Helicopter

We raise a field of wheat each year, this year no exception.  We typically have our wheat sprayed with a fungicide to prevent diseases, and this year we felt it especially important because of the cool, wet spring.  Our fertilizer and crop protection dealer, Earlybird Feed and Fertilizer, bought a helicopter this year for aerial spraying.  Our wheat field got to be the guinea pig field.  We finally had a day when it wasn't raining or threatening rain, and the new spray system on the 'copter was working and calibrated.  So, this afternoon they showed up and performed for us.

Pilot Fred Leman coming in for a pit stop.

Gently setting it down on the nurse truck despite the stiff breeze.

The pit crew goes to work.

Covering about 50 feet per pass at 60-70 MPH.

They made quick work of our field!

They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.
Job 9:26

Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?
Job 39:27

Memorial Day

On a very soggy Memorial Day, I recommend reading "In Our Youth Our Hearts Were Touched By Fire", the 1884 Memorial Day Speech by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.  It is one of the most quoted Memorial Day speeches ever given.

Here is a poem for Memorial Day.

Dirge for Two Veterans

By Walt Whitman

 

THE last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finish'd Sabbath,
On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking,
Down a new-made double grave.

Lo, the moon ascending,
Up from the east the silvery round moon,
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.

I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key'd bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they're flooding,
As with voices and with tears.

I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring,
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.

For the son is brought with the father,
(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans son and father dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them.)

Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight o'er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.

In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin'd,
('Tis some mother's large transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.)

O strong dead-march you please me!
O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.

The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.

Thy name, O Lord, endureth for ever; and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations.
Psalm 135:13

Graduation Revisited

Its another rainy day.
We haven't been in the field since Monday.  We were hoping that by today we could get another field planted, but it doesn't look like it is going to happen.  Cool and damp.

As I reflect on having all four of our children attend and graduate from the University of Illinois, it does give me a little feeling of pride (if that is permissible).  Mostly though, I am grateful.
I am grateful that they were able to maintain their faith while getting a secular education at a secular institution.  I enjoyed watching the spiritual growth despite the worldly, hedonistic atmosphere around them.

I am thankful that they all were able to live in Christian "houses" with Christian roommates.  I enjoyed getting to know some of their roommates and their families.  I believe lifelong friendships were made.

I am especially thankful for the role that the Champaign Apostolic Christian Church played in supporting the students.  The support, fellowship, integration, involvement, and mutual activities were a blessing for the students and for us parents.  This student/church relationship gave us a much higher level of confidence in the overall experience.

When I attended U. of I., I was unconverted.  My parents would call me at 8:00 on Sunday mornings to get me up and encourage me to go to church.  I usually went, especially if I could get someone to go with me!  I appreciated the church even then (when it was still in a house in Urbana).

I am also thankful that my kids were able to earn a quality education without much financial or intellectual support from me.  Hats off to all of you!

I love visiting the campus, the historic buildings, seeing the old haunts, walking from one end to the other, and seeing the many changes that have taken place over the years.  Maybe someday I will be visiting there to see the grandchildren!

As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom:

Daniel 1:17

Planting

Last Tuesday, I finished the field I was planting by stopping every hour and adding a gallon of hydraulic oil to the tractor.  An O-ring blew out on the hydraulic pump.  Not the kind of problem we needed being 2-3 weeks behind with planting.  To make matters worse, it was a new pump installed in April of 2010.  Unfortunately, the ring that blew was inaccessible without disassembling the tractor and removing the pump.  The repairman showed up at 8:30 Wednesday morning and was finished by 2:00 in the afternoon.  Before I got out of the yard a hydraulic line (that probably wasn't tightened enough) blew apart and oil sprayed through the radiator and into the fan and therefore all over the tractor.  After another half hour with solvent and degreaser, we were finally ready to resume planting.  We had a tenth of an inch of rain Wednesday night, but were able to continue planting late morning Thursday.  We did have a good week all in all, and finished planting corn Friday evening.  At noon on Friday, a quick shower moved through the area where we were working, so I got a short nap in while waiting for the field to dry enough to continue.
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Saturday morning we sorted out a Semi trailer load of hogs, then the weekend graduation parties started in the afternoon so we didn't get started on the soybeans.  Monday, after shipping the hogs we sorted Saturday, we headed Northeast to plant our first field of beans at our most distant farm.  We finished in the evening, but I didn't make it all the way home before the storm hit.  We put the tractor away wet, but thankful to be back home.   The rain was actually welcome, as the late planted corn could use the boost, and the soybean ground was really getting dry and cloddy.

Thou shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil thereon: it is a meat offering.
Leviticus 2:6

Graduation

We got in one full day of planting corn this week before the rains returned.  At the rate of one to two days in the field per week, it could take us a while to get everything done.

This morning I noticed that our first planted field of corn is emerging!  Now if we could just get a little warm weather to give it a good boost.

Because we were out of the field, I didn't have to feel guilty about spending the day in Champaign-Urbana.  Daughter #2 graduated today with her BSW from (drum roll please), the University of Illinois!  She joins her siblings with that honor, being the 4th (and last) of our children to graduate from my Alma Mater.  In August she gets her MRS degree. ;)
After the ceremony in Smith Memorial Hall, we attended a reception in the Social Work building. 

It was a cool, windy day on campus, but the sun was shining so we spent a couple hours giving Kendra a tour of some of the highlights.  First stop, of course, was the Morrow Plots.  Then on to the Undergrad, South Quad, past the Carillon, ARC, Armory, Foellinger, Main Quad, the Boneyard, Bardeen Quad, Granger, and part of the Engineering campus.  We got a good workout, and I wonder how many miles we put on the soles.
Unfortunately, the Alma Mater statue was out of town being refurbished, so no picture of the graduate there.

We figured that all of the popular restaurants around campus would be very busy, so we headed to the west side of town to Za's and had some good Italian food for supper before heading back home.

 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Galatians 3:23

A Start

Tuesday afternoon, the last day of April, we finally got out into the field to start planting.  We found a field at home where except for one small wet spot, conditions were good.  Yesterday we found another field that was in almost perfect condition for planting; it worked up nice and it was uniformly dry.  This morning we started planting our third field, but it was still a little damp in spots, and then we saw the rain clouds moving towards us, so we brought the machinery home and parked for the rest of the day.  If the forecast is correct, we are probably done for awhile.  At least we got a start, and we ask God's blessings on a new season.
Hopefully we won't get the snow that they are getting to the West and North.

The planter is working admirably, and the new "trial" Precision monitor and iPad are spewing out more information than I can follow and drive at the same time.

At 11:00 last night as I was lying in bed drifting off to sleep, I remembered that the pickup loaded with seed was still out in the field three miles away.  There was a chance of rain in the forecast.  I woke up my wife (she was a good sport), got her out of bed, and we slipped on clothes and ventured out and brought the truck home.  That shortened up the night.


And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.
Psalm 107:7