Harvest

Harvest time is coming to an end. We have one more field left to thresh... and then long, hard, rewarding days will come to an end, until next year.

It is always bittersweet coming to the end of harvest. 

There are fun moments, and not-so-fun moments. The days are hard but satisfying. 

I took the camera along with me one day. And I thought I'd give you all a peek at what a typical harvest day looks like from my perspective.

This is my ride. 

I spend my day driving my beater back and forth between combines and truck.

Grinding shifting gears....

and keeping track of the pounds that we reap.

(sometimes I have kiddoes along and they help me out :)

And then there is the rest of the crew...

Bob stepped up this year and was driving combine on his own most of the year.

Here is mom in the other deere...

We also had grandpa on a case combine... but it was broke down the day that I was taking pictures.

This is what I see while unloading the combines...

This is my nifty-ifty camera that my daddy bought for me :) :) :)

I can see inside the grain cart while the combines are unloading.

There is also a camera on my auger so that I can see inside the grain truck while I'm unloading.

And speaking of.... here is the grain truck!

We had one of those crazyer years in which we had to do swathing and combing on the same day. So needless to say, some peoples jobbers got switched around often. The day that I took pictures, dad was trucking.

Zach always does an amazing job of being the trucker-helper!

In the grain goes!

Most days there was never a moment to spare... always hurrying here or hurrying there. (I'm a poet and I didn't know it!)

But there were also days (such as picture day!) when there were waiting moments.

During down times I entertain myself by taking pictures of my jeans and shoes....

And making faces at myself in the mirror :)

Oh.... aaaand I do some reading, listening to radio and sometimes just embrace the quiet and stillness and simply sit and talk to the creator of the bounty and beauty that I am surrounded by.

During the harvest hours I think a lot about the analogies that God uses about harvest in the bible.

Harvest time is all about getting that crop in as fast and as efficiently as possible, using up every possible hour until the job is complete.

It is an urgent time. 

And it is only the foolish that leave their crop out in the fields when it is ripe and ready.

How many opportunities to harvest do we waste spiritually?

Lets not be among those who waste the opportunity.

John 4:35-34

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and then look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.

Our Pastor T just shared this song with us. I had never heard it before, and thought it would be perfect to share with this post :)

"The Harvester" by: Brandon Heath