More than 31

years ago, when Bud Ballard first took office as Fayette County's clerk

of superior court, his staff was pretty small.

Counting him,

there were two employees in the clerk's office. The county was much smaller

back then, Ballard pointed out, with a population of just over 11,000.

"If one

of us was out, the other had to do whatever came in," Ballard recalled.

When the veteran

clerk bows out later this week, he does so with a staff that's grown to

18 to 19 if you include Mr. Bud himself.

While the county

has grown exponentially since he began, the duties of the clerk's office

haven't changed much: sending out jury notices, filing deeds and keeping

track of filings in the civil lawsuits and criminal actions.

The trick is,

they can't turn the work away. That's the hardest part of the job, Ballard

said: predicting the work load.

"We can't

say, 'Come back tomorrow,'" he noted.

As for Ballard's

future, he's sure of one thing: there will be no slowing down.

"I'm not

going to kick back. I'm going to keep busy," he said.

Ballard wants

to devote more attention to his farm in Woolsey, where he raises a small

herd of beef cattle and hay crops. There are plenty of things he has neglected

on the farm that need attention, like the fence, Ballard says.

Ballard recognizes

that farming in Fayette County has gone the way of the horse-drawn carriage.

But that doesn't discourage him, because farming's in the blood, passed

down by his father and grandfather, who were both farmers also.

"I'll

probably stick with it as long as I'm able to do it," Ballard said.

"There's something about seeing things grow: putting a seed in the

ground and letting it come up, seeing cattle and watching them grow."

Beyond farming,

Ballard doesn't want to commit himself to much beyond having nieces and

nephews spend more time with himself and wife Josephine. Knowing he'll

be around the house more often now, Ballard doesn't worry about bothering

his wife of 53 years.

What if Josephine

wants him to cook dinner one night?

"If I'm

not too busy, I'll be glad to help," Ballard said with a chuckle.

Ballard will

miss the people he has become acquainted with while in office, and he

appreciates the support of those who helped him over the years. He has

truly enjoyed his job as clerk of court.

But he's also

looking forward to continuing the family tradition of farming.

"Farming

is just about gone in Fayette County," Ballard said. "But some

of us who grew up with it still enjoy it. I guess it's a habit you grew

up with."