Custom Harvesters

Every summer, like ancient nomads, crews of harvesters with giant John Deere combines ply the highways of the United States en route to another contract harvest job in the wheat fields of the West. Jesus, too, saw fields ready for harvest, but few custom harvesters to work in them.

Jacob Swier, 14, is a nomad of sorts. Every summer he wanders south toward Texas from the Midwest, travels west across the South and then angles northward through Colorado, Wyoming, eastern Oregon and Washington, until, by summer's end, he's near the Canadian border.

He travels with his sister Jill, 12, and older brother Justin, 17. They're not homeless; in fact, Mom and Dad Swier organize and orchestrate their annual peregrinations.

They're custom harvesters, and they - along with many families like them, cut wheat for western farmers on a contract basis. He's only 14, but Jacob is a pro on the combine; Justin is old enough to haul grain to the elevator; Jill, along with her mother Pat, helps clean the RV campers and get the evening meals ready for the entire crew. (Jill wanted to drive a combine, since she's old enough and skilled enough, and her dad said it was okay, but her mom needed her help inside, so that's where and how Jill contributes to the family's well-being and...