Sugar Grove
By Paula Mitchell
God Made a Farmer
“And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a caretaker.” So God made a farmer.
God said, “I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board.” So God made a farmer.
“I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife’s done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon — and mean it.” So God made a farmer.
God said, “I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, ‘Maybe next year.’ I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain’n from ‘tractor back,’ put in another seventy-two hours.” So God made a farmer.
God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor’s place. So God made a farmer.
God said, “I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week’s work with a five-mile drive to church.”
“Somebody who’d bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life ‘doing what his dad does.’” So God made a farmer.
What would the country do without the farmer?
Life’s little instructions include the following:
- Check on one’s neighbor
- Call an elderly person and offer to help to do something for them.
- Be honest.
- Put dirty clothes in the laundry basket.
- Plant flowers.
Friday morning temperatures were clocked in at 36 degrees with several folks in the community having had frost. Rains fell Sunday, but that didn’t slow down the grass and hay mowing.
Quotes for the week are as follows:
“I’d rather regret the risks that didn’t work out than the chances I didn’t take at all.” — Simone Biles
“It is for us the living…to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they who fought here have so nobly advanced.” — Abraham Lincoln
“A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.” — Travis Scott
“With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you’re connected to the sea.” — Sylvia Earle
“When you are looking at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know.” — Charley Benetto
Sitting inside to watch it rain is the best place to hear the “Talk of the Grove.”
The writer always enjoys sharing what volunteers do for the betterment of the community. Wendell and Patty Marshall, Mark and Kevin Rexrode, Darren Gilkeson, Carrisa Link, and Matt, Shannon and Madelyn Kontyko were at Mt. Zion Lutheran Church in Dahmer this weekend repairing damage from this spring’s wildfire. Carrisa prepared a picnic lunch which all enjoyed very much.
K.D. Puffenbarger attended the James and Teenie Puffenbarger reunion Sunday in Bridgewater, Virginia. A very good turn-out was had.
Mike and Robin DelBiondo of Waynesboro, Virginia, visited Saturday with Willard and Judy Rader.
Willard and Judy Rader have reached a milestone! They have been married 64 years. Be sure to congratulate them when seeing them. Congratulations!
Clickety-clacks for the chin waggers for this week are as follows:
- The Panama Canal’s Atlantic entrance is farther west than its Pacific entrance.
- Babies usually say “dada” before they say “mama.”
- The nation’s three longest bridges are all in Louisiana.
- Juneteenth has its own flag.
- The most shoplifted book is the Bible.
Concerns for this week are as follows: Bob Adamson, John Ashley, Roger Ashley, Mercedes Aumann, Richard Bennett, the Ed Bodkin family, “Bo” Boggs, Elsie Bowers, Marie Cole, Steve Conrad, Christian Dasher, Benny Evick, Isaac Eye, Linda Eye, Marie Eye, Mary Eye, Carl Gant, Lola Graham, Patsy Green, JC Hammer, Marlene Harman, Marvin Hartman, Steve and Armanda Heavner, Grace Hedrick, Jim Hiner, Evan Hise, Tim Hively, Edsel and Mary Ann Hogan, Virgil Homan, Jr., Adalbert Hoover, Keith Hoover, Myrtle Hoover, Debbie and Enos Horst, Lisa and Mike Jamison, Jessica Janney, Alice Johnson, Richard Judy, Marsha Keller, Kim Kline, Ginger Knight, Tracie Knight, Melissa Lambert, Robert Lambert, Ronnie Lambert, Rex Landis, Roger and Skip Mallow, Yvonne Marsh, Ed May, Gary McDonald, Neil McLaughlin, Rose Miller, Bruce Minor, Tom Mitchell, Barbara Moats, Gloria Moats, John Morford, Bill Mullenax, Helen Nash, Aaron Nelson, Ruth Nelson, Cheryl Paine, Wanda Pitsenbarger, Andy Pond, Eldon “Butch” Puffenbarger, Alda Propst, Mike Propst, Sheldon Propst, Stanley Propst, Tom Rader, Brandon Reel, Charles Rexrode, Jason Rexrode, Linda Fay Rexrode, Pam Rexrode, Dennis Riggleman, Mike Roberts, Donna Ruddle, Jenny Ruddle, Brittany Shriver, Annie Simmons, Phyllis Simmons, Erin Simmons, Eva Simmons, Judy Simmons, Nelson Simmons, Robbie Sites, Mike Skiles, Tina Stuben, Steve Stump, Elizabeth Terry, Rosa Tichenor, Linda and Larry Vandevander, Sandra Vandevander, Raymond Varner, Amy Vaus, Estelle Wagner, Rene White, Judy Williams, Ann and Jerry Wimer, Margaret Wimer, the people of Ukraine, Israel, Pakistan, and avalanche victims of Papua New Guinea.
