Stubblefield proposal ‘penned’ by Steiger

“Only in Whitman County.”

Tiffany Hergert’s words about the marriage proposal offered up last month by her now-fiancee, Tyler Startin, could not be more accurate.

Using his trusty old Steiger tractor, Startin plowed “Marry Me Tiff?” into a stubblefield just outside of Endicott. Tyler had told Tiffany he was going out welding.

He then came back to the house, where he asked Tiffany’s help in going back to get a wallet out of the tractor.

Tyler Startin and Tiffany Hergert

“We were driving out, and he told me to look at a deer,” said Tiffany. “I was looking at the other field when he stopped. Then we got out and I saw it, and he got down on his knee.”

She said yes.

Startin operated the Steiger through the Hergert family’s field near the Endicott cemetery to create the proposal. Better yet, he maneuvered the tractor without the benefit of GPS guidance.

“That really impressed me,” Hergert said of Startin’s tractor skills.

After she accepted, the couple hopped back in the Steiger, this time with Hergert at the wheel and plowed a “Yes” into the hillside beneath the original request.

Their wedding is planned for Sept. 21 of next year at the Palouse Empire Fairgrounds, where they met as teenagers.

Both are graduates of LaCrosse High School; Startin with the class of 2007 and Hergert with the class of 2008.

He works a a welder and farmhand. She is employed at the Farm Service Agency’s field office in Colfax.