Scarfing Up Some Hay II, the Testimony
January 24th, 2008 by Northern FarmerIt was a cold one this morning, got to 24 below zero, and that’s enough to put a chill in the bones! But the chores must get done one way or another. But rumor has it that there is a warm up on the way this weekend and I’m all for it because that’ll cut out allot of these cold weather jobs. Even through all of this things are going fairly well around here. No wrecks with the animals or anything like that. We don’t have any reason to start a tractor, they’re in hibernation in the machine shed till a thaw comes and we start hauling huge amounts of manure out of the pole sheds. Something happened around here this week that just stopped me in my tracks though.
In my last post I wrote about finding a bunch of hay and straw that’ll go a long ways in helping us make it till spring grass. But since the time of writing that a couple days ago I learned something that really hit me. This past Monday morning I got the free rural paper that my folks get on their rural route. Even though they only live a quarter mile away we’re on different mail routes so we get different things delivered just because of that. In the free paper I get there hasn’t been much luck finding hay, so I asked them to look in theirs and circle every ad that they came across and I’d start up again Monday morning calling around . Now it does make a person a bit nervous when you know that you don’t have enough hay to make it and the supply in the region is fairly short. And I don’t care who a person is, it wears on a person a bit. There was a powerful lot of talkin to God about this, just praying that He would see us through. And God hears prayers I do believe.
The funny thing about this hay buying was the fact that the free paper that my folks get comes out on Saturdays in many rural routes. And with any ad that got hay for sale it gets noticed by many folks. But Monday morning the first ad I called sounded good and he hadn’t sold it yet. And we rushed right over there and secured the deal giving a sizable chunk of money down in good faith. The first load was delivered Tuesday, then the second on Wednesday morning. And that morning the farmer with the hay told me that after I bought the hay Monday morning till Tuesday night around ten he received over 200 calls for it! And today when he delivered a load he was telling me it never slowed down yet!
Well, we were sitting in his warm pickup cause remember it was 24 below a couple of hours earlier. I told him when he was done telling me about all of this how I was praying that God would find us some hay from a farmer in the area. And I told him about the difficulties in trying to secure some. And he agreed, it was God! He told me that for some reason he felt that I was “thee” customer that he should be selling that hay and straw to. Plus he even threw more in the deal and gave a few bales at reduced prices. Said that it was just something he had to do, a gut feeling.
I don’t know what anybody thinks of all of this, but I know what I think and I thank God for watching over us this way. In reality the string of events were totally impossible. The time span of him not getting any calls, of us getting through and finishing off the deal, and the hundreds of calls he received immediately after it was a done deal point to nothing but God. The reason I post this is its so incredible that I have to give God the Glory! It was nothing that I did at all. The impossible becoming possible. The farm is basically taken care of where before it wasn’t, (at least in my small human mind). I tell you, I cannot even imagine trying to farm without faith in Jesus! Because sometimes when He moves there just is absolutely no denying it! It just leaves a person in awe!
January 24th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Faith….the substance of things hoped for….Faith…the just shall live by faith…Faith..if you have the faith of a mustard seed…..Faith
January 24th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
That’s pretty neat how God supplied for you and your cows. Let me tell you how he supplied for me. Last winter I had to move into my shop because I didn’t have any place to live. I haven’t had heat for a couple of years in the shop because I just didn’t have the money. So I was living in the shop with no heat and even though I’m not way up north it still is cold when you don’t have heat. This winter I said this is crazy! My heavenly father owns the world and I’m living here with no heat and no money to pay for heat. I thought “this must make Him look pretty bad”. But I knew He was good so I called up the gas company and had them turn on the heat even though I didn’t have the money to pay for it and it seemed work was going to be just as slow as it’s been for a long time. Then the work started pouring in and I could pay for the heat. I’m sitting here in the shop now its very cold out side and very warm inside. I thank God often for the heat this winter. Now I’m wondering if He would provide a place other than this shop for me to live in and where I don’t have to sleep on a couch or bath in a bucket. I’ll need a lot more paying customers for that though.
January 25th, 2008 at 6:32 am
Patti,
Amen!
Don,
Thanks for sharing that! Funny how that works, you took the first step and God provided after you took that step of faith! Glory to God!
January 25th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Glory! How often do His blessings shower on us without our notice?
January 25th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
The impossible becoming possible…we have experienced it at times, too!!! Praising God with You, Tom!!! ;o) We serve an AWESOME God!!
And…24 below?!? I’ve never experienced that temperature before! I wonder, do you do anything special to protect yourselves while being in that type of cold? (Your lungs, or skin, frostbite?) Do the livestock need anything special for protection?
Blessings to You and your’s Tom! Kris in WA
January 25th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Brian,
I’d bet its all the time! Just we don’t give so much notice as we run around busy with our own self interests. But the Bible says we are like sheep and having raised many, many sheep, that ain’t really a high recommendation. The Good Shepard has His hand in everything we do, pulling us out of trouble, leading us the right direction.
Thanks!
Kris,
What a week this has been, from things looking pretty bleak to everything working out. And that’s not only talking about feed, there’s a whole bunch more mountains that have been climbed this week around here. And as we approach the weekend I stand amazed at how things just work out. Plus the temperatures warming up a bit around here doesn’t hurt either! Glory to God!!
With the cold temperatures a person just dresses up heavy. Plus always heading for cover every opportunity. I can’t speak for other folks but I can’t take it for extended periods. But during cold like that a person just doesn’t go looking for jobs far away from the homestead. In other words them ain’t the days a person figures on going out to the woods to make firewood and such. There’s enough jobs around the farmstead just keeping everything going. The cattle require more feed to keep them warm, just like a house needs more firewood to stay warm. For shelter they have large pole sheds that I bed down for times such as that. Oh, plus I’ll throw in an exclusive Northern Farmer blog engines starting test result. Our Bobcat, that’s a skidsteer loader, well the heat plug, (block heater), shorted out the other day. In other words I couldn’t pre heat the engine block. Well on that cold morning that 4 cylinder Kubota diesel engine started on its own. An amazing engine to say the least! Any diesel engine that can do that deserves a high recommendation!
January 26th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Give me goose bumps to hear of God blessing his children. Glad you got your hay! When we see Him answer so clearly in some areas, it gives me assurance that He is working in all the other ones too. Praise Him! Praise Him! Doesn’t it amaze you how patient all our animals are. Sure they may bawl a little when they see you coming with feed but they know you’ll come through. Perhaps our own faith could learn a lesson from that sometimes. Yes, we “sheep” have a Good Shepherd!
January 26th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Hey Allen!
We got the last load delivered today and the farmer we got the hay from told me the calls haven’t slowed down yet for hay. I stand amazed and am so glad I testified about it here because the fingerprints of God are so obvious in this! We just gotta trust Him! And every moment His hand is in everything we do, whether we know it or not. Just gotta have that faith and believe what He says is true and absolute! Take that Word of God and believe it with all of our hearts! He asks nothing less. Cast our cares on Him.
Thanks and hey, I really like your blog!! When I found it I immediately linked to it!