Last year I wrote about the wheat crop and the devastation of our farmer's harvest. With the combination of a late freeze and a rainy spring, the earth produced short small stalks and weedy fields.This year promised to be a bumper crop. Tall golden wheat rose proudly across the prairie, straight and healthy; a beautiful consolation for the previous year.
Combines posed ready beside tin implement sheds as the farmers waited patiently those last two weeks for the wheat to turn from green to gold...... and hopes were high.
Then it happened. Again. Thunderclouds gathered on muggy afternoons unleashing their violent temper night after night. This last week we've been hit with two major storms that broke strong tree branches and saturated the ground. In between each storm the wind would continue to blow, but blue sunny skies renewed hope that the crop could still be saved.
Tonight I drove down our road and watched as yet another front came rolling across the landscape.
I looked at the fields that had taken a beating yet continued to stand with the golden promise of what could still be. And I hoped that the storm would pass around to our north - or better yet - dissipate completely and give our farmers a reprieve.I turned the car back towards home and my heart fell as I got out, looked back over my shoulder and saw the storm rapidly approaching. I had time to snap a quick picture before the lightening got too close then came inside to watch from my west bedroom window.
It was a matter of moments before the wind gust was upon us, smashing against our little trees and carrying precious top soil across the horizon. And with it came rain. Lots of it. Again.
Once more the Kansas farmers... our friends, our neighbors..... are fighting the elements during an already difficult economical time. And the hopes of all their toil are once more dashed in the midst of a harsh and seemingly relentless spring.
When you buy your bread this summer, think about these people who have worked so hard to put food
on your tables, and ask God to grace them with peace, perseverance and hope.In the midst of all this gray, it's very difficult for them to see the rainbow.
5 comments:
Thank you, Lori, for a very important reminder. Sometimes in the city, it's easy to forget from whence, and from the work of whom, our food comes.
Lori, you said it all ....
Here in Australia, our farmers have been doing it tough too.
It is so sad to see how they struggle against the natural calamities. Great post. In India too the scene is no different.
Came via David's.
Greetings fellow Kansan! Wheat farmers have been dealing with this forever. Check out my post about my ancestors...
http://ksborn.blogspot.com/2008/02/1901-homestead-1912-crop.html
...I realize that this was in CO, but it's right across the state line.
We talked to our relatives in Illinois. Last year was a bumper crop for them in corn and soybeans. This year my cousin has replanted the corn once due to flooding and now has to do it again. They haven't been able to get the soybeans planted because of the wet and flooding conditions. I hope you wee not near the tornados of last night!
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