We are still enjoying a beautiful Indian summer here in west Michigan.  We’ve had a killing frost so that the last zucchini standing has finally fallen.  We’re enjoying above normal temperatures and dry conditions.  It’s a great time for the farmers to harvest their crops.

Neighbor chops corn for cattle feed

The corn field behind our barn has been harvested.  It doesn’t take long for these folks to bring in the crop.  That’s Meghan’s house in the background.  Have you visited her blog?

A quarter-mile north of here, another friend and neighbor was harvesting soy beans yesterday.  I saw him in the morning and again in the evening shortly after the sun had gone down.  He wants to get the job done before the rain comes later today.

Yesterday, I got my tractor back from the shop.  A bad hydraulic line had put me out of business.  It took eight days to get it back, and I was unhappy that all that beautiful weather was going to waste when I had tilling to do at church and here at home.

As soon as the tractor was unloaded, I took it to the barn and removed the mower deck.  Next, I mounted the front-end loader and the tiller.  Then I drove the mile and a quarter to church.  After a bit of planning, I moved some top soil to where it was needed and then began to till the newly formed bank at the edge of the rear parking lot.  Sylvia and Pastor Mark used their rakes to prepare the ground for grass seed.  Nearly half-way through the job, the tiller quit operating.  The problem is in the tractor.

So it will be another wait for the service department to fix my John Deere.  I’ll keep busy doing other outdoor tasks.  I have plenty to do.

Last night, as the moon rose it was very cloudy.  The sky looked like this:

One day past the full moon

I wanted to see if I could capture the “feel” of last night’s moon.  I used the “night sky” setting on the camera and then used Photoshop Elements to lighten the image a bit.  The result is fairly close to what my eye saw.

Later, the skies cleared.  It was probably a good night for my friend to harvest those soy beans.