Noticed a lovely message on Facebook recently – my sister acknowledging with admiration her husband’s tireless work on the land. The photo supporting her post said it all. There stood a ruggedly muscular man in Levi’s, RM Williams boots, a ragged Stetson planted firmly atop a deeply tanned face, stooping to split hay bales for a skittery flock of sheep while his sheepdog stood chest deep in the nearby water trough. The heat shimmering on the arid horizon backdrop speaking to a scorching, unrelenting sun.

The image brought to mind the moving audio backdrop on a Ram Trucks ad aired during the recent US Super Bowl God needed a caretaker, voiced by Paul Harvey, a salt of the earth, conservative radio broadcaster, way back in 1978. I can just hear our late great Peter Harvey’s voice sharing the same sentiment.

For Pete and all the tireless farmers out there working this wide brown land girt by sea…

And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a caretaker.” So God made a farmer.

God said, “I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board.” So God made a farmer. (more…)