The summer of my fourteenth year I hired on to work for a farmer named Sanford Campbell in the small town – really just an exit off I-84 – of Juniper, Idaho. This man and his family worked a dry farm of many thousands acres, where they harvested huge amounts of wheat. My main job was to prepare fields that had been left fallow (inactive) for a season so they could be planted. To do this I used a D-6 Caterpillar, or one of the huge eight wheeled - four wheel drive tractors. With these supersized machines, I pulled a forty foot wide shovel plow with four ten-foot rod weeders chained behind the plow.
When I arrived Sanford explained to me his expectations, or rules of how I was to work:
#1 Be at your equipment before sunup, you must have the equipment greased and ready to work by
the time the sky begins to lighten.
#2 You don’t stop unless the equipment does, not even for lunch, bring your lunch and eat on the
go. (This was not difficult because the fields were more than mile long – often you could not see
the other end of the field from your turn around point.)
#3 Shut down at the end of the day when it is too dark to see the end of the plow WITH your lights
on. Except for Tuesdays, that was Mutual or Young Men’s night and attendance is mandatory. #4 Never–ever–ever walk or drive into a wheat field, as you would crush the stalks of wheat and
the harvester would not be able to reach them.
I took Sanford at his word and did what he asked, I think I only got about four hours of sleep each
night. He was the hardest task master I ever worked for, and one of the best and fairest. He tracked my hours and after two weeks said “if this keeps up I am going to pay you way too much, how about I put you on salary?” even on salary it was the most money I ever made until I got my present job. He understood young men and somehow always knew the right things to say and when to let me figure things out and when to show me what to do. He seemed to have sixth sense about things. If you stopped your rig for even an instant, somehow he knew and you would see in the distance his little red truck churning up dust as he came to see what was wrong. They work must never stop.
One day I was plowing a field and I spied Sanford’s truck headed my way, this was very unusual as nothing was malfunctioning. I got to the end of the row and shut down to see what was up. He stopped his truck next to my rig and said “hop in”. I got in and asked what was wrong, he said he wanted to show me something. I figured it must be important or I had really messed something up if he was willing to idle my rig for even a short time. We drove to a field that was ready to harvest - the stalks of wheat were white and starting to sag with the weight of the heads ripe with kernels. Sanford stopped the truck got out and motioned for me to follow. We walked out into the field! (See rule #4 above) until all you could see around you was beautiful wheat. Sanford grabbed a head of one of the stalks plucked it off and rolled it between his hands. This separated the wheat kernels from their shells, then he blew the chaff out of his hand leaving just the kernels. He showed these to me and said “Heavenly Father made these for you, he made them for your enjoyment and happiness, and in fact everything in this world was created for your happiness. He created this world for us, to make us happy.”
Eric Bell
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