Young farmer says he'll take low-stress simple life over an office job any day

The old combine lumbers along, metal clanging, machinery grinding, chains pulling, cobs flying out the back.

Like a ravenous, insatiable monster, it grabs, strips and eats corn by the bushel. A powerful and unforgiving consumer of crops, none of the 8-foot-tall plants is spared.

Inside the cab, a young guy with a camouflage cap and worn khaki pants controls the beast. A scraggly red beard, his glasses coated with dust, grease under his fingernails, Eric Powell has to finish the harvest by Thanksgiving.

Eric is Bill McNeill's nephew. Well-known in Lake County, the McNeills' 60-acre farm has been in the family for more than a century.

It used to be dairy, but now it's grain -- beans, wheat, corn and hay. The last of the milk cows was sold in 1969.

Eric was a freshman at Antioch High School when he started working on the farm. Now he's 24 and lives in a rented farmhouse just behind his grandparent's place near Lake Villa.

He likes his job. The pay is decent, the hours are good and the stress is low, he says. It's a simple life and he likes it that way.

He's taken a few classes at the College of Lake County. Welding, engine rebuilding and machine shop. But says he's learned more from uncle Bill and the other guys on the farm.

He's not dating anyone at the moment, but that's OK. Farming keeps him busy and he's restoring a 1948 Farmall tractor. It's a work in progress, he said. "It's never really finished."

The sun is setting now and the corn glows a deep amber color. Eric doesn't worry about running out of daylight. He'll flip on the headlights and go till midnight if that's what it takes.

There's something satisfying about sitting on top of all that horsepower Eric says. Cutting a six-row swath, the dry, brittle plants devoured by his decision.

"It's relaxing," he says. "I couldn't work in an office."