“There’s still a lot of corn left in the fields,” I remarked to Stan as we sped back to Blue Earth. The winter season was rapidly closing-in, threatening the little outings to see how it was going in the country and on the farms.
I love those beautiful fall days and the feeling of the seasonal harvest rewards. I sing in my heart, with the farmers, the hymn “all is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.”
The next few days of the autumn brought wonderful weather and harvest into a more manageable finish. All would be safely gathered in as the last fields were finally done. Many of the farm fields were blackened by the determined farmers plowing late into the night.
Ere the winter storms began with warning forecasts of six to 10 inches of snow and rain over the next few days. Winter birds also brought the forewarning of snow by their clattering and squabbling around the feeders. A fat gray squirrel had been bested by Stan’s latest tinkering with the bird feeders. He was determined to get into the feeder again.
“He won’t get that suet now,” Stan grinned. But by lunchtime Stan feared the worst. “He just doesn’t give up.”
“I saw him too. He was in the squirrel-proof feeder,” I said. “He was running with half a block of suet dragging, it up the oak tree.”
“Just as I came in for lunch that fat squirrel was laughing at us,” Stan smiled.
“He pulled the remainder of suet into his nest in the oak tree,” I chuckled. “He even had the nerve to shake his tale at me,” Stan laughed.
Squirrel watching was fun. Soberly, Stan continued. “Sounding more like snow all the time. I hope we don’t get as much as last time.” We both looked out the window and remembered our sore backs and cold feet.
Within a few hours we had a few snow flakes and suddenly the worst white-out I could remember for a long time. School buses turned around and went back to school; it was too dangerous to proceed.
Administrators and teachers had begun calling parents to come and take their students home. Some parents had prearranged places in town for the children to stay. Friends, grandparents, school mates, relatives were on the list.
It was another deadly storm because of the cold and white-out.
That night, as I listened to the wind and snow swishing on the windows, I hoped that the fat squirrel was curled up cozy and warm, after sharing the suet with his friends.
While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. Genesis 8:22 KJV
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Sue Peterson has been writing “The Yield” column since 1978 and has been a staple of The Land. She may be reached at sustan2@bevcomm.net or 1010 East 5th St., Blue Earth, MN 56013. Matthew 6; Psalm 37:5-7
