Mud

Ok, getting away from teeth for a while.

But just in case you are wondering the temporary filling seems to have helped, it only hurts when I eat which you would think would be doing wonders for my diet....but no.

Below is a picture of a road, a wet, muddy, slippery road. It is very similar to the road that I drive on to go to work each day. It's not the actual road I drive on because that would have meant that I had to get out of the car and take a photo, and that could have ruined my shoes, and that is just not something I was prepared to do! Not even for my bloggy friends! There are just some lines that you do not cross!

Our roads have a pretty high proportion of clay in them, which means that when they get wet like this you have to drive veeerrry slowly and veeerrry carefully. Of course you only have to drive slowly and carefully if you wish to stay on the road, and that is purely up to you! Although I can tell you from experience if you run off the road, hit a fence, scratch your car and get a flat tyre in the process you are forced to get out of the car, and that brings about the shoe issue again.

So, what's my point in all this? My point is that we are in the last week of August and it is STILL raining! Our crops are looking like this:

This is wheat, although don't ask me what variety. I had to ask Kym whether it was wheat or barley because I can't tell the difference until it comes out in head. At this time last year our crops were looking sad, and yellow, and just plain unhealthy. But look at this! Praise the Lord!

We are having the best finish to a growing season in five long years. Five bad years can be pretty tough on a community, family, relationship, and we certainly aren't counting our chickens yet.

.....but there is just the faintest glimmer of hope and air of optimism about the community at the moment.

Lord, thankyou for the continued rain throughout August. Our crops are growing strong and healthy and we are so grateful to you for providing the rain to sustain them. I pray now for finishing rain when the crops come out in head to allow the grains to form fully.

Sowing

Sowing is in full swing for us. This year we will be sowing wheat, barley, oats and lupins. With two years of drought behind us, and rising fuel and fertiliser prices we considered reducing our cropping program, but have decided against that. I hope and pray we have made the right decision.


We are one of the lucky farmers in our district. While we don't enjoy the regular rainfall that others do, I am so thankful that my husband is a wise farmer. We have managed to maintain quality machinery and not go too far backwards so far. But we can only continue this for so long, at some stage you have to make a profit. We have had to go further into debt this year to put the crop in, so please pray that this drought will well and truly be broken.


At the moment Fisherman is driving the four wheel drive tractor which pulls the seeding unit. His brother drives the smaller tractor with the boomspray and tries to stay a few hours ahead of him so the chemical has time to settle. This means that Fisherman starts work at around 6am, and works until he has sown all the ground that his brother has sprayed (usually he comes home around 2am), and his brother gets up at 3am to have enough ground prepared for Fisherman to start sowing. So, effectively they are working around the clock.

I worry about the hours they work and the size of the machinery they operate on such little sleep.

Please pray for our crop to go in this year with no mishaps. Also pray for continued rain to sustain it and develop strong root systems.

Dear Lord, I pray that as the boys continue to work hard and long hours that you will watch over them and protect them. I pray also for widespread rain across our land to sustain the crops we are sowing and give hope to our community.