May 4, 1967

          Spring is everywhere. The ground is carpeted with green velvet, the willows have the yellow-green leaves of Spring, puffy clouds drift across the blue sky...and we trip over purple violets in the grass. 

          Like an adolescent who is both child and adult, April turned out to be a confused mixture of winter and summer. 

          She behaved like a little child throwing a tantrum as she huffed and puffed across the plowed fields, chasing everything in her path, and leaving woven wire fences decorated with cornhusks, and the ditches lined with dirt drifts...and our windowsills covered with fine dirt. 

          Then the temperature fell as she reverted back to winter. 

          WE HAVE been sympathizing with our 4-H yearling ewe, who lost her warm 12 lb. coat when she was sheared just before the last chilly spell. 

          I'm sure she really noticed the change in temperature. We took our winter jackets out again, but the poor sheep could do nothing but shiver! 

          WHEN THE farmers begin planting corn I know it's time to get the glad bulbs in the ground.  It's a 90-day wait from planting time till blooms.  Every year there are some new colors to try.  I'm always anxious to see if they will be as pretty as the pictures advertising them. 

          Have you ever noticed how easy it is to order nursery stock and seeds, but when it arrives, what an effort it is to get it into the ground? 

          DURING THE winter, wildlife has taken over the farmer's property.  Now that  

he is working in the field he disturbs and scares up foxes, rabbits, pheasant and other small animals.  Sometimes he has to take time out from his plowing to do a little fox hunting. 

          He soon discovers this sly quick animal didn't get his crafty reputation for nothing! 

          The alfalfa and oat fields are getting green.  The farmer is eager to see how his hay fields made it through the winter. He doesn't like to see bare spots. A good stand will bring him many bales of hay. 

          So the Sower goes forth to sow the Word and waits to see if it will grow.  A good stand will bring Him much fruit - a hundredfold, sixty fold, or thirty fold.     Matt. 13:3-9 

May 11, 1967

          It's time for the return of the barn swallows.  Each year as they show up, I am reminded of my Grandfather, who every spring awaited their return before he would plant his corn. 

          The swallows make them-selves at home in the barn, build their nests under the rafters and perch on the electric wires. 

          THE FARMER has been busy picking up the bags of seed corn he ordered. This can get to be quite a job if he succumbed to every seed corn salesman. Now he has to get his corn planter out and begin planting these kernels.  

          Farming keeps changing. Every year the farmer aims for bigger corn yields. To increase last year's crop, some farmers are planting narrow rows this Spring. Whether to change from 40 inch to 30 inch rows has been a hot topic for debate. The trouble with these new ideas is that they cost money, for narrow rows call for machinery to fit - a new planter, cultivator and harvester. 

          TO MOMS - young, old or middle-aged...and especially one in particular! 

     "For your care when I was wee 

And lullabies upon your knee, 

Thank you, Mom. 

"For your sacrifice and cheers 

Through childhood years, 

Thank you, mom. 

     "For your love...an unseen force 

     That kept me on the upward  

course, 

Thank you, mom. 

"Although words cannot repay. 

Accept this "thank-you Mom"  

bouquet, 

God bless you, Mom!" 

          Mother love is the same, whether it is found in the city or the country.  It is always priceless.  So often we take it for granted, but at this time of the year we stop to take a better look at it...and thank God for it! 

Mother Love  

It started out so simply... 

with a tiny baby in her arms,  

                   and diapers,  

two o'clock feedings  

and lullabies. 

As her child grew, this love grew. 

And she gave of herself-            

her lap was claimed by this  

little fellow, 

her kisses served as  

medication for both 

                   heart and body hurts, 

her time was not her own. 

She didn't know how binding this 

tie had become until he reached boyhood 

And she found this life was part of  

     herself- 

she felt pain at his pain,  

joy at his happiness, 

grief at his disobedience. 

Then it was time for him to walk alone 

and she showed him what he  

could be; 

her encouragement boosted him  

upward, 

her prayers guided and  

strengthened him, 

her faith in him never faltered. 

Now he is a man... 

and her love has become a  

magnet with an invisible hold, 

          that neither party can break.

And her love and prayers will  

follow her child even after she  

is gone. 

- For a mother's love and influence has no end! 

          THERE IS One who loves and gives more than any Mother...and how Mothers need what He has to give!                               Jer. 31:3 

May 18, 1967

          The wind has been the main topic of conversation this spring. This windy weather affects both livestock and humans, and has been pretty hard on trees and plants too.

          It makes working in the fields more tiring than usual...and dirtier. These black-faced characters that come in for meals are not members of a minstrel show...but our dirt-blown husbands. All that is missing is a top hat, cane and banjo. With their white rimmed eyes (from their goggles) peering out of their dust-covered faces, you can hardly recognize them. But soap and water make them familiar again. 

          These forceful gusts of wind irritate the livestock and make them nervous. It was a good thing we were around one windy Sunday when the restless cattle broke a gate and headed off with the wind at their backs in stampede fashion. They didn't get far. 

          I GUESS we are all fed up with the wind now, but I can remember days when we wished and looked for a breeze to get the windmill turning. 

          That was before the electric motor was used to pump water, and the wind was depended on to fill the stock tank for thirsty livestock. Today the windmill is just a piece of scenery, its usefulness out-dated! 

          THE NEW time has its compensations.  It makes it easier to take in crack-of-the-dawn events like sunrises and all of nature's "good mornings!" We discover it is a special time of day. 

          The mourning doves gently awaken the world with their melancholy cooing...which is much better than a rooster's sharp reveille. The mourning doves are such trusting, peaceful birds it is hard to believe the talk about having open season on them. 

          FROM THE way the hoppers and tanks of fertilizer have been going down the road en route to farms, our community should be 

having some bumper crops come fall - provided we get the necessary rainfall. 

          Every farmer must be feeding his soil this spring. The soil needs supplements just as our bodies need food to grow and live. But this soil food is pretty expensive, and makes the grocery bills look like chicken feed. 

          BUT, HOW wonderful to find satisfying food and drink that is abundant...and free! 

          "Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the water; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!" Isaiah 55:1.