Farm Post Friday – 8/5/16 -Feel the Tightening of the Belt

Since arriving home from our Wyoming vacation we have been playing catch up on the farm and around home.  The summer is winding down for the farm kid, school begins this month in less than 30 days!  It’s hard to believe we have a 3rd grader in the household.

The farm dog travels out with the farmer every time he goes to the irrigated field or jumps in the mule.  The dog will run alongside but won’t ride.  Probably because when he was just a pup he jump out of the mule and broke his leg!

When we returned home I finished up our annual newsletter for our landlords.  We like to send these out with their land rent checks.  We update them on wheat harvest, family happenings, and to save the date for our annual landlord appreciation gathering.  I love putting these together.  I wish I had a part-time job doing this type of work! 🙂

Coming home from vacation also meant we had to face reality.  August is a large expense month for our family farm.  With grain prices and expenses being what they are we are feeling a struggle, to be honest.  I don’t think that I should only blog about the wonderful things of farming, I think you deserve the reality of it too.

We sat down with our grain marketing guy this week and tried to figure out some strategies to assist us in the income area.  It’s a hard decision to make when there is so much risk involved.

This is where the faith in God to provide is to be my go to, my daily and hourly and every minute strength.  I’m going to be honest again, it’s scary.  I believe in God, I know he will take care of us, but as as sinful person I know that what lies ahead may not be easy.  I like easy. I mean  who doesn’t?  I’m trying to delve deeper in His word  and pray more to keep my perspective on the right track.  The farm life isn’t in my blood like my husband’s but I respect him enough to continue.   It’s not only stressful for us but other farmers and ranchers as well in the world.  Thanks for buying that loaf of bread or sack of flour, just remember it isn’t the farmer making tons of money off it!

So.  That being said, life on the farm has many blessings.  One of them being that all our currently growing crops look pretty darn good!  That we actually have some grain to sell, that our health is well, and that we have one another.  That even when the grain prices are low, expenses high, people beating us up about our choices, or we can’t go on the trip we wanted, it’s still okay.  It’s okay because we have our family and God in our corner.  Having your family in your corner is important, having God as the foundation is a must.

Grace is a gift,

Julie