Thursday, November 19, 2020
Well, it happened. We spent last Friday evening and Saturday morning at an elders’ retreat at McCormick’s Creek State Park. On Sunday morning, I got the call that one of my fellow elders at WCC had lost his sense of taste and smell. We began to isolate that day. He and his wife went for testing, and they will have their results on Saturday the 21st. We are assuming a positive result because of their symptoms. Happily, we have no symptoms yet, but because of our contact with them, we are quarantined for 14 days. It is hard not to go to the farm shop or office during the day. I only go there after everyone else has left for the day. While there, I wear a mask and gloves as I catch up the office work. We are not inclined to go get tested for COVID, until the time we would show symptoms. None of those yet.
Meanwhile, Brandon has almost finished the post-harvest clean-up. Just one more truck and a couple tract0rs to go. The Pete and the Vision are sparkling again. He is also delivering some late November corn to GPC near Washington to fill a contract. There will be more corn to deliver in December and again in January, along with a batch of soybeans to go to ADM in Newburgh. John is exploring and learning about the features of the new 2021 JD R4044 sprayer that was delivered yesterday. It is an upgrade from our 2012 JD 4730. Seems like there is a lot to learn. He demonstrated an R4038 last summer. That led us to trade for the new model.
It is a nice day, a bit windy, but 64F (18C). I took advantage of the warmth to put up a few outdoor Christmas decorations. Yes, I typically don’t do that until after Thanksgiving, but with the quarantine and the nice day, I thought, “Why not?” We did put up a Christmas tree on Monday, too.
We will probably wait until next Friday to continue putting up more Christmas decorations. I really don’t want Thanksgiving to get swallowed up and forgotten. I like this holiday because it is distinctly American, but most of all because of the attitude it fosters. We have much for which to be thankful. Thanksgiving Day is a healthy reminder to express our gratitude to our Maker for His manifold blessings.
I hope you all have a happy weekend, and may your preparations for Thanksgiving bring you many reminders to “count your many blessings… name them one by one“.