GALION — The hay bales at the Sellman family farm this year are slowing traffic and drawing double-takes.
Hundreds of 800-pound round bales decorating the fields at the intersection of Galion-New Winchester and Iberia roads. Some are stacked, but everyone is wrapped in red, white, and blue netting — a patriotic display that would make Uncle Sam proud.
“We like to do things to cheer people up and give them some positivity,” said Mendy Sellman, who along with her husband, Russ, operate Rus-Men Farms. “With everyone being quarantined this year, we thought we’d give them something to look at.”
The Sellmans, who farm about 350 acres, said they got the idea to “light up their fields” on Facebook. They searched online for the striped bale wrap and finally found it at a company in Minnesota, which shipped it to Galion via FedX so it would arrive by the Fourth of July.
As any farmer knows, that’s baling day.
On July 3, the Sellman clan — including son, Jesse, and daughters Emely Tate and Elaina Sellman — started cutting down the three-foot high field of winter wheat. It took two days to combine 55 acres, with the custom netting automatically wrapped around each five-by-six-foot bale.
It wasn’t long before the cars began stopping, and the phones started clicking.
“It’s been really nice to see people out and taking pictures,” said the former Mendy Crim, a sixth-generation farmer. “It’s done exactly what we were hoping it would do. It’s also given us an opportunity to share information about farming that people typically wouldn’t ask.”
Their four grandchildren, who all live a stone’s throw away on Iberia Road, frequent the homestead nearly every day. They’re quick to run around the fields and beg to be lifted on top the bales. Soon the Sellmans will have a family portrait taken among the patriotic images.
Their plan from the get-go was to “pump up” Crawford County residents, and anyone else who might be driving by.
“With all the negativity that you see in the news daily, when you live together like this as a family and take care of creation, it’s a reminder that life is good,” Mendy said. “In this country we have so much to be thankful for, and life is a gift.”