Meet John Doe, er, Deere

Farm boys in awe over new tractor

Every day when we get up, I pray and ask God for wisdom. So usually when we get up, we don’t have a firm sense of what we’ll be doing during the day, or what is important. But we trust that God guides and directs even little things like what to do each day.

When we started the day, we were going to finish unpacking the POD and … we didn’t have a good idea.

Well, about noon, I found a booklet that detailed when things should be planted, according to the celestial bodies. Apparently, folklore for centuries has planted root crops when the moon was new, and leafy crops when the moon was full; this is similar. The booklet mentioned that this week is the planting time for us, and fruiting crops will do best if planted either today or Sunday. Well, the only planting we really wanted to do right now is oats, and not for harvest but to build the soil. We were going to wait until Phil returned to broadcast, but we don’t really have to wait.

And then I remembered that, to qualify for a lower tax bracket (“land use”), we needed to get the document notarized, and that required a trip to the bank before Phil leaves town on Monday. So we stopped at the bank (when I called to find out what a notary needed, the lady asked what my name was, and said, “Oh, I remember you! You have two or three little boys”—wow! That’s a small town experience, to have the bank teller remember you after one bank visit!). And then, on to Home Depot.

Now, it used to be that Home Depot was a ten minute drive across Boulder, hitting about 15 stoplights. Now the drive to Home Depot is about 45 minutes (or maybe an hour), along back country roads. I think there was a stoplight when we exited the highway.

I’ve never seen a Home Depot parking lot so empty. Maybe twenty cars. A bizarre experience. Dennis recommended that we get a driving lawn mower, and just mow and mow and mow our land until the grass had a chance to reclaim the pasture. So we were shopping for a riding mower. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that we bought a John Deere, but it was the cheapest with the most horsepower (21!). Phil tried it when we got home, and it works well, with its 14” mower. It was the last one of that type in the store, and it was on sale. We got a little cart to pull behind it.

And we bought shoe racks to hang over our windows, since shoes are the main puzzle for me. With six people, each with sandals, rain boots, sneakers, snow boots, and maybe another pair of shoes, the floor of our little home feels cluttered all the time. Twelve feet of shoe racks should help with that.

On the way home, Isaiah said, “Only one thing is puzzling me. How are we going to get the tractor out of our truck?” A good question indeed.

Thankfully, Phil had already thought of the solution. He borrowed Doug Bush’s homemade ramp, as we stopped at the Bush home on our way home. Denise had just returned from her Hospice nursing job, but she cheerfully passed me some flower seeds, and picked me some peppers and tomatoes.


And Phil drove the new John Deere into the sunset, chopping down about six inches of growth. I hope it’s just that our little mower is giving a closer cut than the bush hog—otherwise, the fertility of the land is truly insane (six inches of growth in three weeks of no rain! Eek!).