My father found this land in the early sixties   And he led me by the hand across the endless fields   He made these hills his own   Clearing every stone   In the wind and the rain alone   He was a farmer      Our dogs would drive the flock to the higher pasture   And I'd watch him choose the rocks to mend the dry stone walls   The steel beneath the skin   When he'd call the stragglers in   His voice upon the wind   Ever a farmer      Come on   Away   Come by   Lie Down      In 1986 when the dark clouds gathered   And the cold winds from the East   was dusted with decay   On the great and on the small   It settled on us all   And we watched the margins fall   For the farmer      So where are the shearlings now   to gather in the folds   To count to clip and mark when there's   no fleece to be sold   And when a life of learning skills   Out on these Western hills   It barely pays the bills   For a farmer      Come on   Away   Come by   Lie Down      So now he sits and stares into the distance   Then I watch him climb the stairs where   restless in his sleep   he stretches out his hand   And the dogs on his command   Strong eyed still work the land   With a farmer      Come on   Away   Come by   Lie down      Steady   That'll do.