Those of you who have grown up in a farm community, as I did, have probably seen this type of thing before. A gentleman named Steve Jones was killed in a farm accident a few months ago. Yesterday, hundreds of his friends, neighbors and relatives showed up to harvest his crop for his family.
Lubbock Newspaper
Take the time to watch the video, it will warm your heart.
I didn't really know where on TexAgs to post this. I figured this board had the biggest viewership of folks would appreciate it. It combines the land, the good people of the Panhandle/South Plains, some interesting farm machinery, etc. And you guys would be above making fun of it being Lubbock/Tech related.
On a very personal note, in 1952, three years before I was born, dad contracted polio. My tough-as-anything mom took care of him, a four month old baby and the farm, in a day when women didn't really do that, and machinery was much more primitive and labor intensive.
Mom would place my infant brother on the bed with Dad (who could barely move) then go take care of the plowing, irrigating, harvest, etc.
The farmers in the community (Mom and Dad had just moved there the year before) came in and "laid by" the cotton crop in late summer, plowing and hoeing and getting it ready for harvest.
Dad recovered with little permanent damage, and lived another 59 years.
Mom and Dad never forgot that debt, and never stopped trying to repay it. I can't count the number of hours I spent on our tractor on someone else's farm when someone died or was sick.
One of my earliest memories is playing in a field as dozens of our neighbors brought in the harvest for the widow of another neighbor.
I've helped clean up the header of a combine where a neighbor was killed. Later, standing in his field watching the community finish his harvest, his widow hugs me. You don't forget those moments.
I've been blessed to be able to take care of a little bit of land belonging to a reservist who was called up to Iraq for a year.
May you all be blessed with friends and communities such as these. If you are ever in the situation where someone needs your help, I hope you take advantage of the double blessing of giving the help.
Lubbock Newspaper
Take the time to watch the video, it will warm your heart.
I didn't really know where on TexAgs to post this. I figured this board had the biggest viewership of folks would appreciate it. It combines the land, the good people of the Panhandle/South Plains, some interesting farm machinery, etc. And you guys would be above making fun of it being Lubbock/Tech related.
On a very personal note, in 1952, three years before I was born, dad contracted polio. My tough-as-anything mom took care of him, a four month old baby and the farm, in a day when women didn't really do that, and machinery was much more primitive and labor intensive.
Mom would place my infant brother on the bed with Dad (who could barely move) then go take care of the plowing, irrigating, harvest, etc.
The farmers in the community (Mom and Dad had just moved there the year before) came in and "laid by" the cotton crop in late summer, plowing and hoeing and getting it ready for harvest.
Dad recovered with little permanent damage, and lived another 59 years.
Mom and Dad never forgot that debt, and never stopped trying to repay it. I can't count the number of hours I spent on our tractor on someone else's farm when someone died or was sick.
One of my earliest memories is playing in a field as dozens of our neighbors brought in the harvest for the widow of another neighbor.
I've helped clean up the header of a combine where a neighbor was killed. Later, standing in his field watching the community finish his harvest, his widow hugs me. You don't forget those moments.
I've been blessed to be able to take care of a little bit of land belonging to a reservist who was called up to Iraq for a year.
May you all be blessed with friends and communities such as these. If you are ever in the situation where someone needs your help, I hope you take advantage of the double blessing of giving the help.