Today is National Ag Day and for me it is all about the family farm. I am blessed to have several generations of farmers behind me of which I admire and love but on this day I want to focus on my Daddy.
On Super Bowl Sunday evening when the commercial aired by Dodge Trucks had ended I immediately thought what an awesome event for agriculture! Paul Harvey's eloquent narrative of the descriptive poem about the primary members of our agriculture industry made America take a second look at the industry and the American farmer. Great job Dodge! My mind quickly drifted to my Daddy, a lifelong farmer, and proud owner of a Dodge truck.
So God made a farmer, my Daddy, and gave him the knowledge, patience, and caring nature to work the land, plow, plant, sow, fertilize, care for, and harvest, corn, tobacco, and hay. He started as a very young man in Simpson County, Kentucky, farming with his brother and father, raising corn, soybeans, and dark tobacco.
I have watched him and most thankfully worked with him from dawn until late into the night with the family, setting (transplanting) tobacco, and completing the job before the rain arrived. Daddy always had the most difficult job of driving the tractor with the setter. It takes skill and patience to keep a tractor in line and rows straight, especially when driving at night with two teenagers sitting behind you making more noise than 30 kids.
Daddy has always had the knowledge and skill to repair anything from machinery, to fences, to home appliances. For years I've said my husband married me because Daddy can repair anything...and it's true. Daddy has spent his life repairing anything that broke on our farm or my grandparents farm. He has always helped people and has been the one person neighbors could rely on for repairs when there is no one else around.
A great part of Daddy's personality in my adult life has been tied to his red 1988 Dodge ton truck, complete with an aluminum flatbed. I'm not exactly sure of the year he purchased the truck but I believe it was in the early 1990's. I remember young men tracking him down, following him home or getting his name and phone number and asking him to sell them his truck. That truck helped to get newborn calves to the barn, protect family members from over-protective mama cows, and I believe pull a 4-H float in a parade. Today it's not looking it's best however it is still working for Daddy, traveling over the fields to check cows, pulling the cattle trailer to move cows between farms, to the vets office, or off to the sale barn. Old red has also helped Daddy bring wood to the house for their comforting wood stove, and brought loads of feed from town for the pigs, or beef cattle.
So God made a farmer. Men and women like my Daddy with skills or determination and stubbornness needed to get a job done, endurance to work long hours in terrible conditions to get a crop in the ground, or respect and caring for all living things to get an animal delivered alive and well.
So Dodge made trucks.Trucks built in America, by Americans with the power to pull a large load of cattle out of a muddy field, but filled with the comforts to cradle a young child after a long afternoon of fishing on the family farm.
I have a picture of Daddy with his Dodge truck pulled up at the house to unload a blessed load of wood to warm their home.A truck is as important to a farmer as ice cream is on the 4th of July. It's tradition. It's required.
I'm not trying to romanticize farming. It's difficult work, for tough people. The weak need not apply because dealing with so many uncontrollable variables like the weather or disease requires a strong person who can face adversity and yet remain humble knowing that God has guided them through the tough times.
It's National Ag Day and I'm asking that you recognize everyone that contributes to this most important industry, I'm just keeping it close to home and saluting my Daddy.
