Sometimes Life Calls for a Change

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens... 

Ecclesiastes 3:1 

My family has always been church goers and strong believers in faith.  I find that in farming you have to have faith because without it you risk your mental and emotional health when things don't go "as planned." Anyways as a child, I fell in love with a particular hymn that we would sing at church called "The Hymn of Promise."  As a young child I never knew the meaning behind it but as I grew older, I started to realize that it was about life and death. It was a song that truly reflected all the things that we go through in life, the leaves budding and then dying, the flowers blooming and dying, butterflies in the spring and cold winters; the song reflected it all.  I even explain life like this to my kids.  There is a period of time that we have here on this earth and how we choose to live it is important and we need to value that because in the end you have one birth and one death.  I also relate many of our farming days to this as well and recently events on the farm brought that all into perspective once again and I could imagine my grandfather humming our favorite hymn as everything changed for yet another season of life on the farm.  

You see at the close of our harvest season last year, we had some big choices to make.  We had our trusty green tractor which was one that my grandparents bought new 40 years ago, but it was slowly having more worse days than better.  We needed to make expensive repairs for it to last us several more years or we needed to invest in a different tractor.  I spent the winter in prayer.  I mean really it is a huge undertaking when thinking about the costs, the finances, and just truly if it was something we could manage as a family.  I knew God would provide and show us how to do it, but we needed to find the right one and it needed to be one that not only this generation needed but one that could be used for the future because our hope is, that this up and coming purchase would be something that will once again be the trusty tractor for the next 40 years.  

The boys had their wish list and we had ours.  Thankfully after much talking, research, and prayer we once again found just the right one.  Same brand as what my grandparents went with 40 years ago and one we know will be here for the next 40 years. However, with much excitement that a new tractor would be coming to the farm, there was also that piece of sadness.  That "big green" tractor as my boys lovingly called it was one that I grew up with.  One that I had LOTS of memories with my dad and grandfather on.  One that I watched my boys start out their love of tractors on and of course it just felt like home.  It was this new season in life that I started to get nervous about and maybe God could sense that so he had to make sure that there was no turning back which leads me to the exciting part of this story.  

All of us adults had big plans to surprise the boys with the new tractor and so we didn't tell them that we actually were getting it.  We wanted to see their faces when it came in the driveway, but again God knows best and he knew that there was some second thoughts coming so he had to pull the strings and I feel like he did it his way because NONE of us knew when the tractor was coming! Actually we probably wouldn't have known if it was not for my mom going to work so early.  My mom called early and really got us moving because she passed the tractor on her way to work! At that point we had no choice but to say ok time for the new season to take hold on the farm.  So at 7:45 in the morning the boys are screaming with excitement, mom and baby were just waking up, and a new tractor was in the driveway.  If you're wondering I never did get that video. The closest I came was Logan just walking along it as they were unloading it in pure awe! He just couldn't believe what was right in front of him.  However, Logan truly knows all the emotions and fully grasps how I was feeling because he said he has to get the last ride on "big green" and that it was a happy day but also sad.  He understood that the seasons were about to change not only in our lives as adults but his as well.  

The boys inspected every inch of the new tractor once it was off the truck and my dad and I worked on getting the old one ready to load.  It was a sad day, but a day of happiness! So as our trusty green tractor went out the driveway for the last time on a trailer, we knew that the new season was beginning.  And with that everyone spent the day riding in the tractor and checking out all the "new" and exciting things that were never in the old.  The new feature we were all excited for was heat and a/c because I mean really who doesn't like those things in the tractor.  A working radio was also a big plus! If you are wondering what the boys had on their wish list...A buddy seat! They wanted that extra seat so they could sit right next grandpa and ride. So now we begin to move on with the next season of life on the family farm because while one tractor left a new one came breathing fresh life into the plans we have to move forward.  

So Happy Spring to all of you and all of us here at the farm hope you all will be blessed in this new season! 

    Farming with Faith & Family Always! 

God Bless, 

Amanda