Suit

Monday night and again today I went suit shopping. Today I ended up buying a suit and a sport coat. It's been a while since I bought a suit, and I learned a few things. Mainly, there aren't many people around who know how to sell a suit or fit a suit any more. The stores seemed to be understaffed. I also realize as I get older that my patience with adult incompetence is decreasing. Who hires and trains these people anyway?

I miss Witzig's in Morton!

Finished

We finished harvest today! We had finished combining corn last Monday, but the rest of the week was too damp for soybeans. We did work on soybeans Saturday afternoon until the elevator closed. This morning we were able to finish them just before lunch. It's a good feeling to be finished, especially since it started raining this afternoon. Now we start the planning, fertilizing, and tillage for next year.

Come, ye thankful people, come,

raise the song of harvest home;

all is safely gathered in,

ere the winter storms begin.

God our Maker doth provide

for our wants to be supplied;

come to God's own temple, come,

raise the song of harvest home.

Better Week

We had a good, productive week! Our rental combine performed admirably and we were able to finish five fields this week and get a good start on another. We have two big days left to finish harvest. I definitely said a prayer of thanksgiving as we finished each field.
The wheat is coming up and looking nice. Our Tandem truck is still in the shop, but we should be able to finish without it. My cousin brought a Caterpillar employee from India, his fiance and his parents out to the farm for a combine ride. The young man's parents and fiance are here in the States for the wedding. They were in awe of our productive capacity here in the States, and the size of our grain elevators.
All the local grain elevators are full to capacity and are piling grain on the ground for temporary storage. Its unfortunate that because of political problems in third world countries our abundance can't be better distributed to meet human needs. World hunger isn't a production problem or even a financial problem as much as a problem of evil leaders and governments misusing finances and prohibiting benevolent distribution of resources.

We had a blessed day in church and I got my nap in this afternoon.

And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.
And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls.
And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same.
And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number.

Strike Three

We felt like the Chicago Cubs this week. We just couldn't seem to win.
The tandem truck is back in the shop, and we don't know for how long. It has probably hauled less than 10 loads of grain so far this fall. The combine gave us problems one day when it wouldn't start and it took us two hours to get it going. We still don't know why. Then the electrical system would shut down intermittently during the day, causing frustrations. We have been getting diesel fuel in the oil all fall and some oil in the antifreeze. We kept nursing it along because the dealer was having trouble finding us a rental machine. Finally on Saturday they brought us a replacement ( at $100 per hour), and our combine left for the shop.
On Friday we finished harvesting the downed corn we found last week. It took us four days of dry afternoons to do 80 acres. We had to put the reel on to do it. We also had a couple half days of rain delays this week. On Saturday we finished sowing our winter wheat. That's a good feeling to be timely in sowing when the prices are so good.

The tractor we were trying to use on the auger wagon wouldn't start for us on Friday morning. We worked on it for an hour, and just got it started when a semi came down the road bringing our Case 2590 back from the shop. We were happy and relieved to see it come back.
Saturday night, as we were finishing up only our second field of corn for the week, two hot air balloons drifted in just before sunset and landed in our field. It was fun to watch the ground crew catch them, deflate the balloons, and pack them into the chase vehicles.

We didn't accomplish a lot this week, but we are safe and healthy with much to be thankful for.

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

Rain

We got rained out of the field tonight. Only the second time that has happened all fall. We had found another field of downed corn - bad downed corn, and were hoping to get as much of it done as possible. We had to put our corn reel on the combine in order to get through some of it.
Our tractor is still in the shop. We sure could use it! We think we have all three trucks working now (fingers crossed). We are ready to sow our wheat, and we are going to hire a neighbor to no-til it in for us. He didn't show up today, so now we wait for dryer weather.

Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.