The landscape is changing daily as huge combines cut thousands of acres of grain each day. The fields are like the head of a huge blond haired boy that the barber takes a clipper to. At first there are wide swaths through the blond landscape. and quickly the scalp is bare. The weather is miserably hot, dry and windy---perfect for wheat harvest. Most all farmers today have air conditioned combines and trucks for hauling grain. They go home to air conditioned homes for a good nights sleep. Of course, things were completely different during WWII. Glancing through WW II pictures while preparing a different post, I came across photos and posters of women working the fields during the war. I thought it appropriate this week to give recognition to some of the millions of women who gave up their desk jobs and home making to provide food for the nation and the world while so many men were away fighting.  Those women didn't have air conditioned tractors or combines.  And, after a long day in the hot fields, they felt like queens if they had running water and could possibly take a bath before falling asleep, again without air conditioning In 1943  nine states had  WLA training facilities. By 1944 the number had risen to 44. As the war continued, the government not only encouraged city women and girls to give up their free time and vacations to help on the fields, they initiated the Women's Land Army (WLA)  to provide agricultural training and transport women to places needed. At first women worked on farms near home where they returned each evening. Eventually, with fewer and fewer men left in the country to work, the government transported the girls and women all over the US. They lived in work camps, some not as sanitary or comfortable as would be expected.  Child care became a huge issue during the war for both the farm and factory working women.  Some women took children to the fields with them, but the government stepped in and created at least 3,100 day-care centers which helped alleviate the problem for some.  "USDA officials estimated that as many as 800,000 women and 1.2 million young people would be needed in 1944 to assist in agricultural work." " WLA recruits included farm wives and daughters, college students, school girls, teachers, store clerks, stenographers, service wives, and homemakers. These women raised vegetables in New England, topped onions in Michigan, detasseled corn throughout the Midwest, shocked wheat in North Dakota, picked cotton in the South, planted potatoes in Maine, and harvested fruits and nuts on the West Coast. They also drove tractors, fed livestock, and performed dairying and poultry work. In total, 250,000 women were placed on farms during the 1943 crop season[alone]." "The WLA reported that year-round wages averaged between $25 and $50 dollars a month, with room and board furnished, while hourly rates for seasonal workers ranged from twenty-five to fifty cents.[an hour] . . .  However, the WLA conceded…