Dairy farming may not be the best work for someone whose bones and muscles hurt all the time. Just crouching to put milkers on a cow is painful and risky because when he gets down he can’t always get up. If a cow bumps him, his body may hurt for days. And he is that rare farmer who tries to avoid driving a tractor with its bouncy ride that sets off even more pain. So he does mostly walking jobs and his brother, Carl, helps out with tractor work, milking, and field work.

But on a farm, physical exertion can’t be avoided for long. For LeMaster there are days of extra pain if he has to pull a calf or shovel manure. “It just never goes away. It’s like I’m beat all the time,” he says. “It’s just like I’m 80 years old instead of 50.”

There are days when he is physically unable to work. Medications are helpful, and he takes handfuls of them every day. But it’s a chess game for him to figure out which pain medicines will work on any given day, because none of them work consistently all the time.

On this 146-acre farm, plus rented land, the Holsteins, Jerseys, and crossbred cows number 110, including those being milked, calves, and dry cows. The herd is fed mostly from crops grown on the farm: 160 acres of corn, 30 acres of oats, and 55 acres of alfalfa and clover.

Additional land is rented

Many physically demanding tasks on the farm can now be done by machines, but the investment is an insurmountable difficulty of its own. LeMaster has been helped by an organization known as AgrAbility that evaluates the needs of handicapped farmers and helps them find resources to pay for labor-saving equipment so they can continue farming.

The arthritis pain first made itself known in his back and knees while LeMaster was still in high school. It has only gotten worse through the years, and he knows the deterioration will continue until someday he will no longer be able to work the farm. By then, he hopes one of the children will want to take over.

Mom's Story
Working On A Dream

Dee was 26, unmarried, and more than anything else wanted a family of her own. So she took on the responsibility of a foster child, a little Boy named Dustin, who had been abused and had learning abilities.
Dee gave Dustin what he needed most, her love and her time. One year later she became the foster mother of Dustin’s younger sister, Rebecca, and three years after that, Dustin’s and Rebecca’s younger brother Tyler joined the foster family.

Dee adopted the three siblings in ‘98 and brought another foster child into her home, 12-year old Jessie. The children all had serious emotional and learning problems resulting from neglect and abuse in their early childhoods.

"I didn’t go looking for problem children, they were sent to me," Dee said. "And they let me know how angry they were, but I would just hold them and talk to them. Probably nobody in their lives had ever done that before." In time the children responded, and the anger subsided as they realized this family wasn’t going to hurt them or get rid of them.

Dee had her own physical difficulty to cope with, a leg that had been crushed in an accident, leaving her with a permanent disability and contributing to her considerable weight gain. She had almost given up on ever finding a husband and father for her family, as she said herself, "I was 34, weighed 450 pounds, and had four children. My prospects weren’t good."

Just then, Jessie started asking to see an older brother she remembered from years earlier. Dee called the foster care agency and was told the brother also had been adopted and was living not far away.

Arrangements were made for Dee and Jessie to meet the brother and his adoptive father, Larry LeMaster, a dairy farmer. They met in November ‘99 and were married the following February.

Dee was suddenly a farm wife and mother of five. She learned to milk cows and drive a tractor, all the while caring for the special needs of her special family.

Larry quickly became the adoptive father of Dustin, Rebecca, and Tyler. Next, he and Dee together formally adopted Jessie. Then someone new came into their lives. Neither one of them had ever had a newborn baby, so last April they adopted child number six, and baby Sarah immediately became the darling of the family.

Today, these children give but little evidence of their rough backgrounds. They now have a refreshing zest for life, are well mannered, and actually seem to enjoy talking with adults. Each one has chores to do on the farm. The eldest, Lee, 21, is now living on his own and holding down a full-time job. He is learning to manage his own affairs. Those who have witnessed the changes in these young people say the difference is dramatic, even miraculous.

Becky likens herself and her siblings to Orphan Annie who was rescued from abuse and went to live in a mansion. The LeMaster farm house is now Becky’s mansion.

Last year the five oldest children sat around the kitchen table and composed a letter. When they had all agreed to what it should say, the letter was published in the local newspaper on Fathers Day. In part, it said:

Dad, you are our knight in shining armor. We all never had a true father until we found you. Love abounds in our Dad’s heart. We came into your house of dreams, and you made all our dreams come true.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad
Thanks for adopting us all and creating our wonderful, happy family