Profession: Farmer

Eddy was only 16 years old when he wrote in his Swiss Military Service book that his profession was a farmer. He had identified himself in this role from a very young age and retained it until his death.

Eddy's military service book stating his profession as "Agriculteur"

Eddy's Canadian passport, 1967, with occupation stated as "Farmer".

I started to think about occupational titles when I was viewing some old documents from 1971 that were outlining a water line easement between my grandfather, Gus Naef, and the Woods family. Gus had bought a portion of the Wood's farm that included their beautiful dairy barn. The Woods had been farming on the Shuswap since the turn of the century, the oldest of their three children was only a baby when they moved to their farm.  I was curious why the two sons, who had farmed since they were very little,  did not describe themselves as such on the documents, but instead Alan Woods stated he as a "Contractor" and his brother, Bob, a "Scaler".  In these same documents, Gus states he is a "Rancher". 

I asked a friend who was more familiar with the family and she explained that as the parents aged and could no longer farm the family had made the decision not to continue the farm. It is well documented that farming in this area is a struggle, and has been aptly described as "hobby farming". The definition of Hobby Farm from Wikepidia " is a small farm that is maintained without expectation of being a primary source of income". The other term that is used is "part-time" farmer as the major bulk of the income is earned "off farm". The main operator of a such farms reports 190 days or more of off-farm work and whose farm did not employ any year round paid labour. Approximately 16% of farms in B.C. are considered hobby farms where the farm earns little or no profit, sometimes running at a deficient. In B.C. 68% of hobby farms report a 0 income.(credits to statcan.)

The other description is "subsistence farming" where a farm produces enough to feed the family living there, leaving little for surplus or trade. 

The Wood's family had tired of this type of farming and had moved on to other ventures, bringing an end to one of the family farms on the Shuswap.  

Eddy supported the farm for many years through logging and as a contractor.  He spent approximately 2/3 of his working time on these enterprises, and thus a more accurate description of his occupation would be "machine operator".  When we moved to the farm in 1993 my husband gained employment at the Ministry of Social Development however for all those years that we actively farmed on the Ranch he always went by the title "Rancher". 

In order for the Ranch to support a family we would have to run approximately 350 cow/calf pairs (credits to the Ministry of Agriculture). The most we have ever run has been 85. The farm does, however, have the immense good fortune of being set along the shores of Shuswap Lake. Tourism started to develop in this area in the 1950s, and today is one of the major sources of revenue in the area. It was for this reason that we developed an RV park on the property. Our philosophy was to have the income from the RV park allow us to spend more time on the property while we develop our farm to be sustainable. Sustainable agriculture "integrates three main goals-environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity'. (Credits to the University of California ANR). Our goal was to develop farm practices that were in harmony with nature and to farm within a economically viable framework.  The farm has always required substantial subsidies from off farm income and the Naef family in Switzerland. We wanted to work towards a farm that was financially independent. 

At this time in our farming history our farm is in fallow, resting to regain it's strength. In this interim my husband is describing himself as a "human resource specialist". and I am a Social Worker, a description I have had for myself in well over 20 years of working with the most marginalized, disenfranchised of the population. I do still have my farmer's identity card, and hope to revisit that part of my life again. 

Circa 1990; Bruce Loy, Brent Moffat, Caroline Miege, and Eddy Miege.  Brent and Eddy had fixed the brakes on the tractor and Brent was going to 'try it out" to see if the repair worked. Note the helmet!

Brent, the crash test Dummy.