Jeff Skulmoski harvested himself a future wife with this year’s fieldwork.
After his last crop came off, he headed back into the fields to carve out an 80 acre message for his girlfriend Jeannie Thompson.
It took a full afternoon with a tractor and cultivator to etch the question, “Jeannie will you marry me?” in the canola stubble on his farm south of Moosomin, Sask.
The inspiration for the unusual proposal was a George Canyon song called Somebody Wrote Love, in which the country crooner sings the line, “somebody wrote love in a permanent way.”
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Skulmoski had it planned since he bought the engagement ring in the first week of August but he had to wait until harvest was complete to pop the question.
“It was a long, long wait. Good thing harvest was so busy to keep my mind off it,” he said.
The first step was to create a lined paper effect in the stubble by using a heavy harrow bar. Next, he worked up the soil with a cultivator to form 61-metre-tall black letters on those lines.
The whole process involved some math and the use of the tractor’s global positioning system.
After determining that a one centimetre tall letter on his paper template would be 61 metres in the field, he could figure out how wide each letter would be.
For instance, a 1.5 cm wide W on the page would take up 91.5 metres of the field.
“I’m kind of thanking my high school algebra and geo-trig teachers,” said Skulmoski.
But it was difficult to determine where each new letter should start to ensure proper spacing.
“I had to stop the tractor a few times and just kind of get my head around things.”
When the job was done the three-line message complete with frame stretched an estimated 670 metres long, and 335 metres wide and took up about 80 acres of farmland.
The proposal coincided with Thompson’s birthday. Skulmoski had been leaving her daily clues about her present but she had no idea what was in store when they pulled up to the Moosomin airport.
“I didn’t understand what was going on. He hates flying,” said Thompson.
Skulmoski’s pilot buddy, Dale Woods, kept Thompson distracted by pointing out landmarks below. When it was time, Skulmoski asked the love of his life to look out his window.
Like many women, Thompson had thought about her engagement day on more than one occasion.
“It was way beyond anything I ever would have imagined,” she said.
In the back of her mind she thought a proposal might be on the day’s agenda.
“At the same time, I was shocked and overwhelmed at how movie-like it was.”
So overwhelmed that it took her 30 seconds to a minute to respond.
Skulmoski wasn’t the least bit worried by the pause.
“I knew she would say, ‘yes.’ I wouldn’t have done all that if I was taking a chance.”
He was right.
When the couple shared the news with family and friends, there was a mixed reaction to Skulmoski’s aerial proposal.
“I’ve had a lot of tears from the women. They’re like, ‘it’s so romantic,’ ” said Thompson.
The guys have a different take on the matter.
“There’s a lot of men that are kind of mad at me,” said Skulmoski.
“They’re kind of saying, ‘hey, my wife wants me to do this stuff for her.’ “
But his buddies think they will have the last laugh.
“A lot of people are bugging me, saying that I kind of set the bar a little high here and for the anniversary I’m going to have to beat that,” said Skulmoski.
The wedding is scheduled for April 4 in Regina.
