Years And Promises

Yesterday I was blessed to work with grandsons in the morning, to attend a 70th birthday party for Sue and visit with friends in the afternoon, and go to the Boonies trailer in Leighton for pizza in the evening.

The combines are finished, however we're still working on cleaning up field edges, terraces, and waterways. Iowa has the ability to grow trash trees in fencerows and non cultivated ground at about 4 feet/yr.

The many trees we want and choose to keep just started to turn to their brilliant fall colors this past week in southern Iowa. This is a picture of a bluff overlooking the Des Moines River bottom on a farm we call Howell Station.

I was 9 years old when this movie came out. My parents took us to Des Moines for my first of a very few movie experiences in my lifetime. The Sound Of Music was the #1 at the box office for 30 weeks in 1965.

                                       

Thursday evening Jan and I attended a play performance of The Sound Of Music by the students, including grandkids, at Pella Christian High School. What a lot of musical talent in a high school. It was an excellent performance.

I was 24 years old when a neighbor and I bought and installed this old rock quarry scale for weighing crops at harvest time by two new bins here on our farm. At that time we also built a drive over pit for unloading wagons, more for safety than convenience since Jan and I always had small kids helping us. 

That hopper pit was built in 1980. And when we scooped out the spilled rotten corn, I'd say. "Boys, this is what beer is made of", hoping to deter them from drinking someday. When this pit was remodeled years later, I'd tell the grandkids the same thing. With everyone else working on other jobs Friday, I decided it was time to clean the hopper pit before things freeze. After scooping a skidloader bucket full of bad corn, I thought I was old enough to work smarter, not harder. So I went and found the V120 trencher/hoe. Thanks to Kasey and Matt for helping me finish up yesterday.

I was 35 years old when we received 8 inches of snow on a Wednesday/Thursday of Halloween week. We still had substantial acres of corn to harvest at the Denney farm, and the storm dropped the unharvested yield around 20%.

34 years later from that snowy week, we are thankful for  great weather this fall. And that our combine heads are already cleaned up and put away for the year.

Karl used Jon and Alex to tanker hog honey two and a half miles from his hog finishers. Karl and Kristin's 15th wedding anniversary was this past Thursday. 10/30/10.

While working with grandchildren, reconnecting with old(er) friends at a birthday party, and supporting kids with their venues, I thought about how blessed Jan and I are, after our health diagnoses in mid July. And I was reminded of this song that was released just after the farm crisis in the 1980s. We, and others, are standing on God's promises, have fallen on His grace that gets us through, are singing for joy with songs we remember, and yes, we have or will weep as one who is longing for their eternal home. Rich Mullins was my age. And at 42 years old he was tragically killed in an accident. Blessings.