Phil Scritchfield, 65, looks over the Scottish Highland cattle that he and his wife raise just outside Eldon, MO. When they first started, six years ago, they had only three animals. They have forty now.
During his day off, Phil visits a Mennonite farm to buy flowers to decorate the front porch of his house.
Phil does not consider himself a religious man, but a few years ago he went through a hard time in his life, and he began attending church regularly.
Phil peels apples with members of the Church of the Nazarene, the congregation he attends. Every year for two weeks, they join forces to bake around 5000 thousand apples pies that are sold to raise money for missionary work done by the church. This year Phil peeled about 500 apples every night for two weeks.
Phil cleans the sweat from his forehead after feeding his cattle, a chore he does daily after finishing his work at the recycling plant he owns in Eldon, MO.
Phil carries two plastic bags full of aluminum cans to be weighed. He doesn’t have an assistant and does all the work around the recycling plant. “There is a lot of competition these days and profits are not what they used to be,” he says.
Phil untangles insulation from a copper wire. Because he does not have an assistant, he does all kinds of work around the recycling plant.
A neighbor stops by to visit Phil work for a quick chat. Phil says that because of his job he meets a lot of people. “I appreciate the fact that people know my name and stop to talk to me at work or when I meet them at the supermarket,” says Phil.
Phil closes down the recycling plant. He always wears overalls, even on his days off.
Phil interacts with one of the forty Scottish Highland cattle that he and his wife own. Each animal has a name, and Phil treats them like pets. “Even if the animals weren’t profitable at all we would keep at least few of them. We enjoy their company.”
A couple of hours before starting to work at the recycling plant, Phil scatters the apples left over from pie baking night at his church for his cattle to eat.
