Hometown: Bolivar, Mo.
Family: Wife, Sandy; sons, Jake and Bo; and daughter Samantha (Sam)
In Town: Jake Jacobson was raised in northwest Montana and has operated his own fencing company in Polk County, outside Bolivar, Mo., since 2006.
“I started doing all kinds of fencing but these days, I do agricultural fencing, barbed wire and woven wire. Trying to do privacy fences in town, for instance, you end up with folks wanting to fight over six inches of dirt,” he added with a smile, robbing his words of any offense. “There is something to that old saying, ‘good fences make good neighbors.’”
In the Country: “We keep commercial cattle and we’ve had up to 20 cow/calf pairs although we don’t have that many right now. My wife was raised on a farm and has worked the cows with me in the past.
“I also keep a couple of ranch horses. On my days off, I work with another friend and we do some cowboying on the big operations, working cattle, rounding them up, and doctoring them. It’s a good way to help make it financially because as everyone knows, these days you’ve got to be diversified,” he said.
“The best part of what I do, with the fencing or the cattle, is that at the end of the day, I can see what I’ve done. You can’t say that in every job but it’s what I like about what I do.”
Jake’s approach to his work is honest and amiable, truly that of a cowboy who finds himself in cyber space, caught in a near time warp in the 21st century.
“I’m looking to get through life without a computer,” he added. “I work for a lot of good people. I have good customers and that makes this work a lot easier.”
