Friends Farm While Fractured Femur Is Fixed
By Sabrina Matteson
The strength and fortitude of farmers is rarely debated, but Peter Weeks suffered just about all a fella’ could take.
Peter was out cutting wood with his chainsaw in the late afternoon of March 22 (after carefully locking his German Shepherd Mickey into the house so she wouldn’t get a tree on the head), and “I took the wrong limb and the tree fell right on both of my legs.” Peter figures the tree was about 16 inches in diameter and weighed about 400 pounds and there was no way he could escape from under the weight. Peter knew his right leg was smashed.
“I hadn’t let go of the chainsaw,” explained Peter of his predicament, “So I started to cut myself out from underneath the tree. The saw was getting all bound up and I had to use my glove to grab onto the chain and free it.” Peter had to start the chainsaw at least three times during the ordeal and it took him at least half an hour to cut himself free.
After this first tribulation, Peter then had to crawl through the woods to his new Kubota tractor, dragging his fractured femur and shattered kneecap behind him along the rough ground. His next step was to pull himself up into the seat of the tractor so that he could get out of the woods on Belknap Mountain and down to where somebody could help him. Because he couldn’t use his right leg for accelerating or setting the brake he had to use the bucket against the ground to slow himself down and stop. “My leg was getting pretty swollen up by then,” said Peter.
Driving up in front of his first neighbor’s house, Peter began shouting for help over the roar of the tractor. His neighbor waved at him, not being able to hear him, and seemed to think that he had come by to show her his new wheels. He thought she was calling an ambulance but when no help came right away he drove down the street to the next neighbor – and then the next and the next. Finally Everett McLaughlin came out to talk to him and Peter shouted out what had happened, explaining that he thought he had a broken leg. Everett went inside his home to make the 911 call and Peter turned around and headed for home to wait for the ambulance so his tractor could be parked back at his farm. An hour and a half after the tree crashed down on Peter’s legs, the ambulance finally arrived on Weeks Road in Gilford to rescue him.
Peter’s worries weren’t over yet. He had cows in the barn that needed to be milked. Friends and neighbors came to help and they haven’t left yet.
The calendar on the wall sports the names of twenty volunteers who have pledged to feed and milk the cows while Peter is out of commission. “In the seven weeks since I broke my leg, my friends have never missed a milking,” said Peter.
The morning milking crew is almost always Marc Labonte, Jeff Keyser and Jim Colby, a 73-year-young man who worked on Weeks Farm when Peter’s father, Arthur, ran the farm. Peter is the fifth generation of Weeks to run the farm since his family bought the place in 1837. In 1984 a distant relative, Steve Weeks, bought the farm with the stipulation that Peter would always be able to live there.
The standard evening chores are done by Marc’s 82-year-old father Pete Labonte, Brian Phelps, Bill Littlefield and Sherry Sleeper, with friends 
Terry Bobseine and Harold Bisson filling out the crew when necessary. Ginny Littlefield and Dee Chitty care for Peter’s hens and collect the eggs for sale. Connie Russell has been doing farm chores and all of the house keeping and meals. Other volunteers that are helping are Harold Bisson with fencing, Monte Clark with spreading manure, Todd Taylor with mowing, Tom and Duane Sleeper with barn chores, Rick Shurbert and his son Ian with rototilling and fencing.
“I’m doing now OK, I guess,” said Peter. “The hardest job I do is get food out of the refrigerator and carry it while still using my crutches.”
With 12 screws holding his femur and kneecap together, it will be the middle of June before Peter can walk without his crutches and his brace. Until then, Peter’s miraculous friends are looking for some additional help with milking, fencing, milking, mowing, haying and milking.