Gathering

The word, gathering, tends to feel like a "this time of year" word. Harvest time is gathering in the crop. We also associate "gathering" with the Thanksgiving season. At our house we spend September and the first week of October delivering forward sold corn contracts to Eddyville.

Then, with Linda's help, we gather the checks received for those contracts and pay our obligations for the year.

Now since there is more crop than expected, and prices at harvest time are often low, we are storing the remaining crop on the farm in bins.

 Storing crops in town at grain elevators is an option if storage space is available however it's expensive because elevators use a shrink deduction (meaning you get credit for less bushels than you delivered), they have a drying charge if your crop moisture is higher than 14%, and they charge an up front storage fee.

With current crop prices already below the cost to produce it, extra expense at the elevator complicates marketing.

How far do you look forward? One of my favorite quotes in hockey is, "you don't skate to the puck, you skate to where the puck is going".

Often we don't take the time or energy to think about why we are doing what we do and make a plan.

As we invest effort in a project we need to be thinking about what we hope our results are. If  we identify where we are heading we can then set goals to get there.

Life will soon get lonely if we just think about our own projects. We also need to be willing to help and teach others to be their best.

This is a late night gathering discussing the events of the day after the combines and trucks have been parked.

When there is an equipment breakdown in the field it often slows down or even stops progress. So our help gathers together and tackles the fix. Someone takes the broken piece apart while someone else heads either to the shop or to a dealer for replacement parts.

If a truck breaks down or needs tire work we decide how complicated it is and then choose to either fix it in our own shop or take it to a repair shop where Brett helps us get going.

I had a couple of good helpers driving semi yesterday. We shared snacks and pop.

We usually gather together early in the morning as a harvest crew. This week we spent some time on the South Skunk River bottom northwest of Pella. Our gathering place in that area is a farm where our friend Bonnie (as in Don and Bonnie) grew up as a kid. Thanks Layton for bringing us lunch here on Friday.

Yesterday after harvesting on a good going field in Jasper County we coasted to a stop for the week in early afternoon.

Last Sunday evening our church gathered for supper and listened to Justin talk about his work in Cambodia. Learning the language and building trusting relationships were a big part of him being effective in his work there as a missionary.

Finally this morning, congratulations to Lester and Rachael who have been married 65 years. They and their family are gathering at the cabin today to celebrate.