New

We spent a blessed weekend in Gridley.  Saturday evening we heard the testimonies of five young converts who became convicted by sin, and through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ repented and were converted and now stand at peace with God and man.  Today we enjoyed worship, fellowship, and their baptisms.  We were thankful to be there for nephew Jesse.

Harvest is in full swing.  Two weeks ago the corn was still a little wet and the beans not ready yet, so we just opened up some fields and made sure everything was ready.  Last week was a beautiful drying week, so we took out a lot of corn, then switched to beans on Friday.  This coming week looks to be another good week for harvest.

In anticipation of a bountiful harvest, we traded auger wagons for a newer and bigger one.  The new one (to us) holds a a full semi-trailer load (1000 bu.) at a time.  I'm worried about the compaction that that much weight can cause in the fields, but hopefully it will help speed up harvest.

I have been searching for a new chest of drawers to keep my work clothes in down in the basement.  Actually, I have looked for a used one but haven't had any luck finding one that was in good condition and the size I needed with big sturdy drawers that open and close smoothly.  I did find some quality new ones, but was unwilling to pay five to seven hundred dollars for a dresser that will sit in the corner of a farmhouse basement.  Finally my wife found one in a second hand/antique shop on the square in Washington.  The price was acceptable, so on a rainy afternoon we picked it up and it has replaced my old one.  It looks a little too fancy to store work clothes in a basement corner, but it hasn't complained so far.  We did a little cleaning and sorting and pitching, so my corner is a little more organized now.

Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.
Isaiah 42:9

Late Night Freedom

It was about 10:25 P.M. and I had just stepped out of the basement shower.  I heard Trent pull in the driveway with the tractor and chisel plow.  Wearing only my towel, I was walking through the kitchen on my way upstairs when I heard a knock on the door.  It was Trent and he noticed in the tractor headlights pigs roaming around the farmyard.  I threw on some clothes and went out to investigate where they had come from.  A gate was forced open on the North end of one of our hoop buildings.  We positioned a couple of tractors so that their headlights lit up the area, and then set up some gates to corral and funnel the pigs.

There must have been close to a hundred of them out, exploring in the darkness.

My brother hustled down, and the three of us started roaming around the buildings, the field, and farmyard in the dark with sorting panels and flashlights.  It took about three rounds, but we had them all in and the gate secured by 11:00.

Back in the house, I had to clean up again (I was sweating) before I could finally head up to bed.

And the old farmer's wife slept through all the commotion.

Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:7

Event of the Decade

I pulled into the parking lot at 7:50 and already the line of people stretched the width of the lot.  There were two or three hundred people ahead of me in line.  At 8:00 we heard the countdown over the P.A. system.

10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1

And the doors were opened and everyone rushed inside and grabbed a shopping cart.

The Grand Opening of the new Morton Farm & Fleet!

I remember now why I don't do Black Friday.

There were traffic jams in the aisles.  They must have brought in a hundred extra employees, and they were very helpful, friendly, and working feverishly to restock the shelves that emptied continuously. Many came down from corporate in Wisconsin. Carts and dollies coming from the warehouse and trailers outside were constantly jockeying through the crowds.  It was a good thing the weather cooperated.   I had a plan and I got everything on my list into my overflowing, over-weighted cart except for one item which was already sold out.  I got into a check out line set up near a side door and only waited a half of an hour.  A big stuffed lion came by and gave me a bag of cheetos to munch on while I waited.
Later in the morning we heard that the check out lines were three hours long!  Are there really this many people that don't work on Thursdays?
Why did I go?  Because of the large number of items that were 50% off for the 3 days only.
They had vendor tents set up in the parking lot with demonstrations and seminars.  There were lots of door prizes and give-a-ways.  The police were getting a work-out directing traffic.  When I left, the parking lot was full and cars were parked up and down the side roads.
I would like to go back again soon and actually look around and see what has changed from the old store.  And shop in peace.

I am sure that the dedication of a new church, Christian service organization, or non-profit agency would not draw anywhere near the crowds or get the same attention.

Materialism trumps in our culture.

 And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.
Deuteronomy 20:5

Violin

When we were in K.C., we were given a violin (that had been in the shop for repairs) to bring back for nephew Ned.  Since it rained today and more is on the way, we decided to make a quick trip to C-U to make the delivery.  We didn't learn what the value of it was until after the delivery or we may have been a little worried about transporting it!  It was hand built in Germany in the 1920's.

We took Ned out to eat at Zsa's, and then drove to St. Joe to nephew Neal's to pick up some feed mill parts that he had brought back from Indiana for us a few weeks back. Neal gave us a quick tour of their house and we got to see all the kids ( he was babysitting).  The orange "Illini" garage was a highlight!  Then we headed back to Urbana to drop Ned off at Brown House and then headed back home.

It was a nice little outing for the old farmer and his wife.

That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David;
Amos 6:5

Fellowship

Friday noon we headed west for the weekend. We encountered some heavy rain and some hail on the way, but the trip went well.  We spent Friday night in the suburbs of Kansas City with my sister and her husband.  They took us out to J. Alexanders for supper, where I had an excellent prime rib dinner.  We visited late Friday night, slept late Saturday, did a little shopping, and then headed for Sabetha and Bern Kansas for the rest of the weekend.

We were in Bern for Micah and Olivia's wedding on Sunday.  We had a supper, singing, and good fellowship Saturday evening at the church. It had been a long time since we've been in Kansas, so it was great to get to see so many people we haven't connected with in years.  We stayed at a cousin's house in Sabetha Saturday night and had a nice visit, and then went to another cousin's house for breakfast Sunday morning.  We enjoyed a blessed day in church, a nice wedding and reception, then we changed clothes and headed for home.

The weather was beautiful Saturday and Sunday, so it was a nice driving .  Some people don't like to travel, they just want to be at their destination.  Not me, I enjoy the journey.  I like driving, sightseeing, watching the crops, and viewing the countryside in general.  There are historic towns, old grain elevators, and machinery dealerships to see.  We crossed three major rivers; the Illinois, the Mississippi, and the Missouri.  The rolling hills of Missouri with its woods, rock formations, and farms, and the rolling farmland of Kansas with its mix of crops and livestock make for an interesting drive.

Missouri had the cheapest gas, so we filled up three times on our trip.  The cheapest we paid was $3.17 per gallon.  Gas at home was about $3.39.

Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
Deuteronomy 1:7

Read Books

In the month of August, I think it rained more days than it didn't!  Not a typical hot, dry August.  The crops still look lush, but are starting to show signs of turning.  The soybeans are showing signs of disease, but we hope that the adequate moisture will make up for any loss from the diseases.  We've had a hot humid week, but signs of fall are starting to show up.

The older I get the more I realize how blessed we are who live in this time and place in history.  The length of peace and prosperity that we enjoy in middle and upper class America is unprecedented in the history of the world.  The more global our information and economy becomes, the more we see how incredibly fortunate we are.
We didn't go anywhere over Labor Day weekend, so I finished two books that I had been reading.  They reinforced these beliefs and convictions.

The first, Twelve Years A Slave, was written in 1853 by Solomon Northrop.  He was a free, educated  black man from New York who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Louisiana.  It was twelve years before he was able to get information on his location back to the authorities in New York in order to be rescued.
If you want an accurate picture of what it was like to be a slave in the deep South, this book gives that picture.  It is not pretty( understatement)!  This story was recently made into a movie, but I am sure the book is better.

The second book, Running For My Life, is the story of Olympic athlete Lopez Lomong.  In 1991, at the age of six, he was kidnapped by rebel soldiers while attending church with his parents during the Sudanese civil war.  Three older boys helped him escape the prison and they ran three days to the Kenyan border where they were caught and put in a refugee camp.  After ten years as an orphan in the refugee camp, the U.S. allowed some humanitarian agencies to find foster parents for 3500 of the "lost boys of Sudan".  Lopez was one of them. He is now an American citizen, a college graduate, and a professional athlete.
He now has a foundation that helps get water, food, education, and medical needs to the poor in South Sudan and Kenya.

And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
Exodus 1:14