MCCOOK, NEB. ? Cupid – for Amy Portschy of McCook and other girls looking for true love with farmers and ranchers – probably wears blue jeans and cowboy boots and carries a pair of pliers with him wherever he goes.

Amy’s Cupid brought her together with the love of her life, Erik Schlimmer, after the two visited an online dating service Web site designed specifically for “farmers, ranchers, ag students, cowboys, cowgirls, animal lovers, nature lovers, country folks and wannabes.”

Jerry Miller, the founder of FarmersOnly.com, said, “You don’t have to be a farmer to be on FarmersOnly.com, but you do have to have the good old-fashioned traditional values of America’s Heartland.”

“Let’s face it. How many new people do you meet working on a farm all day?” Miller has said.

He’s an advertising executive from Ohio, and he founded the Web site in 2005 to cater to singles seeking someone to share their rural lifestyles.

Amy, a 24-year-old math and science teacher at St. Patrick’s Catholic School in McCook, wanted the country lifestyle she grew up with on the farm owned by her parents, Leon and Marita Portschy of rural Herndon.

Erik Schlimmer, 28, is a corn and soybean farmer from Volga, S.D., situated a few miles from the South Dakota-Minnesota state line.

Amy and Erik plan a summer wedding.

Miller said success stories like Amy and Erik’s are common on the site. “Barnyard Buzz” on the site tells the stories of singles pleased with the opportunity to meet like-minded country people:

“Rachel and I met through this site last spring, we are to be wed at the end of the month. – Andy and Rachel”

“I met Judy on FarmersOnly.com in Feb. We just married on December 23, and are expecting a long happy marriage. – Keith and Judy”

After e-mailing for several months, Amy drove to Volga to meet Erik for breakfast. And then Erik visited McCook and the Portschy farm at Herndon.

Last fall, Erik surprised Amy by stepping into her classroom at St. Pat’s and proposing.

Amy and Erik will be married July 14, after which Amy will move to Erik’s farm about a half-mile outside Volga, and about 500 miles from McCook and Herndon.

She has obtained a South Dakota teacher’s license and is applying for jobs. Erik will continue his farming operation.