This time of year, Jessie Hobbs is up with the sun, and he usually doesn’t get home for supper until after 8 o’clock at night. But you won’t hear this Limestone County farmer complaining about the long hours. Instead, Jessie says he feels blessed to be able to make a living doing something he truly loves.”I get to live a dream every day,” said Jessie. “If everybody got up in the morning and got to go to a job they enjoy as much as I enjoy mine, there wouldn’t be any road rage. It would be a different world.”Jessie’s love affair with farming began at an early age. His father, Howard Hobbs Jr., recalls that Jessie used to help his grandfather plant watermelons, cantaloupes and pumpkins in the family garden. Then, at the age of five, Jessie climbed behind the steering wheel of a tractor for his first “solo voyage,” and he was hooked.Today, Jessie, 30, farms almost 3,000 acres in partnership with his parents. And earlier this year, Jessie, wife Amanda and their 18-month-old daughter, Sarah Bess, were rewarded for their hard work when they were named the Alabama Farmers Federation’s Outstanding Young Farm Family in the Horticulture Division.Although the Hobbs’ main crops are cotton, soybeans and corn, they started growing pumpkins in 1993 to help diversify their farming operation. Jessie, however, said the most rewarding part of their horticulture business is the joy their colorful crop brings to the faces of their young customers.”Pumpkins are one of those crops where, depending on the year, you can make good cash money. But they’ll always make a child smile, and it gives us a chance to be involved in the community,” he said.This year, the Hobbs planted a little more than three acres of pumpkins, which they are selling to produce stands, grocery stores and farmers markets. In years past, they’ve had as many as 20 acres of jack-o-lanterns, but Jessie said, “That liked to have killed us.”Although Jessie admits that demand for pumpkins always seems to be better in years when their crop is smaller, he hasn’t regretted his decision to cut back this year–especially since hurricanes threatened to pick his cotton, corn and soybeans for him.”I was worried about (Hurricane) Frances at first, and right after that we had (Hurricane) Ivan. I missed church for two or three Sundays in a row trying to get my crops harvested before the storms came through,” Jessie said. “We’ve got a pretty good crop up here, and I was scared that I was not going to be able to get it out.”Those fears were well founded. By the time Hurricane Ivan left Alabama, about 80 percent of Jessie’s 267-acre corn crop was blown over, and white bolls littered the ground in his 1,275 acres of cotton fields. Fortunately, much of the cotton crop was spared, and he hopes to make above-average yields on his 1,400 acres of soybeans. “All of my early beans have averaged over 40 bushels per acre, but the cotton got some wind damage. We really won’t know about the cotton until we start to defoliate,” Jessie said.As for the corn, Jessie said his neighbor is building a device called a “corn reel” that will attach to the front of the combine and guide some of the damaged stalks into the machine. Jessie hopes to use the corn reel to salvage part of his crop and, in return, he plans to help pick his neighbor’s cotton.Jessie, who has a degree in agronomy and soils from Auburn University, manages the row crop operation, and his father and mother share the bookkeeping responsibilities for the farm. His dad also looks after the pumpkins and the Hobbs’ “super-sized” garden as well as managing an annual charity dove hunt for the Elkmont Lions Club. In addition, the farm has two full-time employees, and Jessie hires a loyal crew of retirees to help out during harvest season.Since returning from college in 1998, Jessie has increased the amount of no-till acreage on the farm, increased the Hobbs’ use of herbicide-resistant corn and soybean varieties and made the transition to injectable fertilizer. As a result, he said the organic matter in their soils has increased, and they have been able to farm more acres with fewer employees.”Using injectable fertilizer is a little more trouble, but we don’t have to have any outside operators. We know our fields better than anybody else, so we are able to apply fertilizer more efficiently,” Jessie said.When he’s not in the field, Jessie keeps abreast of the latest farming innovations by being involved in various farm organizations. He serves on the board of directors of the Limestone County Farmers Federation and as secretary-treasurer of the Alabama Soybean and Corn Association. In addition, Jessie is a member of the Elkmont Town Council, Amanda is secretary of the Limestone County Young Farmers, and they both are active in the Lindsay Lane Baptist Church.Although Amanda grew up in town, her family had horses and even a small peach orchard for a while, so it didn’t take her long to adjust to life on the farm. Today, Amanda teaches keyboarding and computer applications at Ardmore High School, but she still finds time to help Jessie in the pumpkin patch.”I always go and help pick pumpkins, and during our fall break in October, I usually try to help sell them,” she said. “Sarah Bess and I enjoy being outdoors, and sometimes we ride with Jessie on the combine. We went to the pumpkin patch the other day, and she kept pointing to the pumpkins and saying ‘ball, ball.'”This is a great place to raise a family,” Amanda added. “I feel that God has given us the opportunity to farm, and we try to make the most of what we have. Seeing Jessie do what he loves means a lot to me. To know that he’s happy every day when he goes to work is important because there are so many people in the world who aren’t.”