Complete

The second week of October was the rainy week this year, and we only were in the field for one half day all week,  The third week we moved to Panola to try to harvest our last field of soybeans.  We got moved up there around noon on Monday and discovered that the beans were still too tough and wet to combine,  So we decided to start the corn there.  We got the field opened up, but proceeded to get the tractor and auger wagon stuck twice.  Neighbor Ken came over with his tractor the first time and pulled us out.  The second time we borrowed his chain and were able to pull the tractor out with the combine.  We finally decided to quit for the day and went back home.
It took us most of the week to get that farm harvested, and we kept from getting stuck again.  We did get moved back home late Friday afternoon and started filling our bins.  Because of the setbacks, we were unable to make it to Windsor for Brad's wedding that weekend.  We filled bins this past week and finished harvest on Halloween.

This past weekend, with harvest over, we went with the Choir on the bus to Garden Grove.  I enjoyed watching the harvest progress out the bus windows as we traveled across Western Illinois and Southern Iowa.  There was a lot of crop in the field the farther west we went.
We enjoyed traveling through the old, small, very rural towns along the way.  All unique and yet many similarities.  Each having a mostly shuttered downtown, a couple large old houses that were elegant mansions in the day, a town square/park, a couple unique shops, and a declining feel in general but many reminders of better times.

We enjoyed the fellowship with the Garden Grove church family, and they were very hospitable.  I had driven through the town before, but this was my first time to worship with the church.  I met and visited with some people that I hadn't seen in 30 or 40 years, but we were able to share together as if it were just a few years.  Lots of friends and relatives from Bloomfield drove over Saturday evening for the program and again on Sunday, so that made the weekend extra special.  With the time change, much of the ride home was in the dark, but it was a good trip.

The slower pace of life, the more rural, western feel, and the mixed cropland/timber terrain still calls me to Southern Iowa, but at this stage in my life it is less likely to happen than it ever was.

Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.
Psalm 126:2

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Genesis 12:1