Two Miracles

As Cora has mentioned on her blog, we are pushing hard to get 360 acres harvested; the ground worked; the drill filled with a special mix of cover crop seeds; and then the ground seeded before September 20th--which was yesterday. As Cora mentioned, the rainy weather has caused lots of problems for us as the 20th approached quickly and tensions mounted around here.

Then late last Friday, as I pushed hard to get the 50 acre field disked up for seeding, it started snowing. Yes that's right, I said, "SNOWING". I was so distraught as I knew that this spelled the end of our goal being met. Further, my heart sank as I thought of all of our wonderful tomatoes back home in our garden meeting their end under snowbanks. ):

I called Cora quick (we were working 30 miles away) to check if it was snowing at home too, hoping that it wasn't. When she said that it was, gloom settled on my heart which is unusual for a Friday night. I love Friday nights, as it is the start of the Sabbath, and it is the night that our family feasts on the feast of Sabbath in our freshly cleaned home.

Well, the gloom continued all weekend with the damp weather although the snow melted off quicly. Yesterday morning we all gave up hope with 2 fields left to do the whole process on--there was no way that we would meet our goals. When I was on the phone with one of my clients, though, she encouraged me. She said, "It'll work out somehow, you just wait and see." I wanted to believe her, but it was just too dark for me to see that at the time.

Then we went out to the garden to pick the tomatoes. On Sabbath I had gone to the garden as soon as chores were over and found that the tomatoes were NOT frozen. I will not ever be able to understand how the Lord sent snow but preserved delicate tomatoes. It's nothing short of a miracle! PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So yesterday, because it was too wet to combine, Andrew was doing the disking and I had time to work on my harvest. As Cora, Jacob, and I picked the vine-ripened tomatoes, I marveled at the goodness of God to us. I didn't loose my tomatoes after all--certainly He would make a way for us to meet our deadline! I kept praying for Him to move their hearts to give us an extension on the deadline as considerable money is involved.

After we picked the tomatoes, onions, peppers, and the rest of the apples that had fallen off of the trees, I came into the house and called Robert. That was when he told me that he had talked to someone in the NRCS office and that they had given us a FIVE DAY EXTENSION! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now for the nice weather to proceed with the work. I covet your prayers for this. Also I covet your prayers for my office day today. I have 2 brand new clients coming in PLUS some of my favorite "Old" ones. It'll be a busy day, and I REALLY need to get moving here, but I just HAD to share the 2 miracles that the Lord blessed us with recently. Being a child of God, and experiencing His miracles on a daily basis, is the most wonderful way to live. I HIGHLY recommend it to all. :)

Hugs to all of my faithful friends out there. Please forgive my heavy post last time, but hopefully you can understand better now why my heart was so burdened. I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dawn

A MIRACLE

Yesterday Robert came into the house with a GIANT grin on his face. Jacob and I had seen the Railroad pickup pull into the yard and Jacob had sent the man down to the Quonset where Robert was working on Andrew's grain cleaner.

Robert joyfully announced, "I think that we got rid of our rock piles!"

My heart skipped a beat for joy and then asked cautiously, "What do you mean?"

Robert laughed, "That man was from the railroad and they DESPERATELY need rocks for rip-rapping across Goose Lake."

Then he told us the details that the lake has risen and isn't safe to cross. The closest farmer who still had unburied rock piles wanted money for his, so they kept looking. Robert told the man that they can have all of the rocks they want with one stipulation--they MUST take ALL of the rocks.

The man told him that they didn't need all of them right now, but he figured they could find a place to stock pile the extras. You see, we don't want them on our property with their big equipment making a mess of our alfalfa fields more than once. They need to come in; take all of the rocks; and then get off so that the alfalfa can come back as much as possible.

Robert told him that he was thinking of burying them this Fall. He said, "Don't you bury those rocks," and they laughed together.

Rock piles are a pain to all farmers as they must be gone around, which takes time and slows you down. Also, it's almost impossible not to get caught up on at least one rock pile per field and then that damages equipment which costs $ to fix.

To the organic farmer, though, they're an even bigger pain. Weeds grow there as no tillage is possible on a rock pile (Jacob would say DA) and, of course, we don't spray. It WILL BE SOOOOOOOOO WONDERFUL TO GET RID OF THIS NUISANCE!!!

Well, the man left yesterday saying that he'd see what could be done about getting rid of ALL of the rocks. He just returned and said that it's a GO. I guess there is a train over by Braddock which they will not allow to pass through Goose Lake with the water level so high on the track. Last Spring one of their trains derailed there, so they're not taking that risk again. You may recall the post I wrote about that with pictures of our menfolk down by the spilt corn on the tracks near Kintyre. Anyway, THEY NEED ROCKS NOW

Robert said, "Go at it" so the man was going to call the boss and have him send the equipment down to our farm TODAY. We are thrilled that it will be so soon as at first he thought it may not be done for a month yet. Well, we need to get into some of those fields to seed them long before a month and they won't be allowed onto the fields after they are seeded.

This is a WIN-WIN situation, so we're all happy here. It would take us a lot of time and expense to bury those rocks. That's why it hasn't been done yet but now the good Lord has kept us from having to stick our energy and money into burying them. PRAISE THE LORD!!! This is a total miracle and we are sooooooooooooooooooooooo happy!!! GOOD JOB, GOD!!!!!

Keep your eyes posted on all of our blogs for pictures of the big railroad equipment working in our fields. It should be on it's very slow way as I write.

Later,

Dawn