Transformation is defined as a dramatic change. We enjoyed working together as three generations on Kurt's tractor. It's been cold enough this winter we could drive it out on the pond and take a picture on over a foot thick ice. 50 years from now these little folks will remember helping. What will life look like?
Grandpa was asked to pick up 6th grader Anton from school and take him to the dentist. So I gladly did. While waiting in the hall I took this picture from 52 years ago. The same time the above tractor rolled off the John Deere assembly line. My eighth grade class. 😊 Nine girls and twelve boys wondering where they would be in 50 years.
Of course I had to take the picture of the class below us as well just to tease some of you.😊 Twelve girls and nine boys. About 10 years ago these two classes got together for supper at our cabin. We ought to do that again sometime.
This past Wednesday evening Lucas and Pastor Jon brought their 7th grade Cadet boys out to weld in our farm shop. I remember their families. However I goofed and forgot to write down their first names. My bad. I enjoyed teaching them little bits of advice.
It's been a good year for ice fishing. And after Uncle Mike picked 1st grader Malaki up from school Wednesday they went fishing together in an ice hut on our pond.
In winter ice is good on a pond. It's not in a cattle waterer. So Kurt had he and Emily's three boys, Jackson, Jayden, and Lane, haul hot water out and thaw the water line. Thanks for the picture Kurt.
It has been a week of selling fat hogs for Karl and help. These loads are often loaded early. The hog industry is struggling right now to find and keep help in packing plants as well as truck drivers. Loads are continually being cancelled. If this continues shortages will start showing up in the grocery stores. Thanks Collin for the picture I asked for as well as your hard work keeping the hog supply moving.
Many of the rest of us spent a cold week cleaning out grain bins.
Winter is also the time of year to pay for crop needs for this coming spring. Inputs that had been ordered and locked in last summer for the 2022 crop have doubled from prices in 2021. Current winter prices for fertilizer are 4 times higher than last year. If I shared the bottom line with you on price increases it would be mind boggling. It will affect what folks plant. Where are we going from here?
Most of you are also noticing increased prices in the grocery store. Those increases will not stop soon. If this lack of workers continue in truckers, processors, and unloading ships at the ports, you will start to see more and more empty shelves. However this time it will be a supply problem, and not a hoarding problem like in 2020. I found it interesting that in 2020 Americans spent 8% of their income on food. I also found it interesting that of that 8%, 5% was on groceries and 3% was eating out as an average. We have readers from Africa in this blog family of ours that spend 50% of their income on food.
Monday I went with Jan to her Amish and Mennonite stores and lockers down south where prices and supply are somewhat less effected. Kudos to our daughter and daughter-in-laws who do this as well, to help with the cost of feeding their large families.
We talked earlier about this tractor being built 50 years ago. This past year Jerry, a neighbor and older farmer, sold it to Kurt. This JD 4320 had faithfully helped Jerry work his farm for many years.
This tractor has been transformed and has a new lease on life. I'm guessing it will still be around 50 years from now, and owned by those little folks on the pond that helped restore it.
I remember 50 years ago we were taught to be scared of Russia in the height of the cold war. Then in the 1980s communism collapsed in that country. And many countries like Ukraine developed a form of democracy, although struggling with supply issues. Christina came to Pella Christian High School as a foreign exchange student and lived with Jon and Glenda. In 2018 she got married. And her family came here from Ukraine for the wedding. They spent a day with us on our farm, being farmers themselves. Thanks for helping me Glenda.
We have blog family in Ukraine as well. And there is talk about Russia once again becoming a threat. However I'm not sure how much is for real and how much it is just a story to take the emphasis off our problems here at home. 50 years ago Russia may or may not have been a real threat from the outside. Today our country has a real threat from the inside.
A dozen years ago or so these were some of our oldest grandkids. John, Amelia, Cody, and Rachel. Thanks for the picture Suzanne.
I made a goal to be positive in 2022. I have totally blown that this morning. We are currently living in a world of lies when it comes to the pandemic and politics. I have decided God is not expecting me to save our culture. However He is expecting me to seek out the truth and have the courage to share it. Last Sunday evening some of these same kids, plus a few more were playing cards, hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma. I have changed my mind. It is not for me to try and have the same culture and opportunities for these kids that we as older folks have had. It is however my God-given job to help prepare these and others to be an asset in society as workers and contributors. And in God's kingdom to help them by example to be part of The Great Commission which is showing others the love of Christ.
This is a picture of coming home from Ottumwa this past Wednesday about dawn. We have looked in the rear view mirror this morning about where we have been. We have looked out our side window about where we are at. We need to look forward out the windshield at where we are going from here with this promise. "I have told you these things so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33 😊 Wow. End of story. Blessings to you all.
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