Garden vs. Farm

The farm and the garden battled it out today and the garden took a hit.

It is milo harvest and the garden is not too far from the big bins where we store our grain. I was using this last really warm (64 degrees) afternoon to turn the soil in some of the raised beds so that they will be ready for early vegetables in spring. The one closest to the bins was about half done when Chuck came to me and said that he was going to have to park a tractor on that particular raised bed.

The driveway that goes past the bins also goes right past the garden. In order for the grain trucks to be able to follow the driveway around the loop, the tractor that turns the auger lifting the grain into the bin has to be off to the side...in my garden.

It was almost painful to watch those huge heavy wheels compact that wonderful deeply tilled loose soil. Chuck promised that next year he would change the path of the drive so that my beds will be safe.

It was a perfect day for digging. I got the soybeans turned under in hopes of increasing the nitrogen in the last bed where they were planted. I also dug one bed that had a nice green cover crop of young weeds. The dirt is so easy to turn that it takes less than half an hour to dig a bed 3 feet by 20 feet.

Like Grandpa

When Luke was here today he spent at least an hour wearing a farm cap and work gloves like Grandpa. The other thing he did when he wasn't wearing the gloves was walk around with his hands in his pockets. The gloves were just too big to fit, I guess.

My Grandson!

I went to see baby Bentley and Courtney today. I got to hold him for about 2 hours and he was as sweet as could be. It was really good to visit with Courtney and her mom.

Cross Country running

Wes is in Cross Country this year and got to run in competition with other schools for the first time last Thursday at Hesston. Here he is in fine spirits before the race.

He ran with freshmen boys, a 5K instead of a 2 mile race, so that was different than he had anticipated. I got the finish of the race on video.

Laura got some more stuff, and posted it at her site. He finished in 21:18, 35th out of around 100 runners.

September Morning, and vacation and other things

Every fall I seem to need to take a picture of sunflowers. I thought I would just not do that this year, but Sunday the fog was so beautiful, and the sunflowers so bright... I was late for church but I needed the picture.

I promised Becca a month ago that I would get some pictures up from vacation. Maybe tonight I can work fast and actually get that done.

One thing I've had to admit after downloading all of these pictures is that I'm terrible at documenting my life photographically. The highlight of the trip was that my parents were able to share it with us, and yet I don't have a single picture of them on vacation. Maybe my brother or sister can help me out there.

For those of you that don't already know, we filled every seatbelt in our Dodge Caravan, stuffed things under the seats, in between the seats, behind the seats, and on top of the van and took off for Colorado. We chose to leave as soon after Laura got off work---usually around 4:00 am, but we were about an hour later than that.

As you can see, in the back seat the passengers were shoulder to shoulder, and yet we all got along great!

In Denver we chose to go to the Aquarium, thinking that it would entertain Luke since he would be able to get close to the fish and see them really well. We didn't count on him being very tired and sleeping through most of it. But we enjoyed it anyway.

Waiting in line.

Becca in her diving suit.

Hanging out near the tiger area. Yeah, I know, tigers don't live under water. They do NEED water though, so I guess that counts.

Outside the aquarium waiting for Chuck, Laura, and Luke to finish their shopping in the gift shop.

And here is Laura with the sleeping Luke, ready to go back to the motel.

We generally packed our own food for picnic lunches, but enjoyed eating restaurant food in the evenings. The first evening we followed our tradition of ordering pizza delivery. The second evening in Denver we took advantage of Becca's knowledge of the city and had her pick us a great Mexican restaurant---Hilarios.

I love eating out, and I love really good Mexican food!

From Denver we went to Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp where we stayed in a great cabin and attended family camp with my parents, my brother's family and my sister's family. These are pics from the cabin in no particular order.

Luke really loves Chuck, so we got plenty of adoring Grandpa/Grandson pics.

There was time to play cards

paint T-shirts with designs based on our relationship to Luke

and just generally hang out.

Luke

Becca and Luke

Tim and Laura

Kate

One night a thunderstorm brought hail, cold winds and even some snow.

We also did some hiking. My first hike was to ice falls with many of the others from the family.
Here's Becca

Laura and Luke

Wil

Molly

Larry and Sam

The second hike we attempted was to the solution pools and Luke had a hearty start, wearing a Jayhawks hat much to the uncles' delight.

He soon decided hiking was not as good as riding

and then decided to come to a full stop---or a melt down, whichever. So Laura and I handed off my camera to the hikers and we had a very pleasant leisurely walk back to camp. That is after Luke had a nice nursing break and then fell asleep.

The others took pics at the top.

Larry and Wil, Becca, Kevin and Annette

and again

Kevin and Annette

a pile of ladybugs---how cool is that?

Chuck

Annette

Kevin

We also spent a lot of time in the dining hall. Here Wes and Luke are playing.

We did lots of other stuff too, like a fun nature walk, like sitting and knitting and talking upstairs at the cabin, like taking naps whenever we felt like it... It was a good and relaxing trip.


Now for a couple of other pictures I promised Becca. At home again, work resumed. Chuck had arranged to have his hog lagoon cleaned out so this huge earth mover came to do the job.

Scoop it up...

dump it out.

I'm sure not too many of you are interested but it took Chuck a couple of weeks to haul all that manure to our fields. Crops should be fine next year.

Jesus for President

I finished reading "Jesus For President" today, and I'm going to read it again sometime in the not too distant future. I borrowed Tim's copy, and read it before he had a chance. I kept coming to things I wanted to share and he occasionally would remind me that he would like to read the book himself.

The book is an exhortation for those of us called by Christ's name to truly be like him in every way. I have a long way to go, but I really want that.

As I read, I caught myself being swept away by the big things people have done because of their faith. I want to do big things. Sometimes I want to do big things so much I miss the small things. Daily faithfulness is primarily the interactions and choices we make every day. Who do we invite into our lives? Who do we exclude? How do we interact with the people we live with. How do we make our daily choices so that we (the rich minority in the world) live so that others may also live? What do we eat? What do we wear? What do we buy? How much do we drive?

It's not that I think we are to be bound by a set of rules, but that in everything we are to be so in love with who Jesus is that we make our choices in view of that. Jesus was amazing. He was unafraid. He could do right, speak out honestly and forthrightly, befriend anyone, make people uncomfortable, show mercy, confront when necessary, call people out in their sin, forgive when no one else was forgiving, live out of fierce love for us---all this and more without fear of the consequences to him in terms of security, safety, or public opinion. He desired the same for us.

Gratitude

I'm writing from a motel in Denver. We left yesterday morning at 5 am.

Last week I was concerned all week that the corn I'd planted would come ripe after we left for Colorado. Either Chuck or I would check it nearly every day and find plenty of unripe corn but not much that was ready.

Becca arrived Thursday (YEA!!!!) and we had fresh corn for supper, but even Thursday evening my guess was that the corn was probably only about 1/3 to 1/2 ripe. We were trying to guess who we knew that might want to pick their own corn so that the beautiful crop would not be wasted.

My garden is at the point where the enthusiasm stage is making way for the reality phase. The chard never materialized, and some of the squash has already withered away, making it clear that while I can prepare all I want for a wonderful garden, the end result is still not up to me. The corn was the first crop of the year that I knew was a sure thing. I was getting a little bit obsessed with being able to harvest that corn and put it in the freezer.

Chuck was doing a great job of reminding me that vacation was important and that the world would not end and we would still eat good food even if we did not get the corn. There are friends and family who might really enjoy the great corn so we could enjoy giving it away.

Friday morning he went out to pick. Nearly all of it was ripe. But Friday was the day before vacation, and Laura had to work so it was also a day of watching Luke. We would do whatever we could.

Becca and I started washing the corn and Chuck asked Tim to help him pick. But Tim likes washing with Becca better than walking through the tall corn and I was anxious to pick with Chuck so we traded. Chuck is a lot faster than I at picking and husking but it was good work and we laughed as we made our way through the rows.

Becca and Tim hard at work washing corn. Then I had Chuck join them because he picked most of it...but it was too late to get a picture of him in action.


By around noon we were done picking and washing, I'd started the water for blanching, Laura and Luke arrived to join us for 'clean out the fridge before vacation' lunch, and it was time to pick up the van from a lube and oil, etc.

After lunch Mom and Dad arrived to pitch in, Wes joined in to help cut the corn from the cobs, and soon it was a party. Unfortunately I forgot about getting my camera out until after Wes had quite cutting the corn. He was getting tired of cutting himself along with the corn.

Chuck was working hard to get last minute field work and grinding feed done before we left so we needed to get some food to him in the field. Laura left for work and soon after, it was time to rock Luke to sleep for his afternoon nap. When that was done I joined the work in progress in the kitchen.

Here is Dad hard at work. He is unapproachable as far as speed in getting corn from cob to bowl. But he loves to pretend that he is trying to catch up with the rest of us slowpokes.


Mom usually does most of her work in the kitchen cooking and cooling the corn, but I got this picture of her cutting corn after I took over in the kitchen.

Tim worked hard, but doesn't look enthusiastic in this picture. He was great help.

It was so great to have Becca home for this.

Here is the finished product, ready to be stacked in the freezer.

By supper time we'd cut 118 cups of corn and packaged it for the freezer. Greg joined us for our corn harvest meal: Sausage links on the grill served in wheat buns, corn on the cob, fresh cucumbers from a friend's garden, watermelon, and ice cream.

Out of all that work, I picked maybe 1/4 of the corn, washed about five ears, cooked and chilled about half the corn, cut five to ten ears, and packaged all of it. Obviously, I would not have been able to complete this job on the day before vacation by myself.

So I'm grateful.

I'm grateful that the corn was ripe before we had to leave.

I'm grateful for family that is enthusiastic about helping and so much fun to be around.

I'm grateful for a safe and good drive to Colorado after a night with only about 2 hours of sleep.

I'm grateful for a brother that would go to my house in my absence and search for the cell phone I forgot, when what I really forgot is that I packed it in a different place that I usually do...thanks so much, Larry!

Finally, this picture isn't from doing corn, but I had to add it. Luke really enjoys Chuck and makes tiny squeals of excitement every time Chuck comes in from outdoors. Chuck was doing the Regier Grandpa thing and feeding Luke ice cream after Luke's bath the other night when we were babysitting.