Monthly Archives: February 2012

Boredom produces old harvest picture gallery

Gpa & Gma H 001

Grandpa & Grandma Hancock (not sure of the date)

I finished getting my numbers together for the tax man. It was too early to go to bed, I didn’t want to clean my house (yet), and it was too early to pack for the US Custom Harvesters convention. So…now what? Hmmm, let’s go through this “old memory” drawer. The “old memory” drawer holds little keepsakes my Grandma gave me before she passed away. I found some loose old pictures and decided it would be fun to go through them. These were pictures she had saved in a wooden cigar box. When I started looking, it made the ‘ole tears start. The first few I saw were of Grandma as a young woman. She did so many things and went so many places! I am in awe of all she did. She was definitely not scared to go on her own. She was 19 in the following pictures. She took a train by herself to California to stay with her Uncle in San Diego. While there, she visited Tijuana, Old Mexico. This was in 1938

 Now I know where my love for fishing came from.

 Then I started seeing old harvest pictures and decided I needed to share.

It was in this combine and in the corn field that I remember standing in the cab with Grandpa and “helping”. I was little enough I would take a nap on the ledge behind the seat.

Notice who’s “helping” on the header? Yep, that’s me. :)

And this very skinny young man is the guy I later married.

Me and Grandma posing for a newspaper article while in Lodgepole, NE. She looks a whole lot more excited about doing it than I do!

 In 1989, Jamie, Jenna and I visited the harvesters in Lodgepole, NE. Jamie would have been 3 and Jenna 16 mos.

 Our first year on the road as Zeorian Harvesting & Trucking. 1990 – Lodgepole, NE

 Jenna helping her Daddy.

Another yearly event is about to come and go. The US Custom Harvesters convention is next week. As I’ve said before, our family counts down events ’til harvest rather than months and days. So, we’re nearly through them all. After we’ve celebrated Jenna’s birthday, the next thing to do will be pack the trailer to get ready to head south. When the convention is here, harvest is right around the corner! Are you ready to follow the adventure?

Being a mom to many at #D2S2012

“Our children will also serve him. Future generations will hear about the wonders of the Lord. His righteous acts will be told to those not yet born.   They will hear about everything he has done.” (Psalm 22:30, 31 NLT)

This was the fifth year I’ve been to the Dare2Share event in Lincoln, NE.  The first year I went, Cindy and I took approximately ten kids. The year before, she only took three. This year…we took nearly 30 kids and 6 adult sponsors. OUTSTANDING! Especially if you knew how small our church is. However, the kids of the community are HUNGRY for what Greg Stier and the people of Dare2Share are offering them – the GOSPEL. It’s pretty straight forward and blunt but it’s the TRUTH spoken with a great amount of passion and love for the next generation.

I’ve seen it before in years past…the ones who have never participated in the event will hold back and take it all in with some hesitation and quite a bit of intimidation. By the time Saturday night rolls around, these same kids are on fire! They are on fire for the Lord and are ready to take Him into their world. Don’t you dare tell them they CAN’T do something! It does my heart good to see them pumped and ready to take THE cause (to multiply disciples globally) to their mission field – their schools. According to what I learned from Greg, Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakeable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of society. – Science Daily, July 26, 2011.  The auditorium held 5,000+ jr. and sr. high students ready to fight the good fight. These kids come from all parts of the midwest and from different churches to worship the ONE true God. They learned it’s not about a religion…it’s about a relationship. Know what’s interesting? The kids that went this year represents 10% of the number of kids in our jr./sr. high school. God is good!

Can I just say…these kids got it! Thank you, Greg Stier, and all the others that make this event work.  They teach and equip our children with the tools they need to fight as they head into a world waiting to gobble them up! My one prayer for all the kids who attended would be they could remain on that mountain top long enough to make the difference in their world.  “God will gain a maximum of armies by using NOBODYS.” Greg Stier

When the end came on Saturday night, I was the one who was blessed! It’s one thing to be a youth leader and talk and talk and talk. It’s another when you get to witness something so powerful and so good. I was able to see the fire that was lit in each of those kids in our group. I would be willing to bet they will take what they learned and will share it with SOMEONE in their school this week. They’ll surely suffer rejection and be made fun of, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12  My prayer for them is they do not quit…not now…not ever!

I feel like such a proud mamma!

Our “Little House on the Prairie” evening

Lost power again about 5:30 last night. What do you do then? Well, start out with finding as many blankets as you can. Next, was the kerosene lamps. From there, whatever you can find to do by the light of the lamps:

Made soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for supper.

The camera flash gave us a few seconds of light :)

Callie reading ”The Hunger Games” to me…just enough to get me hooked!

Our wintery wonderland!

P.S. We got our electricity back about 3:00 a.m. Heard some places around here will be without any power for up to 3 days. Glad it’s not us!

Winter…it found us.

Hello from very snowy Nebraska!

Almost exactly one month ago today, I wrote about how Eastern Nebraska has lucked out with the winter cold and snow. I had a feeling it was too good to be true.  For the past several days, the weatherman has been warning us of the impending snow storm coming from Colorado headed right for Eastern Nebraska before continuing its trek Eastward. My Grandpa always said that when we experience a strong wind from the East we should be watching for a bad storm. He was certainly right! The wind blew like crazy yesterday - straight out of the East. Branches that had been protected from previous winds found their way to the ground. Because I knew the storm was headed our way, I took a picture from the kitchen window to show you what it looked like prior to the storm. I couldn’t take a picture from the exact spot this morning because the window was wet from the snow.

We woke up to 12+ inches of snow. More than we’ve had all winter.  And no power.  The house was a little on the chilly side! Good thing the temperature outside wasn’t  below zero. What do you do when there’s no way to make coffee? Improvise. We’re lucky enough to have gas appliances in this old house so I heated some water for hot chocolate and instant coffee.

Callie’s enjoying her cup of hot chocolate.

Right after this picture was taken, the power came back on – for a short period of time. Then, it went back off again. Rather than sitting in here trying to stay warm, Callie and I went outside and shoveled for a while. The snow is wet and heavy – perfect for a snowman!

What’s this? I. Am. Honored!

So, I sat down this afternoon to share with you the picture that I have been so anxious to share (and I still will). However, when I logged into my WordPress account, I realized that I’d been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award.

We have Versatile Blogger Award rules to follow:

1. In a post on your, blog, nominate 15 fellow bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award.

2. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog.

3. In the same post, share seven completely random pieces of information about yourself.

4. In the same post, include this set of rules.

5. Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs. (Or post to Twitter.)

6.  Copy this picture to your blog.

I’m a little unsure what this exactly means BUT it’s always fun to be nominated for any kind of award…right?  I’m not athletic and I wasn’t much involved in anything in High School – except FBLA. As I grew up and got married and started having babies, being awarded for anything other than “the worstest mommy I’ve ever had” award was never imagined. So I’m honored to think that I’ve “met” enough other wonderful bloggers out there who would even CONSIDER me for this award. I have been nominated by my new friend, Joy. The very first posting I read from her blog “My Universe is Still Coming Together” was “My Universe Came Together, While It Was Falling Apart” .  See, I’m still so new at this blogging thing, I don’t even know how to change the font color for my links (maybe someone can fill me in).  I related to how she felt with the death of her Grandma. My “harvest” Grandma meant the world to me and my universe fell apart when she died. I also relate to her desire to write and be a published writer. Thus began my newfound friendship with Joy. THANK YOU, JOY! for nominating me for this award! :)

Now, as part of the rules for the nomination, I’m supposed to nominate 15 more bloggers. So, here goes:

1. My daughter, Jenna’s blog – Yensyphotos

2. The Wheat Harvest Movie

3. Kuntz Harvesting

4. icanseealotoflifeinyou

5. farmchiclogic

6. Lady of Ag

7. The Farmer’s Life

8. Small Nebraska Farming

9. Common Sense Agriculture

10. Agriculture Proud

11. Simple Gifts

12. Confessions of A Farm Wife

13. TALINORFALI

14. suehealy

15. My story uncensored

The final part of the rules is to give you seven random facts about me:

1. I procrastinate. I work better under the pressure of a deadline.

2. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut.

3. My two least enjoyed household chores are folding clothes and dusting. I think that’s because those were the two chores my mom hated…someone had to do them.

4. Some day I want to visit Alaska. Mostly because that’s a trip my grandma always wanted to take and never did.

5. New things scare me. As soon as they become familiar and I know what I’m doing – watch out!

6. Once I set my mind on doing something, it takes a lot to get me to quit. I’m very persistent.

7. The word IMPOSSIBLE does not fit in my vocabulary.

8. I know I’m only supposed to do seven but I wanted to throw #8 in because I wanted you to know (unless you’ve already got it figured out) that God is important to me. I constantly look and listen for Him each day. When you watch for Him, you can see how He fits each piece of your life puzzle together creating a beautiful picture! I hope the people I come in contact with can see Him through me.

And finally, the pictures I wanted to share with you (you know what this means)

And finally, Callie made a cake for me – complete with homemade fondant frosting – while I was gone Sunday afternoon watching Taylor’s UNO honor choir. What a kid!

A Random Re-post

I’m in dire need of something that reminds me of summer. Eastern Nebraska has had a WONDERFUL winter as far as severity. Maybe a little too nice. We’re in need of some moisture and it sounds like it may be on the way starting Friday. For now, though, I’m really missing summer and the harvest. I started this blog late in the 2011 harvest season so I don’t have a lot to choose from.  I know I have fun reliving the crazy days of harvest:  Click here to read Finished with Winter Wheat in Jordan