The Week

Conference week is past. Friday night we put the church back together, and it went smoother than I expected.  We enjoyed keeping Rod and Sue for three nights even though their schedule kept them very busy.  We appreciated the time we had in the mornings and evenings to visit with them and catch up a bit.

Tuesday morning we discovered that the feed mill motor had shut down during the night.  I pulled it out and had it to the motor repair shop by 11:00 AM.  I called around and found a hog farmer in Minier that had a used spare motor that he was willing to loan us for the week.  I had it installed and running by mid-afternoon.  Wednesday afternoon the motor shop finally called, but said our motor was junk.  They found a source for a replacement (it's a special, uncommon motor) and could have one shipped in the next day.  We told them to order it and let us know as soon as it came in.  I was worried that it wouldn't be the same frame and RPM.
Thursday afternoon at 4:30 they called that the truck just dropped the motor off and someone would stay at the shop until I got there.  Friday morning with some help, I swapped out the borrowed motor for the new one and everything is working and back to normal.  My stress level decreased dramatically.

Our tiling contractor was able to finish up our winter tiling project last week.  They had started earlier, and had all the mains in, then it warmed up and the Township posted the roads. So rather than getting trapped in our field, they pulled their machinery off the job.  After the cold returned, they were able to come back and resume the job.  They plowed in all the laterals, despite six to ten inches of frost, and got them all hooked up.  This new drainage system should be a huge improvement on that farm, allowing us to plant and harvest earlier, and also increase yields.

And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
Genesis 8:13

Preparations

Yesterday at 2:00, we started transforming our church into a conference center for the Midwinter Elder Conference which we host this year.  The committee leads had everything planned out and the transition went smoothly.  My group removed all of the two center rows of benches in the sanctuary and set up conference tables and chairs.  Other groups prepared other rooms; small meeting rooms, hospitality, medical, office, technology, luggage, and changing rooms.  Setup went quicker than I expected and I think we are ready.
The old farmer's wife was in charge of accommodations, and I think everyone has a place to stay.  And I think that I have all of my honey-do jobs finished and our house is ready for guests.

Now it is up to the Lord to give us favorable weather and his Spirit to preside over the Elders, the Church, and the conference.

And said unto them, Ye are the chief of the fathers of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the LordGod of Israel unto the place that I have prepared for it.
I Chronicals 15:12

Snow Day

Church was cancelled today because of the snow.  I'm usually skeptical about cancellations unless it is very obvious, but I understand the safety implications.  The media buildup is usually worse than the event.
I listened to an archived Bible study online after chores, then we started listening to Sabetha's morning service.  Halfway through, we lost it, so we switched and listened to the second half of Bern's morning service.
Then I took a nap.

We are in the middle of winter meeting season.  This past week I attended two meetings, and the prior week was two conferences and a meeting.  The week of the 360 Yield Center and the Precision Planting conferences, which Gary and Karen Wiegand catered, they served 5000 ribeye steaks!  They cut them up themselves, marinate and grill them, and serve them with all the fixings.  Five thousand ribeye steaks!  That's a lot of beef!

And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
Leviticus 25:7