Approved For Release 2000/08/08 CIA-RDP96-00789ROO.2000780002-3 With Helping Hands, Widow Keeps Her Farm Va. By Ed Bruske andoah foothills 85 miles south- Wasbington P(Mt Staffwest of Washington. Writer I At first, their , 4J plan struck locals W 0 ODSTOCK, Va.-Local as sheer nonsense. And when Bob. farmeys had seen the Wichser, 42, was swept arrival of to his starry-eyed urbanitesdeath by a, flood-swollen- before- river just M bringing their Volvos,six months after he 7 their fancy, and his wife jeeps and their brashmoved here, it seemed plans to to confirm work the land for the community's worst fun and profit. fears As sure as the Shenandoahabout well-intentioned Riv- transplants er twists through who try to carve a the rock- living from this studded valley, the unforgiving landscape. dreams of city farmers seemed alwaysTragedy has not turned to wither, Pat leaving great expectationsWilchser away. She and is still on the another failed farm land, stubbornly trying behind. to reas- Bob and Pat Wichser semble the pieces hoped to of thecouple's be an exception to shattered dream. And that rule. she is not Both high-level congressionalalone. Originally skeptical, local aides, the Wichsers farmers have adopted quit their jobs the Wich- on Capitol Hill in sers' vision as theirPHOTOS BY MARGARET THOMAS-THF WASHINGTON the spring of own. Pat Wichser has won neighbors' support with her determination to carry on with Shenandoah Valley sheep farm . 1985 to raise sheep See WICHSER, A8, Col.Right, on bridge to the farm, a plaque memorializes her husband in the Shen- I Bob, who died trying to save sheep in 1985 flood. : CIA-RDP96-00789ROO2000780002-3 Approved For Release 2000/08/08 . Approved, For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789ROO2000780002-3 A8 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1986 'Couple -Brought Naivete, -Perseverance to Va. F arm From Al The Wichsers were unfazed WICHSER by , such minor setbacks, though. And 'Pired by the sheer will the Wich- when - they learned that a larger sers brought to their improbable farm was for safe at one of the enterprise, and by 40-year-old Pat bends in the river, they jumped into Wichser's determination to remain, their pickup to take a tour. old hands have formed a bond with The Wichsers needed only one the newcomer and have helped her look at the 297-acre farm, then breathe life into her crippled sheep overgrown and failing apart, to. farm. know they wanted it. They cashed "People enjoyed watching them, Pat Wichser's retirement fund to the enthusiasm they had for the make the first payment, and, over a -work," said Doug French, a dairy glass of 'wine one night in May farmer and a. U.S.. Farmers Home 1980, toasted a secret pact to quit Administration area official. "They their jobs and move permanently to were showing everybody how to qo the farm in five years. it." , Nearly every weekend, the Wich- The Shenandoah Valley's panora- sers w9rked feverishly to clear of thick mountain forests and weeds and trash., They 0 strung 1rolling farm lands captivated the fences, began building a Wichsers years ago . when they; 6,000 square-foot barn and re- ga;ed out their car window from stored an bid wash house into a tidy Skyline Drive. Their weekend es- home, sometimes trudging a quar- capes to the hills took firmer root ter mile through waist-deep snow .`A*n, in 1975, they bought their when drifts blocked their truck. first 40-acre plot along the river Bob Wichset insisted on doing just outside Woodstock---4h'e first the most difficult work'hiniself. installment on their dream of leav- ".Remember when President Rea- 'the city for good. ing gaWs inauguration was called off Whenever they could break away because it was too.cold?" 3aid Rob- from the business of Congress, the ert Pangle, a real estate broker Wichsers.too'k up hammer and saw whose'house overlooks the Wich- to build a small cabin on their iso- sers' from across the river, "Bob lated property. It, was not long be- was out there stringing feke." fore they 1111ell into the company of Boly Wichser believed -in surviv- ' landowners such as French, who r having ing off his land. Neve lent an occasional hand. ' I hunted before, he shot woodclTudks, - On the Hill, where each wV a top muskrats and other rodents for the .ii dinner table. d~ to a Republican House mem- . "Whatever he got, we ber, the Wichsers were almost in- ate," Pat '-separable. And despite conserva- Wichser said. -tive, midwestern u-pbringings-he Farm friends found some of these 't4e- son of a cereal company exec- exploits quaint, but they shud&eed :utive and she the product of a Pres- with apprehension at the couple's .byterian women's college near St. naivete. Once-, while loading 18-foot :Lou' on the 12-fcot bed is-they seemed always -eager of Poplar trunks - their dump truck, Bob -for fiew adventures. Wichser "We had the longest love affair nearly tipped the truck over. .going, Pat Wichser said last week,_ "Bob wasn't a big guy, and some- ,shortly after the anniversary of her times watching what he was doing -husband's death. "Bob and I were - around the farm, I worried about -willing to go for broke," his healthi" said. friend Gary Mad- They grew more attached to the son, an aide to. Rep. I Cooper Evans 7 rew up on a farm in ill (R-lown) who h S t g ere ' e years, , t :cPuntry over th . "He didn't know no mistaking where they had Spring Valley' Wis was come from, - and the tales of their the- dangers involved He didn't , - know. that you could' .,misadventures on weekend outings overpower a became legend among friends in the machine and it would tip.ove.r and V.oodstock area. kill you." Some thought it odd, for instance Madson an . other friends, here d Pat Wichser occasionally. tilf~i- And in Washington, ~that thought the , Wichs~rs Were joking her garden in her -nightgown. But in the spring ' with the they made their pact lkat was nothing compared of 1085 when ' - announced they were ~tfternoon Bob Wichser came home public and team'ing after bagging. what~%.he quittin aise sheep, th6;Hill toy ~ I to d th~ --lYditUitir o back thoQht were two wild turkeyA., g A' to Washing6n and make skeptical' French i6ited"Bob some mon- - ey at a good job,' Wiahser to bring some of the feath- " said William A. -ers to the French family's Thanks- Truban, a . local veterinirian and giving dinner, and in -front of 60 Republican minority leader in the relatives he bad Bob Wichser dis- Virgin ia state Senate. what everyone else recognized In fact, few landowners play in the ~ , as, A`,11 ti e. Most have 1he remains of a neighbor'*-two Im ' V4 , illey,fAr%` ~ oosters. 'See r WICHSER, A9, Col. I P& Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789ROO2000780002-3 ,-inenandoati WSHER, From AS jobs in local factories or businesses. But the. Wich§er-& plowed -ahead. '.We knew that' the odds were against us," Pat Wichw said. "But that made it.exciting." ' Ned Conklin, the local agricultur- al extension service-ag'ent, steered the couple toward sheep farming, and the Wichsers traveled as far as Canada to build up a herd of pure- bred Finnish Landrace that put them on the cutting edge of Virgin- ia's budding sheep industry. It was Nov. 4 last year, when Bob Wichser and his father were install- ing the roof on the farm's new sheep barn,'that steady rains washed out of the mountains.and the Shenandoah began to swell.1t would,becotne.the worst flood. since, 1942. That afternoon, water spilled over the river - bank and stranded. the Wichsers' sheep in a lower pasture. Unable to drive them oa, the couple fetched their plastic canoe and began ferrying the sheep to safety. It was well into the night when Pat Wichser grabbed the last sheep, but it was too late. The rising wa- ters suddenly turned into a torrent that swept the canoe downstream. Pat Wichser remembers her bus- band shouting, "Let the sheep go! Let everything go!" The canoe cap- sized, spilling them into the raging waters. Pat Wichser, who managed to grab a treeand was later rescued by her father-in-law, watched help- lessly as her husband floated by in the dark. His body was'found four days later, 18 miles downstream. Local farmers reacted with sym- pathy and disbelief, "He didn't know his animal and he didn't know the river," said. Marion Artz, 72, who owns 100 sheep upstream. I kick myself to this day for not calling them and telling them to Comnftfff1tyTVt 0 Aft-eTed Dr'eam-Afive birth to twins, and the rest were ex- pected to deliver in the next two months. Pat Wichser was in a panic, Her husband had made most of the de- cisions on the farm, and she hardly knew how to get fuel into the trac- tor and other machinery. "I was scared. I didn't know how much help I was,going to have," Pat Wichser said. "I couldn't handle lambing alone. I thought [.would buy myself time to figure what to -do." And so she sold all but 13 ewes and three rains from the flock. The French family helped.to fin- ish building a shed for the small flock just before the deliveries be- gan. By February, Pat Wichser was up every four hours tending the lambs that came in quick succes- sion: 12 in all, with four sets of twins and one group of triplets. It 'was not until spring that the full weigh,t'of her husband's death came crashing in. "I didn't think life was worth it without Bob," Pat Wichser said. So she briefly left the farm behind and visited relatives. Shortly after she returned, things took a dramatic turn for the better as help arrived in a flurry. "In the She.nand,6ah Valley, nobody goes to bed cold or hungry if they're willing to tell a neighbor," said vet- erinarian 'eruban. "Somebody's watching 0u 't all tile time. This neighborly'goodness is still here.* But theie was more to the coni- nignity's outpouring than simple kindness. It was as if the Wichsers' determination to farm full time had stirred ancient feeling-, of kinship with the 'land, feelings that many here believe are slowly being lost to the developer's shovel. Doug French and his sons arrived to string 1,200 feet of wire fence. A Methodist men's group ~,hopped firewood. Farmer Newell Irwin fenced off a new sheep corral, and neighbor Buck Headley brought his backhoe and laid new water and electrical lines. "It was the most fantastic thing," Headley said. ."It was something beyond anybody's belief that [the Wichsers] could come down here and make this farm work. One of my great disappointments was not to find out how [Bob] would have done it.." Paul Miley, once just another stranger from downstream, came in with the meat manager from the lot cal Safeway, finished nailing the sid- ing on the, sheep barn and then of- fered to help manage the farm. "I think if any other woman had gone through what ,she'd . gone through, she'd probably have sold the place, thrown her hands up and gone back to the city," Miley said. But 'Pat Wichser,_ now rarely alone, said she never considered leaving. She turned down her par- ents' invitation to return to- her childhood home in Ouincy, Ill., and insie'ad took a course in lambing. Miley- taugbt her how,to pump. diesel fuel, and together they har- vested a barn full of hay this fall, with Pat 'Wichser at the wheel of the tractor. In fact, Wichser was one of'the few farmers in the area with feed enough tip sell'after this year's drought. She bought several more sheep, bringing the number in her herd to 45. Each morning now'she rises be- fore dawn, pulls on her parka and rubber boots and hauls bales of hay and alfalfa out to her bleating sheep. The cold bite of approaching winter leaves a layer of ice over the water troughs, and Wichser knocks thft clear to pour. a refill. Again this winter she expects to spend her nights bottle feeding newborn lambs. She hopes to build the flock up to 100 next year, and Miley is pushing to add cattle. Even with her newly found help, -Wichser faces odds greater than those she fought with her husband. But her taste for the land has not turned bitter. "My husband was a very upbeat person," Wichser'said. "He would have said, 'Okay, kiddo. My father sated your fife,. Now don't screw up.' I couldn't lose him and all he'd been working for all at one time. "The last thing'I would want to. do is end up hating the river. That's what made us come out here, what made us want to live in the country," she said. "What killed my husband is not the river yoLt see now. The river that took him came from the outside, It came in the night." CIA-RDP96-00789ROO2000780002-3 Pa .t Wichser talks with Doug French, one of many in Shenandoah Valley who have aIided her, sineIe. h.er 1. hits.ba nd"s-dea& BY LARRY FOGEL -THIf WASHINGTON POST