Shelby Isabelle “Belle” Quarles tosses corn found on the ground, dances on equipment, and then takes off in a sprint down the rows of a harvested field. She leaves the farm work to her dad and grandfather, who repair a broken combine.
Each evening after Travis Quarles gets home from work, he works on the farm with his brother, Steven, and his dad, Bruce, on work that requires more than one set of hands.
“I can’t farm without them anymore,” Bruce says. “There’s only so many jobs you can do by yourself.”
The Quarles’ ancestors began farming in the area and have continued for about 200 years. The parents helped each of their sons buy farms.
“I never thought I’d be in debt again in my 50s,” says Charlotte, Bruce’s wife. “Then I saw it was his way to keep them close.”
Sharing the cost of the farms with the sons helps keep their family’s life centered around farming. Travis wants his children to share his and his dad’s desire to farm.
He brings Belle and her brother on the farm as often as possible just like his father did with him, but his children’s homework often interferes. He says he will be supportive even if his kids decide not to farm.
As Bruce gets older, he’s letting his sons do the more labor-intensive work. He started with tobacco, and they’re expecting to sell 25,000 pounds of it this year.
He doesn’t think he’ll ever stop farming.
“I’ll just quit, do less,” Bruce says. “Farmers never usually retire.”
Charlotte believes it’s Bruce’s way of teaching his children, so one day they will know how to work without their father.
“At one time he’ll have — I hope — taught them everything,” she said.
