out really well.” Mary Jo said she enjoys being involved with kids at the rural school and helping with 4-H, in which the Peepers’ grandchildren participate. Mary Jo also has served on the Garfield County Women’s Committee for 12 years and on the county’s resolutions committee for 23 years. She has represented her county as a delegate to the FBW meetings at state convention for 15 years. She has attended three AFBF conventions. Joe has served on the Garfield County Farm Bureau board some 25 years, and served many years as president and vice president. He has served numerous times on the resolutions and membership committees,

and also has represented the county as a delegate to the state convention many times. He also has attended three AFBF conventions. They have served as ushers in their church as well as Eucharistic ministers and lectors. Joe has served as a director of the local Conservation District.

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or winning Oklahoma Farm Bureau’s top award, the Peepers received the use of a new Dodge pickup for a year, an expense-paid trip to the American Farm Bureau Federation meeting in Seattle, Wash., and other gifts in recognition of their accomplishments. “Oklahoma agriculture is about hard-working families feeding America on less land each year,” they wrote in their application. “If we are not careful, there will not be enough land left to produce what we need.” The Peepers agree the best part of farming is nurturing the plants and animals and seeing nature in action. “You’re involved in every season throughout the year,” Joe said. “You watch nature in action. You’re out there doing things that many people just don’t have the chance to do. “There’s never a dull moment – there’s always something to do and something to see and be involved with. It’s exciting and it’s a lot of work, but it’s what we love to do.”

Oklahoma Country • Winter 2010 • 13