The farm, well mechanized, has lots of tires, lots of motors, and lots of shifting transmissions, shifting gears As seasons shift so must we to match our efforts to changing tasks Winter has us pondering computing and thinking How to make the numbers work Changing prices, inputs and outcomes, somehow we need more 'leftover' [...]
Days of rain during harvest give us a time to rest But all too quickly we begin to wonder "Where's the sun?" We peer at the darkened, cloudy sky and wish for the warming, drying sun So critical for harvest happening Rain storms pass by with wind, lightning and thunder as we watch, helpless [...]
Horses chose corn row widths way back when The horse's rump determined the gap to allow the horse and farmer passage Over the years things change and others stay the same We've gone from 40 down to 30 and some even down to 20 as machines replaced the horse's hinny the goal to capture [...]
A world of color and shape and texture and size Brought from catalogs from other gardens from other places Brought together in fine imagination becoming reality as paintings are painted master gardeners sculpt in plants Beds and borders raised and sunken terraced and potted arranged just so the creations bloom and shower color and [...]
Evening in the city my experienced friend the driver Heather and I in her BMW speed along brake hard and speed again the sea of cars and people ebb and flow at rush hour To the Reception! People from around the world a mix of winners and judges and The Company Interesting and fascinating [...]
It hits hard the empty chair staring at us A ghost sits there partially filling memories reaching out to us A brave person sits next going on, keeping on carrying two new burdens One the missing touches, embraces that link humans heart to heart The other a thousand things the missing one did, would [...]
> Indeed there are tears of sorrow shaking us in our core spontaneously erupting After all Jesus wept Peter wept The mothers and those who loved Him wept Death sometimes swallows not just the deceased but those who go on living in the deep dark shadows of separation touch stolen living and breathing but not [...]
Four degrees above zero but the cars and pickups are rolling in It's a hardy bunch, these farm folks! Not to be dissuaded by some bitter cold Plenty of smiles at the check in desk plenty of 'Good to see you' words being spoken as the coat room fills to overflowing The president gets [...]
Incongruous you are thinking perhaps but oh, they are linked! Think 'Price!', for a start and the Chicago Board of Trade World leader bringing willing seller and willing buyer together to find a price to sell, a price to buy today and tomorrows too! We're planted deep in the prairie soils luxuriating in green growing [...]
A friend, sitting at our table was watching a hawk at work Our window on the prairie was most satisfying to him as it has been to us and many, many others The rich black fields stretch out thick blankets of potential now cold and wet with springtime rains soon to be mothering our [...]