Without farmers supplying us our ever in-demand sustenance when would our species have had the time to devise clocks, stainless steel, and pichinko machines? Farming is work like no other work because of the demands on your time, farmers probably have the lowest incidence of crime-related issues as well because of their hours and focus, so farming is a great not just a good thing.

My own family from Germany were farmers. My grandfather got tired of it as he got elderly but only because he wanted more time with his violin, however, if it wasn’t for our family farm how would everyone have survived WWII if it wasn’t for the family farm?

My mother tells the story of her mother creating an underground chicken coop so when the retreating German army came through at least her kids could survive, again, farming saved the day.

Let’s take that dark cloud of German history out of this missive for moment and reflect what farming has done for the US of A. Farming goes back to the earliest reaches of communal living I would wager and this country benefited from such practices since day one (to be PC no one really knows when “day one” was experienced because the cultures who preceded Europeans didn’t keep journals, take photographs, and maintain blogs. Let’s just think of day one as when Europeans successfully settled Mass and a few other scattered locations).

The indigenous people - as was told by those first Europeans - farmed the land and taught those same people who would one day conquer them how to farm the land. What good natured people those indigenous folks must have been, if only they could have seen the future that was coming their way. Regardless, the first invading occupiers and exploiters of the local native population fine tuned their skills and made it work for the benefit of all. Now look at us, we’re so good at farming that we’ve got self-help books, laptops, and so many people around us that you can’t help but feel warmer knowing that there are more of us each and every succeeding year.

So stay with the toil and get those fingers in the soil as it’s the farmer who keeps time for us all.

Over and out - Eric.

PS: This stream of conscience prose was brought to you in a Politically Correct fashion because it’s so fun and easy to do so.

I look forward to staying longer next year, finding out if they decided to jump through all the State’s hoops to keep selling all those great products, and spending some more time on the tractor.