{"id":1129,"date":"2007-05-24T07:25:07","date_gmt":"2007-05-24T14:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/24\/the-farmers-wife\/"},"modified":"2019-10-02T02:47:53","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T09:47:53","slug":"the-farmers-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/the-farmers-wife\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal finance on film: The Farmer’s Wife"},"content":{"rendered":"

“It makes me feel so greedy and selfish to see these people struggling, almost losing it all, over a $100 debt, and I go out and spend $100 on yarn.” \u2014 Kris, while watching The Farmer’s Wife<\/u> last weekend<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>Since starting Get Rich Slowly, I’ve been searching for movies and television shows that highlight the financial struggles of real Americans, shows about personal finance “in the wild”. The first one that I can recommend without reservation is The Farmer’s Wife<\/a><\/i>, a PBS Frontline documentary<\/a> from 1998.<\/p>\n

The film follows a couple from rural Nebraska for three years (1995-1997) as they struggle to save their farm from bankruptcy. Darrel Buschkoetter was raised a farmer; he never wanted to be anything else. Juanita grew up in town, but when she married Darrel, she became a farmer’s wife. The Buschkoetters have three young daughters. They want more children, but they can barely afford the ones they have.<\/p>\n

I had hoped to post some film clips here, but PBS denied permission. Instead, I’ve transcribed three important passages.<\/p>\n

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Juanita walks through the stubble of the previous year’s crop on a cold late winter morning, the hood of her jacket pulled over her head, her hands tucked up into the sleeves. Cows graze lazily nearby. She speaks on voiceover.<\/p>\n

“Mornings like this morning when you walk outside, it just kinda sweeps over you again, what you’re wanting. When we first moved onto this farm, Darrel and I were really optimistic. We were going to farm and probably take over his dad’s operation. I would be the housewife staying home with the kids.<\/p>\n

“Then we experienced four years of drought. We didn’t raise anything. And the bank sent us a letter saying they were ready to liquidate our operation. Darrel went to work full time off the farm. And so from then on, I took it upon myself to start handling the financial matters. Now we have our three girls praying every night that dad raises crops.<\/p>\n[…]\n

“I don’t think anyone looking at us would be able to guess how tight money is for us. For a family of five right now, earning six bucks an hour just isn’t cutting it. We well fit into the poverty level, and we have a microwave and a TV. The bottom half of the TV is blue. It’s fifteen years old, and you know it’s not worth anything \u2014 you’d have to pay somebody to haul it away for us. My microwave was given to me, and my $50 washing machine we bought used and all of our clothes come from garage sales and Goodwill.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Darrel and Juanita work hard. They dream of making their living from the farm, but the land and the elements conspire against them. They’re bleeding money. Darrel takes a job “pushing steel” at a local manufacturing facility. In the evening and on weekends, he tends the farm. Juanita cleans the homes of wealthier townsfolk. She also takes classes at a local community college, runs the house, and helps on the farm.<\/p>\n

Poverty puts a strain on the couple’s marriage, but they persevere. When she no longer has money in the budget for groceries, Juanita seeks relief via food stamps. It tears her up inside, but she sees no other way to feed her children.<\/p>\n

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Darrel and Juanita are walking through waist-high corn, using machetes to cut down tall canes. It’s hot and muggy. It has rained recently. Their clothes are damp from rubbing against the corn.<\/p>\n

Juanita:<\/u> Only three days at T&L this week? [T&L is the shop where Darrel works for $7\/hour]\nDarrel:<\/u> Thank God. That’s long enough. That’d be like ten days out here.
\nJuanita:<\/u> Watch the sun come out those three days.
\nDarrel:<\/u> I know it. That’s the trouble trying to work in town and trying to farm. Take two days off and it rains, then you go to work and it’s nice. I’ll only be another month behind. Some damn thing all the time.
\nJuanita:<\/u> There’s one straight east of you. A cane.
\nDarrel:<\/u> I think everybody that farms should have a job in town for one month every summer just to find out what it’s like to be behind. You know it? They could understand it a little bit.
\nJuanita:<\/u> I know, but just think of your girls. It’s only temporary anyway.
\nDarrel:<\/u> I hope so.<\/p>\n

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Juanita drives to town in their beat-up, trouble-prone car. She speaks on voiceover as we follow her to the grocery store. She’s holding a Mountain Dew in one hand and steering with the other.<\/p>\n

“The month of June and July, Darrel wasn’t working at all. Planting was taking forever, and he wasn’t working off the farm. FHA wasn’t letting us have any farm money to live on. And when I clean two, two-and-a-half days a week, that tells you that by the time we pay any bills, you have maybe $20 for groceries. For the month. If you call that desperate, yeah I’d say it’s desperate.<\/p>\n

“I know he hated even mentioning it \u2014 it took a while for me to even be able to talk him into letting me do it \u2014 but I went and applied for food stamps. We’re only eligible for food stamps for a couple of months anyway. And Darrel even hated me doing it. But yeah, after we got on them, he was happy he had food to eat.<\/p>\n

“I got so mad at him because I had to be the one to go get groceries and use the food stamps, and I thought if he had to do it just one time, he’d get his butt back to work even if it meant working day and night. I never want to do it again. And I rightfully don’t feel we deserve to have the food stamps, you know? Because why should somebody else pay for our groceries because of some of the mistakes we made in farming, but what else do you do? When you have three kids to feed, you have to feed them somehow.<\/p>\n[…]\n

“It’s so hard for me to see that times will ever get better. I can’t ever imagine having money again to have the groceries that you want. I can’t even imagine it. As soon as I get done with school, I’m going to go get a decent job. I hate to [give up farming] \u2014 I never ever want to be in this situation again with money.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Darrel and Juanita’s finances are complicated. They lease land for their farming operation. They’ve borrowed money from various people in town. They’ve been given an FHA farm loan, and are on some sort of supervised plan for repaying all their debt. Their troubled accounts cloud everything they do. Among other things:<\/p>\n