Chapter 31 - Family Ties

Danny and his kids, Marie and Mike, stayed on working with the Johnson family into the evening.

The three of them were developing a plan for getting the farm through the winter and working on preparation for next spring's planting.

Marie had been consulting with some of the professors at the University about how the Johnsons could get the farm to be be more productive. 

While John and Julie had been milking cows for years; they sold the herd last spring and were concentrating on crops.  The large scale crop farming has some advantages, but it didn't offer much in offering ways to squeeze more out of the operation.

Mike's agribusiness background could help with large scale corn and beans.  By sharing his expertise on futures, hedges, and some basics of commodity trading; the Johnson family could take some control of the risk they wanted to take and where to find ways to minimize risk exposure.

Outside, the combines and convoy of tractors and wagons were picking the corn as efficiently as a 40 inch lawn mower deck on a suburban lawn.  The 850 acres of corn stretched before last week was reduced to less than 300 acres.  Rich looked at his brother and smiled, "We stay on schedule, Scotty, and the corn will be done by Sunday."

Since Sunday was also the bye week for the Green Bay Packers - plans were made to have a community potluck after church to say thanks and celebrate the work - before sending out the combines, tractors, and wagons to finish the corn.

The nearly 700 acres of beans would go under the rotating knives Monday morning.

Meanwhile, nearly one hundred kids associated either with the local chapters of the FFA and 4-H were making quick work of cleaning barns and out-buildings for the Johnson's and every farm for miles around.

John and Julie were not around much this week.  They were over in Madison at the University Hospital checking with the oncologists and specialists who might help them find a better course of treatment.

Other than an occasional phone call from Julie asking how things were going back at home and a "just fine," when asked how things were going at the clinic - we didn't know what was up for our friend John.

We said prayers for our friends and for all those working to complete the harvest, and kept our heads and hands busy at what we knew best - work hard and help the best way we could.

It was comforting to know that my kids, my brother, his kids, friends, and even strangers were all pulling together to reach out our hands to John and Julie knowing that they are in the best hands of all.

The weather is getting colder now each night and it's a little darker each morning right now - we'll get a littler relief from that on Sunday when we push our clocks back one hour.

From there it's a quick trip to the holidays and the end of another growing season.

You can catch up on the series here.