On the Farm Friday--Is this Farmlife or a Roller Coaster?!?!?!

What a wild and crazy last several days around here we have had! Change is constant, which I find kind of an oxymoron, but so true at least at H&K Farms! Let me offer a little recap...............

A week ago last night, The Farmer and I were named 'Agricultural People of the Year' by our town's Chamber of Commerce. It was very neat to be honored, humbling and a feeling of being blessed. As a good friend introduced us, I was reminded of all the things I love about being in rural America. The blessings of community. Also lifelong friendships. In my mind the award was more about DH than myself, so as we listened to other recipients accept their awards, I looked at him and said, 'You're talking' Not that I couldn't have came up with plenty to say and likely would have gotten long winded, I felt like this was the perfect place to focus the emphasis on the man who is my Ag person of the year, EVERY YEAR!

David accepting the award very eloquently!  

The group of winners, teachers, business people, etc.

Things 'quieted down' somewhat for a day or two............then along came the severe weather of this last Wednesday night. Let me set the stage. Good ol' Missouri and her unofficial motto, 'If you don't like the weather, wait a while, it'll change' It had been a blustery day and the Farmer came in the house about 5pm, which he generally doesn't do till dark and  this time of year, it wasn't dark. They had put 'seeders' in heifers. (that is part of the process to get ready to breed them, in case you were wondering) I kind of gave him the what are you doing in here look and he said, its cold, and nasty and we decided to call it a day. Okay, fine with me, I was doing some computer work when...........

I don't know if the weather service will call it a tornado, but here at Tulip, we are going to call it one. About 5:30 this evening, we got a pounding rain and a little hail. I was doing office work and got this pressure in my ears, like when a plane takes off. About that time The Farmer went to our back door. He could barely open it, it faces to the east. We watched a large piece of tin come off the barn right behind our house. It's laying in the backyard. Moments maybe seconds after that The Farmer said, Oh God, it got the shed! We have a pole barn that houses some of our equipment. Right next to it is a nicer Morton bldg (it was untouched!). The Pole Barn is open to the East and South. It looks like the roof was picked up and possibly spun and then most of it landed back atop the shed. Of course its full of equipment so its resting on top of all of it. The most fragile item is our sprayer and it looks like it has some damage. Not sure about other things. A portion of the roof is quite a ways away from the shed and crumbled up like a piece of paper up in the fence line. We checked our livestock and besides being upset and stirred up, looks like everyone is fine. There was, however, another spot out in our pasture where a bunch of trees are shredded. Thinking it touched down there as well. Quite an evening, but blessed and thankful that all are okay. Thanks for all the words of support. ♥

That was our facebook status that evening................most widely viewed status we've ever shared. 

Interesting how natural disaster makes everything else seem trivial. While I realize that there are bigger tragedies every day happening all over the world, this one was in my back yard, LITERALLY and now we have to pick up the pieces, also LITERALLY. 

But like all rides, this one comes back around again..............this afternoon we go to watch our first born receive, not one, but two awards. It's our Missouri State FFA Convention this week. This afternoon, along with about 40 other kids who are in a roundabout way part of our extended State Fair family, he receives the 'Youth In Agriculture' Scholarship. This is awarded to kids who are exhibitors of the Missouri State Fair, which he has been since he was 8 yrs old and who plan to continue their educate at a Missouri University, majoring in Agriculture, which he's going to do! The other award is the next rung in the ladder in FFA. He is getting his State Farmer Degree. Its the culmination of the last few years of FFA work and activity involvement.

So I am charging up the camera batteries, and packing some klennex while The Farmer is feeding the cows and seeing that all things are as they should be so that we can go watch the next generation prepare to take their turn on this exciting ride called Agriculture.

Blessed to be on the Farm,

From Tulip~

KH

:)