I was born farmer.

That's right.

My name is Lance Ghost Merrick and I'm reporting barely alive in Hope, Alaska!

I farmer. I was born Farmer.

I was driving tractor when I was three.

1963 Harlingen, Texas

That's right south Texas where the palm trees blow and we had a cotton farm.

And down on the farm we grew up tough!

Tough as nails give em hell.

And here is my best friend SPOT.

But it wasn't long before I was dreaming of bigger and better things than being a farmer.

Is there anything that is better than farming?

How about being an astronaut?

Or how about a cowboy?

That's my daddy. He is a cowboy see his black boots?

And that is Smokey my other best friend. He loved peanut butter and jelly sandwishs. That was how I broke him and that when I became a cowboy!

I am a COWBOY but I farmer too!

And those my two sisters Shawn and Kesha. It been 50 years and we still close and help each other.

People On the farm help each other.

What about cowboy don't you understand?

I guess it wasn't Willie that made

me want to be a cowboy.

It was my daddy.

Smoky and I blazed the acres and acres of cotton fields back home.

There are BOOKS about me and Smokey but that is another chapter.

"Oh those old cotton fields back home."

2008 and I farmer still.

Yeppers when I got older about 14 I was sent to a concentration camp in Kentucky. It was called Uncle Leo's farm.

He farmer too!

Lexington, Kentucky was 45 minutes south of the farm.

We worked from 4:20AM in the morning and did't hit the hay til 11:30PM at night. Usually after watching a ball game. Cincinnati Big Red Machine eating ice cream!

But the rest was work. Hard Labor. No Pay.

Then at age 14 I discovered THREE things that became the obsessions of my LIFE.

WHISKEY | WEED | WOMEN

Grandpa made whiskey in a still and I got a pint a week.
There was a tomatoe plant that did't grow tomatoes and it a weed. But you could smoke it.
Farm Girls
Farm Girls became the obsession of my life.