The fundamentals of life are found on the farm. Afterall, that is where God started man… in the Garden of Eden. It was on the farm that God set life applications in place. I grew up on a rice & soybean farm outside of Hamburg, Arkansas. Here are some of the applications I recognize. I …
Continue reading Lesson From The Farm: We Harvest What We Farm
I must have been 6 or 7 years old the summer I spend with my dad’s Aunt Mary & Uncle Aldo (Doe Doe). They lived in the country outside Carlisle, AR, just down the road from the house my grandpa & dad built. I remember the first morning, before the sun came up, Uncle Doe …
My dad had massive, callused hands. If he tightened a nut with his hands, you didn’t need a wrench. When my dad was a young boy, he and his dad built their house (probably 90 years ago – still occupied in Carlisle, AR) with their hands. Dad could build whatever he needed out of wood …
I was a freshman in college when I learned this lesson. I was helping dad on the farm that hot summer. I remember the morning I slipped quietly into the house. Everyone was sleeping, I thought. It was still dark when I eased into bed. That was precisely when the alarm clock went off. Time …
I remember those early mornings, just after sun-up, my head still groggy from not enough sleep… with a grease gun in hand. This was the ritual every morning. If something moved or turned it had to be greased. It was not a glamorous or exciting task that created interesting conversations. In fact, it was messy, …
Continue reading Lessons From The Farm: Preparing For The Day’s Work.
Many times, we would harvest rice when the field was less than ideal. No one was exempt from getting stuck, but an experienced driver knew when to stop. All the equipment had very large tires with lugs designed to grip the soil. If the tractor or combine was moving it was great, but when the …
Continue reading Lesson From The Farm, “If Your Tires Spin…Stop!”
A "Sharecropper" is a farmer who works the land for a “share” of the harvest. The landowner receives a percentage or portion from the top of the harvest. My dad (pictured on his combine) was a sharecropper. He was responsible for the labor, equipment and the cost of planting and the harvest. After harvest, at …
It was a milestone of an era. Everyone I knew kept a coffee can of nails. There were all types & sizes… roofing, finishing, 10-penny, and framing nails. And they were bent. But why keep bent & used nails? Why not throw them away? My parents, my friends’ parents & families had experienced the Great …
Continue reading Lessons From The Farm: The Coffee Can of Nails
I asked a dear farmer friend, "What are your thoughts when you plant?" He quickly replied, "I see the harvest!" Think about that. My friend is a seasoned farmer. He has “put-in” a lot of crops. He knows the hard work that lays ahead. He has experienced the enormous risks of poor crop prices, insects, …
Once the rice was about knee high…when it’s hard to see the snakes, my job was to be a flag-boy for the pilot flying fertilizer, herbicides, or insecticides. It was always just after the sun came up that I would wade into the rice field with the mosquitoes. A flag-boy is the focal point or …
Today's Good News 