By now I hope your Fourth of July sunburn is a little less painful and that the memories of this fantastic holiday will linger long after the redness has faded completely.
Longtime volunteers Keith and Sharon Barkema drove Farm Rescue’s newly wrapped pickup and grain trailer in their hometown Fourth of July parade as seen in the pictures above. What a wonderful way to pay tribute to the farmers that support so many small communities across the country.
In the quiet time between planting and harvesting, Farm Rescue is still working to make sure we can respond immediately when needed. Lots of preparation and maintenance tasks are being tended to — kind of like elves in Santa’s workshop. For context, there are only 24 Fridays until Christmas Day. Just think about that as sweat rolls off your brow and onto whatever bolt you’re trying to loosen.
Our long list of rainy-day tasks such as reconditioning an air seeder or repacking wheel bearings are waiting for everything to fall into place so they can be marked as done. Farm Rescue employees, Luke Benedict and Ben Smith, along with several volunteers are waiting for the green flag signal that they can begin.
Farm Rescue sends a heartfelt thanks to Keith and Sharon for representing us so well and to Mari Benedict for helping move vehicles and implements this week. Some may think a successful operation depends on one big thing like planting, baling, or harvesting, but really it relies on all the smaller things that have to happen in the meantime.
“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”—A League of Their Own
Respectfully,
Jennifer Theurer
Field Operations Support Assistant
