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!”
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
Last week I noticed these ducks in our yard at the lake. It was pouring down rain, yet they went about the morning as if it were bright & sunny. When you think about it, they have no warm & safe shelter or control over the weather. They do not have a pantry, refrigerator & …
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 …
We all start the same way, somebody spoon feeding us. It starts with a plan or strategy of selecting what “lil” Johnny needed, what he would eat, creative ways and time for the “event” and the clean up afterwards. For Mary & me, the sooner our children learned to use their own spoon, the better. …
Growing up on the farm meant getting started early and working late. Usually, it began as the sun was coming up and working until the sun went down. But on this day…it went past “dark-30”. Planting & harvest have windows of time when they must be done. If a farmer misses the planting days, there …
Continue reading Lessons From The Farm: “Do The Lights On Your Tractor Work?” Part 2
There are 2 basic ways to plant in the spring, Broadcast-Spreader (top picture) and Drilling. Growing up we had a red seeder wagon pulled behind a tractor. I remember we planted rice after we pulled the levees. My job as a 10- or 13-year-old was to ride in the back and shovel rice seed into …
The BSF study of Revelation has been incredible. Amid the mystery, the unanswered questions, the terrible wrath that awaits unbelievers and the Glory of God, one of my discussion brothers crystalized it all this morning. “We have a choice of who we serve, Him (Jesus) or me.” As I look back on my life, I …
I remember those early mornings driving to the farm as the sun was coming up. I was groggy from little sleep, as we pulled into the shop to prepare for a day of planting. There was a ritual every man did before going to the field. All the discs, planters, and tractors had to be …
Continue reading Lessons From The Farm: Preparing For The Day’s Work
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