Farmers

I am the daughter of a farmer. In our 'other life' the JD salesman and I were farmers. Well, I was the farmer's wife! I didn't do a lot of actual farming especially in the years of babies and toddlers. But later I did get to run the combine a few times and would move machinery when called upon. I made huge mistakes, plugged the combine, closed the wrong gate when moving cows late one hot summer evening, got the pick-up stuck in the huge puddle..... etc.

Back to the main point: farmers.

I think I understand a little of what they deal with, weather: machinery, CWB, price of cattle, fertilizer prices, spray prices, weather, falling grain prices, did I mention weather???? But it is interesting how different farmers deal with all these things.

After one especially dry winter the snow was falling. The JD salesman pointed this out to a farmer who was complaining about the lack of snow. "Yes, it is snowing," he said "but it is such a dry snow." Oh my!!!!

This has been an especially challenging year, weather-wise, for the farmers in Alberta. But some choose to see the glass half full. Like the one who told the Salesman the other day that the wheat is only feed grade but the good thing is there is twice as much of it! After ANOTHER shower went through the other day a young farmer said ''Maybe tomorrow .......'' with a big grin.

I think it is the same in whatever 'profession' one is involved, even mothering.... how will I choose to view the obstacles that are in the way.

So to you farmers and farmerettes out there..... happy harvest. See the good, enjoy the good and view life in the fullest way possible!

By the way, we are thankful to not be farming any more. It was great when we were in it, a great life to raise a family. We want other people to keep farming but we are getting too old for the pressures and the time involved.

Now what will I say about JD salesmen in a few years.......

This really has been a random post!

Does God make sense?

Recently the sister of a friend was killed in a head-on collision on a highway near her home. She was 50 and she and her husband home schooled their 3 boys. Beyond tragic....

A friend mentioned that it was one of those situations that are talked about in the book "When God Doesn't Make Sense". I think I understand the author's point but I ask, does God ever make sense?

I believe God created a perfect world, perfect and indescribably beautiful. Then he made people with free wills and we see the 'rest of the story'. There is greed that hurts people and greed that is making many places in the world very ugly. Tell me, does God make sense?

Then God asks/tells/sends his son out of heaven into this world as a human being to live like a pauper and die like a criminal. Does that make sense to you?

Quite honestly, I don't want God to make sense to my small minded thinking. No, that is wrong, I often wish God made sense to me but that is when I want to be in control. But then how could he be God? If I trust God, believe that he is good, that he is love, that he loves me then he doesn't have to make sense to me. I simply need to trust. I don't have to figure out what "it or IT" is all about.

Okay, now I admit it. God does not make sense but most of the time I know he loves he and some of the time I actually believe it.

Rainy-day FALL beauty

Autumn or Fall

So, is this time of the year autumn or is it fall? This is my blog so I will tell you what I think!

Autumn is something that happens in New England or in Ontario and Quebec. It is this romantic, Martha Stewart kind of season with the 'cooler' days, the gently falling leaves that are every wonderful color that we could imagine. It is the season of carefully planned decorating inside and out with pumpkins, corn stocks, sheaves of grain. It is wonderful aromas of cooking apples, pumpkins and acorns. Autumn just slides into the preparations for the holiday season of Thanksgiving and Christmas with a gentle sprinkling of snow to accentuate the wonder of the season.

In Alberta the bottom FALLs out of summer and we are preparing for the onslaught of winter. We haven't had any days that could be classed as warm, we go from cold to colder to coldest. The leaves are whipped from the trees in winds that take your breath away and many times there is no chance for enjoying color because they are frozen and turn black or brown in early September. The lack of sunshine, well, it tends to make me grumpy and tired. We expect snow at any time and the rain helps make the farmers sad and grumpy too. Then there are the memories that still make me teary, the memories of taking the adult children to college two provinces away. It broke my heart every time it happened.

Okay, I am over reacting. Yes, fall is not my favorite season of the year. But this year I have resolved to see the beauty. And yes, this year the colors are amazing! Even the grasses along the side of the road are red, yellow, orange and healthy brown. I am looking for things to be thankful for and the list is very long.

So..... it is fall for me but this year I choose to see the good.

Part of the journey....

On impulse or was it because it cost only $1 I picked up a novel at a garage sale. "Catherine Wheels" by Lief Peterson is a better read than I was expecting.

Last night as I was reading this popped out at me: ".... if we insist on understanding everything, we'll never get it. We need to simply do our best to live into it, and accept that we may never know what it all means."

I realize I may be reading into this something the author never intended but it fits what I have been thinking about a whole lot over a long time. I think I am learning that I don't have the answers for a whole load of questions but instead of making up answers or feeling guilty that I can't come up with the answers I am learning to leave it, learning to' live into it'. Ignoring and pretending 'it' doesn't exist is as troublesome as making up an answer that is no answer but in learning to 'live into it' I am finding answers, maybe not to the original question but answers. Sometimes it is acceptance, sometimes a different way of thinking, sometimes more questions but there is a learning and a growing, a trust in the goodness of God and a goodness in people.

Sometimes the process is dark and heavy, sometimes it is lonely, sometimes I despair but over time I come to see that IN all things God works for our good.

Monday morning

It is a cool, well, more than cool but not quite cold Monday. This morning it was raining, gently but raining and that means dreary. It is a perfect day to make stew in the crock pot. Besides that I have agreed that this afternoon I would take my sister and her visiting friend from the US to a coffee/antique spot that I discovered.

The meat was browned, the vegetables cut, the tomato sauce added and now the highlight: beautiful carrots from the garden. I don't plant much garden and after a vicious hailstorm a month ago there wasn't much left except these carrots. They are so long, straight, tender and sweet this year.

On with the coat, garden shoes, gloves and off to the carrots. WELL and again I say WELL! Was I in for a surprise. My wonderful carrots are more than half gone! Who would take my carrots? No, not who, what......

I had been told by Meralee that coyotes dig carrots but I had never seen it until today! They dug them up and ate the whole shu-bang! Some where hidden under the cosmos and the hail beaten tomato plants so we get to enjoy a few. I was more than incensed! but once that wore off I had to chuckle at all the tops strewn around and all the tracks. I am sure the whole extended family enjoyed the feast.

Oh, well, maybe next year we will have another good crop of carrots. But next year I will be prepared and will see to it that we don't have to share with the coyotes!

Vantage point

Living on a hill does bring advantages as well as disadvantages! A negative is experiencing gale force winds that have been known to remove the trampoline over the 4 strand barbed wire fence and into the neighbors caraganna hedge. But a positive is enjoying the amazing clouds, the changing sky, sunrises and sunsets that are beyond description.

Here is a sample of some summer cloud formations.

The first two are of a system that we watched for about 30 minutes, wondering what might happen. Nothing seemed to develop on the ground but Ron was mighty glad he was not in the air at the time.
The last picture was another day, another system that seemed to be building in the north, looked rather nasty but soon moved off to the east.

Can't say that we are storm chasers but we are able to be sky watchers. It is beautiful and amazing, every day another scene to enjoy......

We live in an amazing country.....