• Hometown: Elkland, Mo.
• Family: Wife, Amber; daughters, Brynlee (10), Saydee (4), and sons, McKoy (2) Kolsyn (2 months)
In Town: Jeffrey Hardison enjoys the challenges of being a lineman for Springfield (Mo.) City Utilities, a position he’s held for 15 years. If Jeffrey has to be away from the farm, he at least appreciates that the job he’s doing provides a valuable resource that people depend on for work, school, and well-being. While he enjoys his work as a lineman, being at home on the farm with his family is the ultimate goal for the future.
In the Country: Jeffrey, his wife Amber, and their four children, live and work on their own 40 acres, and they also rent 140 acres of pasture where they raise Beefmaster and crossbred cattle.
Jeffrey is continuing the farming life of his childhood. Jeffrey’s parents, Wayne and Cathy Hardison, had a dairy farm in Elkland in Jeffrey’s youth, as well as Limousin beef cattle. Jeffrey alternated showing dairy and beef cattle every other year, an activity his children have recently been getting involved with too.
For the Hardisons, farming is a family affair. There aren’t many jobs that provide an opportunity for the whole family to be involved. Jeffrey said,
“We do it together, and we know that through Christ and each other, it’s the only way it all comes together.”
He said in everything they do, the family tries to remember Colossians 3:17 which says that “whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.”
Jeffrey knows in time it will all come together; one day he will be able to farm full-time with his family. As for now he’s thankful for the season of life in which he can be a useful asset to communities as a lineman while simultaneously reaping the benefits of farm life. Building a piece of heritage for his children and lasting family memories is well worth the work.
