Sydnie is four months old. One morning this week she helped her dad, Karl, while her mom, Kristin, ran some errands. At four months old you have all the time in the world.
Well, winter finally came and it looks like it's going to stay for awhile. We have had three or four snow events since last Sunday and the temp is below zero.
Cold weather has made the ice on the pond thick enough for Mike and Cody to fish. It won't be long and the studded tires on the motorcycles will be going on for racing on the ice.
On Christmas afternoon Mike, Cody, and I helped BJ's family cut firewood. My job was to dump the cut firewood from the skidloader bucket into the dump truck.
Marketing and delivering crops in the winter time can be a challenge. Especially when the prices don't move more than a dime a bushel in months. However as many of you can relate year end is a time of getting things paid for the next crop.
So a few weeks ago we negotiated the basis and promised to haul corn between Christmas and New Years, generally a time when the corn hauling business is slow. Basis is the difference between the Board of Trade and the local delivery price. Depending on supply and demand basis can range from 10 to 40 cents a bushel under the board.
To say communicating has changed would be an understatement. Do any of you remember one of these? This phone has a reminder on it to wait for dial tone. We used to have to wait for neighbors to finishing conversations when we had party lines. Today we don't have time to wait for anything. We can text or snapchat or email from anywhere to anywhere in the world in seconds. Sometimes though these modern forms of communicating seem to miss reading body language during a face to face conversation or hearing the happiness or sadness in the tone of a friend's voice.
Farm equipment auctions have equally changed as a result of the ability to communicate long distances in real time. Back in the day farm auctions were the social highlight of a farmer's winter. I remember spending many a winter day going to a farm sale with Ken or Cal or Doug in our four wheel drive pickups. Today that arriving, bidding, and buying can happen in minutes on a smart phone. This past week we watched and bid on equipment in Hamilton, Ill. and Webster, SD. from our shop office.
Aunt Marilyn celebrated Christmas and her birthday at the cabin this past week with her children and her brothers and their families.
Centuries ago it seems like my Dad and Uncle Cornie farmed together and our families lived on the same yard east of Lacey. So I remember as a little kid hanging out with Sandy, Dave, Phil, and Chris. Joni wasn't around yet back then. One day a half a century ago Uncle Cornie sent us all to the bean field to pull weeds promising to pay us a penny a weed. Well since I was the oldest everyone asked me to keep track of their total weeds pulled. I remember coming back to the house and proudly announcing the hundreds of weeds we had each pulled. Uncle Cornie said, "I think I will just take you all out for ice cream instead." I remember being bummed as a little kid. :)
My parents and my brothers and their families got together for soup and visiting this past Thursday evening.
Rosie and her late husband Daryl were landlords of ours north of Rose Hill for more of our lives than they weren't. Thirty years ago we spent half the planting and harvesting seasons at their farm. During those busy years they took us in as family. We often had two to three meals a day with them. Rosie has lived in assisted living now for more than a decade. In assisted living you have all the time in the world.
Well, we've visited about being very young and being old and having all the time in the world. What about those of us that are in-between? What and who are we spending time on? What do folks see and remember when they look back at our 2017? Will they have seen us focusing on ourselves or others? Were we busy enough? Were we too busy? What's the correct answer?
In the Bible Jesus says at the end of time we will be judged for our actions or lack of them. To the ones on His right He will say, "Well done good and faithful servant. When you helped the least of these my brothers, you were helping me". He didn't say good and successful, or significant, or prominent, or prosperous, or even religious. He said faithful. Faithful first of all to our God. Then to our family, our friends, our work.
I am looking forward to next year and I hope you are as well. As we go out the door so to speak tomorrow starting 2018, let's have goals. Let's plan. And let's accomplish. And let's think about how we save and spend our time. Let's be faithful and with God's help let's make 2018 a year we'll remember.
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