Harvest and Flowers

 While harvesting soybeans on October 17 we had our first snow flurries.  Overall, we had very good weather during harvest with very little downtime.  We also were fortunate that my old combine performed gallantly through the harvest with minimal downtime for repairs.  We finished harvest on November 1st and I had my highest whole farms yields ever for both corn and soybeans!  We were not expecting that!  Even the double crop beans did well.  We are very grateful for the safe, smooth, abundant harvest.  I have not had time to clean up the machine yet because I still have tillage to do.  I spent the week hauling manure (liquid fertilizer) and finished around noon on Saturday.  That job is done for a few months.

The combine is parked in the shed after finishing the last field.

This past Wednesday the old farmers wife had cataract surgery.  I went to church alone in the evening.  On my way home I stopped and picked up a half dozen red roses for her.

Literally, I picked them up . . .  off the road out in the country!  She was still pleased, but a little concerned about who didn't get their roses.  I drove past them first until my brain registered what I had just seen. Then I backed up and sure enough, a batch of roses lying on the road.  We are at least five miles from the nearest flower sellers, so it is unlikely that they were left on top of a car as they would not have made it that far.  Did someone get mad on the way home and toss them out the window?  Oh well, they were too nice to leave on the road so at least they are being appreciated.

Winter arrived on Saturday with cold, blustery weather and more snow flurries.  I guess it is that time of year, but I could have used another warm week.  Now it is time to put the long johns back on and start dressing in layers.  I am thankful for how much we accomplished before the change.

I read this in my devotional one morning this week.

"It has been said that there are two classes of people:  There are those who choose their destination and accept and make the best of the path that leads there, and there are those who choose their path and accept the destination that it leads them to".

I hope we all choose eternal life in Heaven as our destination.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.                      James 1:17