Roger,
What you said about the high roller poker player seem like a penny ante player, compared to a farmer is right on point. My last year in college I also took a course studying American-English Regionalism -and learned first hand after starting practice in Montana 18 years ago there is quite a distinction between farming and ranching, something at least growing up in Indiana, I never learned, and was not taught in the Regionalism course.
I learned rather quickly that a farmer grows plants and a rancher raises animals--I learned if I called a rancher a farmer, because in Indiana a farmer did both, I was chastised to no end, and was told what a poor lot the farmer is. Or if I happened to ask a farmer if he raised angus or charlois--I was likewise told what a wild beer drinking bunch the rancher is.
The other thing I learned early on is never ask either one how much land they operated/owned--"by God kid why don't you just ask what I have in my bank account!"
However, I have had the same experience with the farmers and ranchers as you have, and have seen where a years worth of work was wiped out by disease, drought, fire, price fluctuations etc... The scenario I described above about my brother in law could be any number of my patients, some on a smaller scale, some on a larger scale.
So when you brought up that you farm walnuts, it made me realize that walnuts are farmed and not "raised". So I hope my question did not seem derogatory. I had never thought about farming walnuts before.
