Boy Meets Girl

July 27, 1995

“Any Man of Mine”, by Shania was on the radio, and a couple of teenage girls were hanging out, living their best lives. Little did one girl know that she was about to meet the love of her life in the dairy barn at the Butler County Fair. Through mutual friends, Scott and Katie were introduced on Thursday, July 27, 1995. The boy thought the girl was pretty cute in her yellow shorts and there was definitely something about the boy that made that girl want to know more.

As summer faded into fall, and fall faded into winter, Katie and Scott continued to hang out together with their friends. Just a bunch of young adults spending time together around bonfires and kitchen table card games. No one could have ever believed, especially them, that twenty three years later, that very same kitchen would be theirs.

Scott and Katie began dating the summer of ‘96 and were married May 2, 1998.

Scott always had a passion for farming. He was in FFA at Edgewood High School and had a job milking cows for a local dairy before and after school when he was in high school. He was working for Gerber Farms the summer he and Katie met. When they began dating she would drive over to Gerber’s farm in Jacksonburg to leave love notes and cookies for him in his truck. (Before the days of cell phones and text messaging). To this day, he still loves her baking and fondly remembers the thumbprints with the pink frosting. Those were the ones she made him for their first Valentine’s together, as he was heading to the Louisville Farm Show.

Scott and Katie welcomed Jacob Scott on April 23, 1999, one week before their first anniversary and had Jack Michael October 12, 2006. They moved to Dallas for a short time when Jacob was little but quickly discovered that Ohio held their hearts and always would. They couldn’t put a price tag on the comfort and belonging they felt from their family and friends back home. When they moved back to Ohio in 2002 they settled in Lebanon and resided there for 16 years.

In the summer of 2002, Scott became a loan officer with Western Ohio Mortgage and in 2003 Katie obtained her real estate license. They have both continued to work full time in the real estate industry since then. Scott would help his friend Nathan from time to time, with his farming, as Scott never lost his love for that.

Fast forward to the summer of 2013. Scott and Jake were visiting the Butler County Fair and The Robinson kids were getting their animals ready to be shown. Jake helped them out that day and before long, he was hooked and wanted his own steer to show. Scott and Katie knew this wouldn’t be a bad thing for him, and Ohio Cattlemen’s BEST program was starting a new season that fall. Jake ended up trading his Cub Cadet pulling mower for a go-kart then sold the go-kart for a four wheeler and sold the four wheeler for enough money to buy his very own steer. Bo was a feedlot steer that Jake ended up buying from Gerber Farms for $1200. He was docile and easy going and he gave Jake a wonderful introduction to cattle. Jake was excited for this new adventure and Scott was looking forward to spending weekends with his old friends at cattle shows.

At 14, Jake joined the Wayne Livestock Unlimited 4-H club. It was then that the Hill’s declared Butler County for their county 4-H/fair instead of Warren County, where they resided. Since the Hill’s lived in a neighborhood on 1/3 of an acre, Bo obviously wasn’t staying there. HOA’s are pretty strict on outside animals:). There were three families that took turns hosting Jake’s show animal each year. The Robinson’s, Hiltbrand’s and Gillespie’s. Before they knew it, one year turned into four. Scott and Katie were driving from Lebanon to the Trenton/Oxford area at least four nights a week so Jake could take care of his animal and help with barn chores. The tribe of people that welcomed them in, with open arms, became their chosen family.

Scott and Katie had considered finding a home in Lebanon on just enough land for a couple head of cattle but that wasn’t very feasible at that time. Jake was about to graduate high school and Jack was in fifth grade. Moving out of the district was not something anyone really thought about or wanted to do.

When Scott heard that his friend Brian’s parents were selling their cattle farm in the Hamilton area and moving to Oklahoma, Scott mentioned it to Katie. She agreed that it was a pretty big jump to go from .33 acres to a 113 acre working farm but she was open to the idea. After all, marriage is about compromise and Katie was a firm believer of, “If it’s meant to be, it’ll be.”

Fall of 2017 Scott and Katie went to Doug and Jane Banks’ to look at their farm. Both Scott and Katie reminisced on the time they had spent there. Scott had spent a lot more time there than she had and he recalled some of his favorite stories to Doug and Jane. They could tell this was going to be a hard thing for Jane to do. This had been her home for over 45 years. Doug and his granddaughter Emmy gave them a tour of the land. As the Hereford cattle were grazing about, Katie recalls having a peaceful feeling about it and at that time she gave it over to God. He was in charge and if this crazy plan was meant to be, everything would fall into place. It was a beautiful place; white farmhouse, rusty red barns, a meandering creek, and hills in every direction.

Scott and Katie were both quite anxious of the thought of doing something like this. Katie knew little to nothing about cattle and zero about raising row crops or hay. At that time she didn’t know the difference between hay and straw. Scott knew quite a bit about cattle and farming but not nearly as much as Katie thought he did. There have been many late nights that Scott spent researching different things and watching YouTube videos learning more on certain topics. Thankfully he had an army of knowledgeable friends and mentors he could call on at any time. Scott knew how tough farming could be, even for the seasoned farmer, but Scott wasn’t going to be content without giving it a try. Katie was not going to stand in the way of his dreams, she knew how much this meant to him.

April 18, 2018, The Hill family closed on the purchase of The Banks Family Farm on Wayne Milford Road, and the fun began. Scott and Katie started out their adventure with a wheelbarrow, a couple shovels and a push mower. Jake’s show heifer, Ellie, had just had her first calf two months before. To say they had a long way to go on growing their herd was an understatement. The best part of raising cattle in Katie’s opinion was getting to name the calves. That first calf was the beginning of an ongoing love affair called, “The Name Game”. Kallie was named after Kathy Hiltbrand (the Ka) and because all of Ellie’s calfs names end in, “llie”. To this day, Katie gets the most joy and excitement from watching a calf be born and getting to name it. Just ask her, she’ll tell you all about it.

Their farm has now grown to a cow/calf operation of roughly 45 Mommas. They sell some of their calf crop in the spring, some in the fall and keep the rest to sell for freezer beef. There is never a dull moment with this family as they continue to grow and learn. Oh, the stories they can tell. The good, the bad, the ugly and the most beautiful stories you’ve ever heard.

Here’s to another day of four people, four personalities, trying their best to hold things together. All because two people fell in love. 🩷

“Tell me the facts and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will love in my heart forever.”

-Native American Proverb