Fall Is Here!

It is a busy time for farmers around here. All the corn appears to be in and they have changed the headers out on their combines and are now cutting soybeans. When they aren’t harvesting they are mowing down the corn stubble, disking, and sowing wheat. The soybean fields will remain fallow until corn is planted in them in the spring. (It’s a three crop rotation on a two year schedule.) And the tobacco barns are still belching out smoke as most folks are about halfway through the curing process.

In case you are wondering, yes, a tobacco barn does burn down on occasion. One of our local news outlets, Smokey Barn News (http://smokeybarn.com), recently reported on one such incident where about 10 acres of a crop was lost. This is the third tobacco barn fire he has reported this year. The usual cause is a stick or tobacco falls into the smoldering fire below causing it to flame up and catch the rest of the tobacco above to ignite, but sometimes gas (probably methane) builds up in the top of the barn due to the decomposition process and ignites.

We are enjoying our first taste of fall weather, but summer has been trying to reassert itself. We usually have our first frost by now, but we’ve been breaking records with high temps in the mid 80s last week. Our leaves are beginning to turn so the next few weeks should be pretty around here.

Life at our house has been fairly routine the last few weeks so there hasn’t been much to report on. We enjoyed a three day fall break last week (the 10th, 11th, and 12th) but didn’t go anywhere. We spent the time getting chores done here at home and some maintenance over at Pauline’s old house (to prepare for our newest renters) so it wasn’t very exciting.

Ben has continued to do well in Cross Country, typically finishing a little over 20 minutes. I’m impressed as most of the runners are shorter than he is. He has come a long way since the season started. He will run in the regional championship race on Thursday.

Nate has been picking a lot of pumpkins, though that has tapered off now as all of Steve’s wholesale orders have been filled. Nate says he’s going to run Cross Country next year which will cut down on his pumpkin picking.

And Jenna has been enjoying college life, though she keeps telling us about all these papers she turns in at literally the eleventh hour. Neither Vicki nor I had the luxury of electronic submission, but Jenna does and quite often turns her work in just a few minutes before the midnight deadline.

We took Mom to Trevecca to see Jenna last weekend. She didn’t get to see Jenna’s dorm room as there is no elevator, but she did get the driving tour of the campus which she enjoyed. After that we were in the mood for pizza and went to the Mellow Mushroom. We knew Mom had misunderstood the concept of the restaurant when she tried to order fruit tea.

This weekend Jenna came home with her roommate, Macy, and their two friends from across the hall at their dorm, Anna and Maddie. They ate supper at our house Friday night and then headed to Adams to see Spirit, the play about the Bell Witch. Some of the girls had things to do on campus and went back yesterday afternoon, but Jenna spent the rest of the weekend here. Vicki and I were very impressed with all three girls.

Jenna returned to school tonight after we all enjoyed a surprise birthday party for Chip and Janice Hellmann. Chip’s birthday is at the end of the month and Janice’s is in January. Both will be 60. We all gathered over at Ross and Donna Swann’s house (Ross is Janice’s brother) and hid in the back yard. When the Hellmanns arrived, thinking they were there for another occasion, they were shockingly surprised when they came though the house and out the back door. It was a perfect fall evening to sit outside, eat, and visit.

Nate and I enjoyed an interesting sight Wednesday evening. We had been to church for supper and I was bringing him home so he could finish his homework when we looked up and saw a strange light in the sky. We knew pretty quickly it was a blimp that was lit with an internal light. It appeared to be flying along I-65 as it headed north. I actually got a pretty good picture considering I rested a pair of binoculars on Nate’s head and shot through the eyepiece with the camera on my phone. The blimp sighting was well documented on the aforementioned Smokey Barn News.

Speaking of church, I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that we are again without a pastor. We have hired an interim pastor for this season while we look again for a full time pastor. The interim we have hired is Dr. Bruce Grubbs. Interestingly, Dr. Grubbs served as our interim pastor for about 18 months some 35 years ago between Bro. Dorris and Bro. Bill. I could sit and listen to Bruce Grubbs talk common sense all day long, and I am glad to have him in our pulpit once again.

Joe