Posted on 02/09/2006 7:29:40 PM PST by SJackson
The farmer in the dell takes a wife, but the cheese stands alone.
Some rural folks identify more with the cheese than the farmer. For those people, Jerry Miller has an answer: FarmersOnly.com, a dating Web site meant specifically for “sincere, down-to-earth people who respect and cherish the rural lifestyle.”
The Beachwood, Ohio, man runs an advertising agency that works for agribusinesses.
A divorced female farmer sparked his idea for FarmersOnly.com.
A stab at online dating frustrated the farmer because she met urbanites who couldn’t relate to her long hours and laborious work.
“She was afraid she was never going to meet anybody new,” said Mr. Miller, who’s been married for 28 years.
Mr. Miller said finding love is a serious problem for farmers and other rural folks, who often work dawn to dusk or longer and live in isolated areas where sweethearts paired up in high school. And there are fewer farmers than 20 years ago, said Harvey Eness, Wisconsin Singles in Agriculture president.
A 45-year-old from Troy, Mo., states in his FarmersOnly.com profile why it’s hard to find a partner.
“City girls like my profession but not my lifestyle,” he wrote.
The site, founded in May, exploded this winter after national and international media attention. It boasts 15,000 members, with 100 to 500 people joining every day, Mr. Miller said last week.
Daters creating a profile are asked what they raise or grow, though there are answer options for those who simply love a rural lifestyle.
A 43-year-old Illinois woman who goes by the online name quietcountrygirl suffers quietly through city life.
“I am a country girl who is currently in an office job, hating every minute of it!” she wrote.
Mr. Miller notes patterns in the types of people who use the site.
“It’s kind of a mix of just the rural people who can relate to farmers, people who used to be farmers, real farmers and just throw in a couple farmer-wannabes,” he said.
A 35-year-old from South Bend, Ind., who goes by the online name jdfrmr writes in his online profile that he has high hopes for the site.
“Read about this site in a magazine and figured I’d hit pay dirt, so here I am,” he wrote.
Mr. Miller’s creation may contribute to the decline of groups such as Singles in Agriculture.
“We’re losing ground. We attribute it to computers,” Mr. Eness said.
The Wisconsin chapter has about 30 members, most around 60 years old, he said.
“We’ve tried a lot of different ideas and haven’t gotten the magic bullet,” Mr. Eness said of attempts to boost membership.
Singles in Agriculture isn’t a dating service, Mr. Eness said, but some find love while making new friends. After dancing with a woman, Mr. Eness spent the afternoon telling her about the group. The pair later married.
FarmersOnly.com may be young, but Mr. Miller hears of some marriages between people who met through the site.
“When you find out that you made it to where two people who have been lonely for a long time are getting married … that’s unbelievable,” he said.
Members sent 200,000 messages through the site in the last couple of weeks, Mr. Miller said.
Members can hide their profile from public view if they’re settling into a relationship. About 900 people had hidden theirs last week, Mr. Miller said.
“There must be a lot of relationships going,” he said.
Some farmers also seek a partner in the barn.
“One profile looked more like a job interview,” Mr. Miller said. “A lot of guys say, ‘You can’t be afraid to get your fingernails dirty.’”
Most farmers and rural folks detest dishonesty, Mr. Miller said.
“The No. 1 term used on the site is the word honesty,” he said.
Though Mr. Miller loves seeing his advertising work aid someone’s business, it doesn’t compare to pairing farmers.
“I love it. When I get e-mails from people saying they met somebody … that gives me more of a rush than anything I’ve ever done,” he said.
Two weeks ago I joined Match.com out of desperation. I punched in my search for 50 miles of my zip code and got 6 elgible women that were eight years either side of my age. The results were rather disappointing.
Will a trackhoe do?
Just kidding.
Damn, buddy, that tractor probably causes more second-hand smoke damage than a danged cigarette!!!
Imagine how many rubber trees, in the rainforest, had to be cut down to manufacture those tractor tires. (Perplexed here).
My hope is to get up tomorrow and be better than I was yesterday, to live as long as I can, and to be as good a person as I can -- to treat others as I'd hope they would me.
I better get OUTTA here. I'm just LMAO at this thread.
Oh, and my dream is to win the lottery.
"She thinks my tractor's sexy
It really turns her on"
"What! No more Norwegian bachelor farmers?"
They're all here in Wisconsin, LOL!
I have two friends that are awesome guys. Hard working, manly outdoorsmen, hunters, excellent providers, decent jobs (though manual labor-types; one's a mechanic, one runs the local feed store), they clean up nice, have all their teeth and nice heads of hair. God-fearing, polite, they own homes and both have great senses of humor. A few tatoos from their younger days in the military, but nothing obnoxious; no pierced faces or anything, LOL!
Both are STILL single and in their 30's and want nothing more than to settle down and raise up a family.
I'm going to send them this link. You never know!
My Dad, who is 69, used a dating service last year to meet a new wife after my StepMom died of cancer. He just got back from his Honeymoon Cruise and things seem to be going well for him. She's a retired nurse, as conservative as he is, likes to travel, play cards, go to the theater, etc. Odds are pretty slim that they would've found one another in everyday life as they lived in different towns, but pretty much had parallel lives.
I met my husband of 10 years (been together 14) the old fashioned way...through a newspaper ad. He, too, was an eligible bachelor, and I felt comfortable meeting him after quite a few phone calls, and the fact that we ended up knowing mutual people, anyway. They just never thought of hooking the two of us up because we're quite different. ;)
"There was a time when I thought about going into ag, just because it's good clean-living work out in the fresh air...Kind of sorry that I didn't now."
It's never too late! I grew up in inner-city Milwaukee, WI. I've wanted to live on a farm and do that kind of work my entire life...and I finally did it when I was 35. All is not lost. :)
Do have have an older brother?
LOL
I can check for ya. Would you settle for an Uncle, maybe? ;)
Can't sleep? You can count me, baby. Single white female sheep seeking lonely farm man. Age, race unimportant.
For those who are tired of playing the field...
Uncles are good!
Thats hilarious! My dream is to meet a prissy urbanite, who loves trendy bars that play crappy electric music, and uses the word 'like' repeatedly. Ok, shoot me now!
Why am I not surprised that someone had to put up a picture of a sheep!!
So I gave up... I never did figure out if I planted them too deep or too close together.
yank,
Make sure her idea of a romantic evening is a visit to the mall :)
Or watching Survivor on TV:)
Me, I'd rather be alligator hunting :)
THAT was too deep! I need my chicken-stuff boots...
;-)
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