Slow Start

This year has been a very good apple year for us.  The dry July/August coupled with a hot two weeks at the end of summer seems to have caused them to mature earlier than normal, but we still had a bumper crop.  We pulled out the Happy Valley Ranch Homesteader cider press and have made cider twice already this fall.  My special blend this year contains 5 different varieties of apples.  Much better than store bought!

We have started harvesting corn, but it has been slow to mature and dry down.  We have opened up 4 or 5 fields, but have only finished one so far.  We have dried enough corn to start feeding the pigs fresh corn.  The yields so far appear to be very good.  We have no soybeans ready to harvest yet, but hope to by the end of this week.

A couple weeks ago I went to a pre-harvest farm meeting and sat down by on old friend of mine that I don't see very regularly.  I had just recently heard that he had been sick this summer and I asked him what happened.  Jerry and I went all though school together starting in kindergarten, and were born less than a week apart.  He is friendly and hard working.  His back had been bothering him all through spring, but he refused to do much about it until all the soybeans were planted.  His elderly mother stopped in to check on him on her way to church one Sunday morning (he is single) and he looked so tough that she took him straight to the hospital.  The Doctor told him that if he had waited 2 or 3 more days he would have been dead.  I don't know what all of his medical problems are or the order they happened, but he shared that he has cancer in his spine and his kidneys have failed.  After a month in the hospital, and over a month at home recuperating, he is now able to be out and about.  He has Chemotherapy one day a week, kidney dialysis three days a week, and radiation treatments four days a week.  He said he looks at life a lot differently now and has a much greater appreciation for what he has and had.
I pray for healing, and I hope and pray that God will work in his heart and guide him so that whatever he has yet to face, he can do it with a peace that passes all understanding.

  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Phillipians 4:7

Update

Last week, Earlybird offered us a ride in their helicopter to look at our fields from the air.  It was a beautiful day to fly, and a great way to scout the fields and check the crops.  We were cruising at about 500 feet altitude and about 90 mph as we traveled from farm to farm.  Then we'd fly lower and circle each field.  Overall, I thought the crops looked better than I expected.  I hope the yields prove me right.

The cockpit.

Our farmstead from the air.

In 1993 we bought a Jayco pop-up tent camper.  Over the next 15 or so years we enjoyed many camping trips with our children.  Many good memories were made all over the country in all types of weather.  We outgrew it when all of our children became adults, so we haven't used it in at least 4 years.  So on Labor Day, I set it up to prepare it for sale.  I discovered that water had leaked in and molded through the canvas in several spots.  In my opinion, the whole tent needed to be replaced rather than just patched.  The cost would be $850 plus my labor, so I decided to see if I could sell it "as is" at a cheap price on Craig's List.  It was gone in 3 days!  That saved me a lot of work!

The camper before it left the farm.

Last weekend we headed to Kansas City for nephew Scott's wedding.  We didn't leave until Jake got home from work Friday, so we didn't reach our final destination until early Saturday morning.  We stayed with Galen and Shannon and their girls, along with Bob and Jenny, and we enjoyed our time with them.  Bob and Jenny had a flat tire on arrival Friday night, so we took it off in the morning, dropped it at Walmart on the way to the wedding, picked  up the new tire on the way back, and had them up and running again by late afternoon.  The entire family except one nephew made it out for the wedding, so it was good to be all together again.  We made the trip in 6 1/2 hours each way.  I think that is a record for us.

One view of Galen and Shannon's house with Bob and Jenny's wheel missing car.

Last night, Matt and Lena, and Nathan and Michelle came over and we made apple cider.  Because of the recent heat and dry weather, the apples are maturing earlier than normal, and falling from the trees.  We made about 8 gallons of cider from about 5 bushels of apples.

The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
Joel 1:12