Fortunate

 The good news is, I missed the mailbox.

The day started off pretty nice.  We had a good frost overnight, but it was clear and sunny with a slight breeze. It looked like we would be able to cut some beans once the sun dried things up.  We were able to start combining at noon.  The moisture tester in the combine had been acting up all last week and the mechanic had tried to fix it.  It still was acting up, so he showed up shortly after we started, to replace it with a new one.  It took longer than expected to replace it because the software also needed to be updated, but he finally had us up and running with a properly operating tester.  Cousin Virg and Darin stopped by with a snack (cheese, of course) and then Darin rode with me in the combine and my brother gave Virg auger cart lessons.  About the time they needed to leave, the sickle broke, so they helped us remove the broken one and put the new one in.  We finished the dry soybeans in that field and trucked the head down the road to the next field.  The field entrance is on the East side of the old McClallen house, and there was an already harvested field on the West side of the old McClallen house, so we decided to put the head back on in the empty field.  Once the head was reinstalled, I just had to drive a block down the road (with a 30 ft. head that takes up all of the road) in front of the house and into the field driveway.  There is a electric pole directly across from the house's mailbox.  Apparently about 32 feet apart.  I slowed down to a creep and tried to slip between.

The bad news is, I bumped the pole.

The pole snapped off about ten feet above the ground and fell across the platform.  Some wires draped over the combine, some snapping.  There was a temporary spark show in front of me on the platform.  The road was blocked, and everyone living along our road lost power.  There was a mixture of dread, humility, and thankfulness.  My brother was following in the pickup and quickly called in the emergency.  I stayed put in the cab, not knowing if any of the lines were still hot.  The fire trucks and rescue trucks showed up first, followed by the Ameren crews.  Once they had the line grounded at the end  of the road, I was allowed to leave the combine.  It wasn't a very heavy pole, and they were able to lift the pole off of the head without any further damage, clear away the wires, and give me the go-a-head to extract the combine.  I was able to back out of the spot and down the road to where I had started from.  We started up the machine and fortunately everything worked normally.  There are some scratches, some broken reel fingers, and a bent reel pipe, but no major damage!  We called it quits for the night, and an hour after I was home, the power came back on.

I'm feeling fortunate and thankful.

It is the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22,23