Rick & Melissa Lance
Family: Sons, Dillion and Garrett Lance.
Hometown: Rural McDonald County, Mo., between Noel and Southwest City.
In Town: Both Rick and Melissa Lance work for the city of Southwest City, Mo. Rick is the assistant chief of police and has been on the force nearly three years. He previously worked for the Noel Police Department.
Melissa has served as the Southwest City Senior Center director for the last three years, as well. Oldest son, Dillion, just completed a one-year Vo-Tech program for heavy equipment and recently moved back home to job search. Youngest son, Garrett, will be a senior at McDonald County High School.
In the Country: The Lances have lived in McDonald County for 22 years and own 42 acres east of Southwest City. While neither grew up on a farm, Rick spent summers on his grandparent’s farm in Oklahoma, helping care for the cattle, goats, pigs, horses and chickens.
“I enjoyed helping my grandfather with the various animals, but I do best on the ground when it comes to horses,” Rick said.
They run pigs, chickens, ducks and a steer, with plans for more cattle and possibly goats. They always wanted to create a small farm where they could grow their own food.
“With two teenage boys it is cost effective to grow our own and the meat just tastes better,” Ricks said.
Besides the benefits of knowing where their food comes from, it has been a learning experience for not only their family, but also for their “city” family who are not familiar with agriculture.
“When our nieces and nephews visit, they always have tons of questions,” Melissa said. “I asked one niece if she wanted to get eggs with me and she thought I meant at the store not knowing they came from chickens.”
Melissa is trying her hand at gardening and hopes to learn how to can with the help of some of the ladies from the senior center.”
