I'm Back!

     This morning I awoke in Lincoln, Nebraska  - about three hours east of our home - excited about our first mission of the day.  We were heading to Lutheran Church of the Master in Omaha to introduce Pastor Mark VanderTuig, Service Coordinator for the LCMC (Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ), an association of which our local church is a member, and Dr. Larry Thomas of the Tropical Health Alliance Foundation.  Both the LCMC and the THAF have connections in Ethiopia and hopefully this introduction will lead to coordinated efforts in helping the Ethiopian people with some of their health issues.  We'll see where God leads.
     After lunch at the newly opened Joe's Crab Shack in Omaha, we headed back to The Middle of Somewhere to farm!
     We're in the process of planting alfalfa and we want to get it in the ground before the rain that's forecasted for tomorrow evening hits.  Working around weather is a  major challenge in farming!  The ground had already been disked, and Becky was running the Field Cultivator which levels, packs and smooths the fields, and then it was my turn.  I got (and I mean that literally) to drive the IH 756 with the packer.  This is what a packer looks like: 

 From the seat of the tractor:

Looking back at the roller packer:

Alfalfa, like a lawn, prefers a firm seed bed and packing is the last activity before Tom or Becky will plant with our Brillion seeder-packer.  Then it's time to wait - it seems like alfalfa takes FOREVER to come up. But it should rain tomorrow, so that will give it a good head start.