Raymond Leslie Hards was born to Leslie and Edna Hards on January 13, 1927 in Nokomis, Saskatchewan. He began his farming career at the young age of 13 when he had to help his Mom put the crop in due to his Dad falling ill. His early years of schooling were at Kutuwagan School and he took his Grade 11 and 12 by correspondence from Nokomis School. After high school Ray attended the School of Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan during the winter of 1944 and 1945. At this time he also took ROTC Training. The winter of 1948 took him to Ontario to work in the bush and in 1949 he headed to Vancouver where he met his future wife, Joyce Gawthorpe. Ray and Joyce were married in November of 1953 and their marriage was blessed with four children, two sons and two daughters. During their married life Ray was very involved in the community including the Boy Scouts, Local School Board, Nokomis Agricultural Society and was deeply devoted to the Anglican Church and Nokomis Legion. Ray’s life was the Farm and even after retiring and moving in to the town of Nokomis, there was hardly a day that he didn’t go for a drive just to see if there were any jobs to be done. Ray is survived by his loving wife Joyce; son, David (Teresa) Hards and their children Shannon (Sara), Dustin (Shelley), and April; daughter, Bev (Reg) Halpenny and their children Judy (Colin) and Mike (Lindsay); daughter Nancy Hards and her son Chris (Rae); and son Rick (Rhonda) and their children Jordan and Ashley. Ray was blessed to have six great grandchildren: Oliver, Jack, Kate, Summer, Keena, and Jaxson. He is also survived by his sister, Eileen Patrick as well as two nieces and one nephew. He was predeceased by his parents, Leslie and Edna Hards. Ray passed away peacefully on February 2, 2015. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather who will be deeply missed by his family. "And so GOD made a Farmer." by Paul Harvey in 1978. And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer. God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer. "I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it." So God made a farmer. God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours." So God made a farmer. God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place. So God made a farmer. God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church. "Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad does.'" So God made a farmer.