Zakary Wieser, a 17-year-old senior at Sidney High School, has enjoyed working closely with his dad on their family farm since he was 8 years old. Wieser has become a pretty skilled mechanic, and his hobby is taking things that don’t work and repairing them. Over the years, he’s repaired numerous vehicles – some that aren’t even his own – as well as farm equipment, and even a jet ski and a pontoon boat that he purchased with his own money. His future plans include repairing an RV and an old dump truck.
JEFF FIELDER Editor
SIDNEY – Zakary Wieser was about 8 years old when he started going to work with his dad every day in the summer on their family farm about seven miles north of Sidney.
The Wiesers are dry land wheat farmers, and they also plant grass and hay for the more than 100 head of cattle they take care of each year. In addition, they own several oil wells.
Zakary, who’s 17 now and is a senior at Sidney High School, has always loved pitching in to help.
“I was always excited to go to work with my dad [Tyler]. He showed me how to do a lot of things,” Zakary said. “Sometimes he would have me go up and gauge the oil well tanks, and during harvest time, he would have me grease the combine, check the oil and get it ready for the day. I would also give him rides from field to field when they were moving grain trucks. Then toward the end of harvest, he actually started letting me drive grain trucks from field to field.”
As Zakary got older, his dad let him take on more responsibilities on the farm.
“When you live on a farm, it’s almost every day that you’ve got something that’s giving you a little bit of a problem that you have to mess with,” he said. “My dad learned to do mechanic work from my grandpa, and then my dad showed me how to fix things. We’ve always done our own mechanical work here on the farm. I grew up helping my dad work on stuff, but now I pitch in by working on stuff all by myself. I really enjoy it. For me, it’s fun.”
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