Sow the seeds of success –
Dec. 17, 2020 – “It’s not uncommon for farmers to go over to a neighbor’s house and have a beer,” he said, and while that’s “not a bad thing” in moderation, “I went from occasionally having drinks with friends to isolating myself from everybody and drinking as much as I possibly could, having alcohol in my system 24 hours a day.”
Though his drinking escalated quickly during times of extreme stress, Klabunde said, he was still able to continue operating the farm and doing advocacy work with the Minnesota Farmers Union, working out at the gym five days a week and giving the general impression of being a strong, capable farmer, husband and father — at least for a while … “I was a workaholic, alcoholic, exercise fanatic,” he said, “but pretty soon the alcohol took control, and I was good at nothing — a bad dad, a bad husband, a bad advocate for farmers … I was a miserable human being, mentally incapable of balancing everything in an effective manner.”
