Farm wives

I just saw this on my facebook newsfeed and wanted to share it. I know I'm not 'technically' a farm wife, since we don't 'technically' live on the farm yet. But my husband is a farmer and it just pulled my heart strings. I also know plenty of farm wives that fully meet this description. I can only hope that someday I can call myself a real farm wife.

So God Made a Farm Wife
by Heather deBoer

Then God looked down at the farmer and said he can’t do this on his own.  So God made a farm wife.

God said I need someone who can put on the coffee, cook bacon and fry eggs just right, get the kids off to school, run to town for parts & groceries, then hurry home to get food on the table for anywhere between two or twenty hungry men who might show up for lunch- So God made a farm wife.

I need someone that doesn’t mind getting dirt under her fingernails, even if it’s just from doing the laundry, who knows how to get grease out of coveralls, to get cockleburrs out of kid’s hair, how to warm a calf, hang a heat lamp over a box of chicks, and doesn’t mind the milk replacement powder sitting in the corner of the kitchen- So God made a farm wife.

I need someone who can feed her family for a year with no more than a couple packs of seeds, a plot of soil, and a pressure cooker, someone who’s worn hoe and tattered gloves speaks of their hours of use.  I need someone who can feed an animal for a year, give it a name, care for it, love it, then load it in the trailer and haul it to the butcher to put in the freezer- so God made a farm wife.

God said I need someone who can make plans that will probably get cancelled , who understands when she gets tractor tires instead of diamonds on her anniversary, and can smile at the farmer and say ‘maybe next year.’  I need someone who doesn’t mind when a night out means supper on the tailgate watching the sunset over the back 40, and a romantic drive means checking the progress of the crops.  I need someone who knows enough to plan weddings and babies around planting and harvest and can brace for whatever comes after she hears the farmer say ‘Honey, I’ve been thinking…’- so God made a farm wife.

God said I need someone who can balance a budget without a paycheck, who can cry tears over lost calves, plead to God for much needed rain, read the face of a man below layers of manure and grease, and know that even though he might never say it, he feels the pain and the glory, the pride and the defeat, the frustration and the triumph, and that passion is not only for the farm, but for everything it means and the hope it represents- so God made a farm wife.

I need someone who can plant corn with little boys on the living room carpet and not take it to heart when she hears him say he likes his daddy best.  Someone who smiles and sighs when she hears her little girl say she wants to marry a farmer just like Daddy, because she just know what that will mean- so God made a farm wife.

I need someone who can spot a cow calving going 50 down a back country road.  I need someone who can labor at home until the milking is done, then delivery a baby holding the hand of a man who still smells of manure and the milking parlor.  I need someone who swells with pride at the farmer’s calloused hands against the soft pink skin as he gently hold his newborn baby, and hears him whisper, “Guess we’re gonna have to buy some more land…”-  so God made a farm wife.

Somebody who knows the farm is not just a job, but a life woven together by hard work, eternal faith, and a will stronger than any drought or storm.  Who can trust the good Lord with the man she loves as he walks out that door every morning- so God made a farm wife.


--Here is a link to the original note on facebook. 

NOTE: Just to be clear, I did not write this. Like I stated above, this was 'shared' by another friend through facebook. I do not personally know the author. I'm sure there are other versions of this poem, this is just the one that came across. I only posted it here to share with my family and friends who read my blog, and also so that I could save it to read again myself.