Tom Heck

LIFE ON THE FAMILY FARM UNDER AN OPEN HEAVEN
By: Tom Heck
A Dirty Thankless Job
Every year in the fall we have our neighbors, Howard and his son Bob, come and combine our corn. As one of them drives their large machine down the rows of corn, it snaps the ears from the stalks. Then it takes the ears into the heart of the machine where it shells the kernels off of the cobs and augers them up into the grain tank. From there, it gets loaded onto a truck and hauled into my farmyard here where we run it through a roller mill. The mill breaks up the kernels and blows them up into our silo. By processing our corn this way, it makes it highly digestible for our cattle. With our small silo full of corn, we have enough grain to feed our cattle for another year.
But, harvest isn’t over yet. The grain is off, but the rest of the corn plant is still in the field. This also is very valuable to us. We use this to bedden our cattle with over the long cold winter months. It is very soft, absorbent and helps to keep our cattle warm and comfortable. We call it, “cornstalk bedding”.
So, after the corn is combined, I take a tractor and flail chopper out to the field and run the cornstalks through the chopper. It cuts the stalks, leaves and husks into small pieces and blows them back onto the ground. This is necessary, because the stalks have a lot of juice in them. By doing this, it helps them to dry out. If cornstalks get put up with too much moisture in them they will mold and possibly catch on fire. After we have them chopped, we leave them lay for a few days to dry.
Then it’s time to harvest them. I rake them into large rolls with our rotary rake. Then I take the tractor with the same flail chopper back to the field, this time though, I have a large chopper box hooked behind it. I head the chopper down the large roll chopping it into the chopper box. Because the cornstalks are dry and since the rake put a little bit of dry soil in with them, my flail chopper puts up a large cloud of dust. It’s unavoidable.
Once I have the chopper box full, I take it home and unload it into an elevator that takes it up into the barn where we store it. Unloading the bedding into the elevator is also a very dirty, dusty job. Joanne, Catherine and Joshua are in the mow moving all this and packing it away while I’m unloading it. By the end of the day, we all look like we’ve been in a terrible dust storm! We all wear glasses and masks to keep the dirt out of our eyes and noses. It usually takes us a full week to put our bedding all up.
I remember one day after I had unloaded several loads of very dusty bedding and was in the process of finishing up another one, a lady walked up behind me. Since I was almost done, I finished unloading it while she stood about fifty feet away. When I got done, I walked over to see what she wanted. The first words out of her mouth were, “That’s sure a dirty thankless job.” Then she went on to tell me that in her previous marriage she had helped her husband put up cornstalk bedding. She had hated it because of how dirty it was.
I was shocked at her comments and attitude. While it is a very dirty job, the four of us here have always enjoyed doing it. It’s very rewarding seeing the barn full of soft fluffy bedding at the end of the harvest season. We use this bedding every day throughout the next year for our cattle. The cattle sure appreciate it and do well on it. When we see our cattle lying in it very contentedly and even mooing occasionally; we know they appreciate it, even if they can’t say it in English! A dirty thankless job – we don’t think so. A dirty job, yes; a thankless job, no!
It is so important for a person in their work to keep a good attitude. If you keep a good attitude, your work will be much more enjoyable and rewarding. If you don’t, your work will be miserable and the hours will just drag by. The same can be said for marriage, family and so many other things too.
I know there are many people that do ordinary jobs where they receive very little thanks or appreciation. Sometimes they wonder if it’s really worth it. Let me tell you something, if you are doing a service to others and blessing them, it most certainly is worth it. The Bible says in Gal. 6:9, “Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.”
I’ve never heard my bossie cows say, “Thank you” in English yet, but I know they sure appreciate us putting up all that dry fluffy cornstalk bedding. It’s too bad that lady didn’t hear her cows saying, “Thank you” years before. If she would have, I’m sure she would have enjoyed her work much more and found it rewarding. I know we do here.

Tom Heck, his wife Joanne, and their two children, Catherine and Joshua, own and operate a 35 cow, 159 acre dairy farm in northwestern WI. Contact Tom at: lifeonthefamilyfarm@gmail.com To view Tom’s past articles go to: tomheckfarm.com Copyright © 2013 by Tom Heck. All rights reserved.

Photo caption: Tom chopping cornstalk bedding.

LIFE ON THE FAMILY FARM UNDER AN OPEN HEAVEN

By:  Tom Heck

The Two Dollar Wheelbarrow

                Many years ago, shortly after we bought our farm, I went to a farm auction that had lots of stuff for sale by a farmer who was retiring.  One of the things that came up for sale was his old wheelbarrow.  It was a heavy-duty one that had been welded up some, leaked in the corners, but was still in good solid working condition.  I knew I could sure use it on my farm.  The auctioneer opened up the bidding on it for one dollar and immediately somebody said, “Yes.”  Then he asked for two dollars and I raised my hand.  Then he asked for three dollars and I held my breath.  To my amazement, nobody raised my bid so the auctioneer said, “Sold.”  I had just bought a two dollar wheelbarrow.

Over the last 22 years, we have used it for lots of work on our farm here.  From hauling dirt and rock, to hay bales and feed, we have used it for a tremendous amount of work here.  I’ve done a little bit of welding on it over the years, but pretty much it’s been trouble free.

This last spring, I had to replace some of the old bolts and washers holding the thing together with new ones.  I told the kids then that we could buy a new one and that I was sure we had gotten our two dollars worth of use out of it.  “But, Dad”, they said, “Why spend all that money on a new one when we can fix up ‘Old Dependable’?”   Well, it’s hard to argue with my kids, especially when I’m of the same mind-set that they are, so we fixed it up.

A month later, Joshua was hauling a load of shale rock with it that weighed between two and three hundred pounds when the wheel rim bent sideways.  Considering it is probably 40 to 50 years old and fairly rusty it’s not surprising.  Actually, it’s surprising it made it this long.  We were all disappointed to see it.  I told the kids, “It’s definitely time to buy a new one now.”  Their reply, “But can’t we fix it up some way?”  I told them, “I don’t think so; it’s time for a new one.”  Needless to say their faces were down cast.

A few days later we went to a store that sells wheelbarrows.  I had my mind made up that we were going to buy a new one.  They had several on display, but we were greatly disappointed as we looked at them.  They were all built so cheap and light.  I said to my family, “They will never stand up to the work we have for them on our farm.  I’m not buying one of these.”  The kids agreed with me.  Joanne said, “What are we going to do then?”  I answered, “I don’t know, but I’m not buying one of these that’s built so cheap, it won’t last.”

So with that we continued walking through the store and came to a place where they sold wheelbarrow tires.  I thought, “Here’s our answer.”  They cost 30 to 40 some dollars.  I told the kids that that was a lot to stick into a two dollar wheelbarrow.  But they thought it was worth saving.  But, as we looked at them we saw that the rims were built so light, that they would never stand up to the loads we put in our wheelbarrow.  So again I said, “No.”  I left the store in frustration, it’s sad that sometimes in America today, it’s impossible to buy a quality built item.

Later that day, Joshua came up to me and said, “Could we use an old steel wheel off of the chopper hay head that we got junked out up in the woods?”  I thought on it a minute and said, “It might work.”  Needless to say, we were desperate to find an answer to our problem.  Well, we went up there and after a fair bit of work we got both steel wheels off of the old junked out hay head.

We got them and the old wheelbarrow in the shop and went to work.  The kids were very eager to help me, since they didn’t want to see Old Dependable junked out.  They thought I was going to put one steel wheel on it, but I said, “Why not put both of them on it?”  So that’s what we did.  A couple hours later we rolled Old Dependable out of the shop.  It looks like we’re going backwards in time since it originally came out with a rubber tire and now it has two steel wheels on it.

Since then we’ve used it a lot and it has worked great.  I told the kids that we spent about two dollars on new nuts, bolts and washers for it so it had better go another 22 years so that I get my money out of it!  They laughed and agreed.  Looking at it, we think it might make another 22 years.  I’m sure it will go a lot further than one of those new ones that we looked at.

Sometimes it’s hard to throw old things away that have special memories with them.  The kids think it’s pretty special, that the two dollar wheelbarrow we started farming with years ago is still working.  It’s hard for us to throw stuff away that has worked well over the years if it’s possible to fix it up and keep it working.

And what is more amazing and special is that God loves to take broken, hopeless people and rescue them and then fix them up and use them for his glory.  That’s what the Gospel is all about.  I know this is true, because I’m one of those that He’s saved.  The wonderful news is that He will save anybody who cries out to Him.  He never throws anybody away.

     Tom Heck, his wife Joanne, and their two children, Catherine and Joshua, own and operate a 35 cow, 159 acre dairy farm in northwestern WI.  Contact Tom at: lifeonthefamilyfarm@gmail.com

   Photo caption:  Our steel wheeled wheelbarrow.

  Copyright © 2013 by Tom Heck.  All rights reserved.

LIFE ON THE FAMILY FARM UNDER AN OPEN HEAVEN
By: Tom Heck
It All Started So Innocently
When I was a teenager, I would often times spend a couple weeks every summer helping my uncle George and my grandmother on their dairy farm. I so looked forward to those couple weeks all year long when I could go live with them and work alongside George. It was the highlight of my year, since my home life wasn’t that good.
My uncle George and Grandma treated me wonderfully. I would work alongside George from early morning till late at night. Whether it was milking cows, grinding feed, putting up hay, cleaning calf pens, or the many other jobs there were to do, he was always great to work with.
One early summer day something happened that affected my life for years afterwards. On that particular day, we baled our first field of hay for the season. After taking the first crop of hay off of that field that day, George wanted to work the field and plant it to corn. He figured it was early enough in the season so that he could get a good crop of corn off of it come fall.
So after we had the hay baled that day, George hooked the tractor up to the disk and told me to go out and disk that field. As I headed out to the field, he went to the barn to get ready for the evening milking. I started disking the field and everything was going great until something broke on the tractor’s hitch. I got off the tractor and looked it over and saw two possible ways to fix it. I wasn’t sure which way to do it and since it wasn’t mine, I figured I’d better go in and ask George how he wanted it done.
Since it was only about 100 yards north of the barn, I decided I might as well walk in instead of driving the equipment in. I found George in the milkhouse with his back towards the door. He jumped when I opened the door and walked in. He quickly turned and faced me while hiding something behind his back. I was extremely interested in what he had behind his back, because I’d never seen him act this way before. He wanted to know what I wanted and so I told him about the tractor. Then I asked him what he was hiding. It was clear to him that he couldn’t really hide it on me, so he pulled it out from behind his back. It was his latest issue of Playboy magazine. I was shocked. I had never seen one before. Now here my uncle that I thought so highly of was holding one in his hands. He said, “It’s only this, just a little fun entertainment.” Then he said, “We’d better go and get that tractor fixed so you can finish disking that field this evening yet.”
With that we headed out to the field and fixed the tractor. A couple hours later I finished disking the field and drove into the farm yard. I saw George working in the barn so I went to help him. He had a big surprise waiting for me. He had laid out a whole pile of his magazines for me to look at. I knew it was wrong so I pretty much avoided them, but later that evening he showed me a bunch of the pictures in them that he really liked. With that, he got me looking at them. Up until that day, I never knew that George was into pornography.
I must say that George never mistreated me. But after that day, I started to look at his pornography and started to enjoy it. The more I looked at it, the more I enjoyed it. Every time I went to stay with him, I’d find myself looking at it. The Bible is most certainly right when it teaches in Heb. 11:25, that there is pleasure in sin for a season.
Did it hurt me at all you ask? Absolutely yes! The more I looked at it the more I started to look down on women. The more perverted thoughts ran through my mind. I’ve read accounts over the years of men that started looking at porn for pleasure and eventually they ended up assaulting women and in some cases killing them. How tragic!
Although, I never assaulted or killed a woman, I most certainly did not treat them with the respect I should have. Fortunately, when I was 20 years old I repented of my sins, including pornography, and accepted Jesus as my Lord. He saved me then and as I started to follow Him, He began to deal with me in my attitudes towards women. Boy, did I need that. As I look back, I am amazed at how perverted my mind was regarding women.
Thank God for His Word! For through His word my mind got straightened out. Seven years later I was blessed to marry a beautiful, godly woman – Joanne. I’ve had the privilege of being married to her for over 20 years now and having a wonderful family.
I got caught up into porn so innocently and because of my sinful nature, I became a slave to it. But, by the power of God I’ve been set free. So many men, women and children are affected by porn today in our society. It destroys families, marriages and individuals. The toll is terrible. And it just isn’t in magazines anymore. It’s all around us today, on TV, computers, billboards and so forth. Is it any wonder that there are so many abortions today and rapes and people in prison?
Looking back, I wish I had never got caught up into porn, but I thank the Lord for forgiveness and for setting me on the right path. The years after I got saved have most definitely been the best years of my life. If I would have continued in my sin, I definitely would not be where I am today. The Bible says it well when it says in John 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Just a little fun entertainment? Definitely not! Deadly destroying entertainment? Yes, a thousand times over.
If you are caught up in porn, I know a Saviour who loves you and wants to forgive you and set you free. The choice is yours. I have never regretted following Him, I just wish I would have done it sooner.

Tom Heck, his wife Joanne, and their two children, Catherine and Joshua, own and operate a 35 cow, 159 acre dairy farm in northwestern WI. Contact Tom at: lifeonthefamilyfarm@gmail.com Copyright © 2013 by Tom Heck. All rights reserved.

LIFE ON THE FAMILY FARM UNDER AN OPEN HEAVEN
By: Tom Heck
One of Those Days
We all have days once in a while where it seems if something can go wrong it does. And it just isn’t one thing that goes wrong; it seems that they just pile up! I had one day like that a while back here. We were starting to cut a new crop of hay on this particular day. I had my 1206 Farmall tractor sitting in the shed in front of the tractor that I had my discbine hooked up to. The plan was to drive the old dependable 1206 out of the shed and put it on the blower for filling the silo with the hay I was about to cut. The tractor started right up and I drove it out of the shed and turned it to head to the silo. I was turning it right in the middle of our drive way when I saw that the front wheel was almost ready to fall off. I quickly pushed in the clutch and stopped. In my many years of running tractors, I never had anything like this happen.
My kids came to see why I had stopped the tractor right in the middle of the driveway. We were all shocked to see the wheel almost ready to fall off. Joshua asked me, “What do we do?” I replied, “We have to get it fixed so that we can move it out of the way; our milk hauler can’t even get up to the milkhouse to get our milk.” With that we went and got a bunch of tools out of our shop and went to work on it. The inside wheel bearing was chewed up into an innumerable number of pieces. The outside wheel bearing was still good. By running the tractor like this over time, it had put a lot of pressure on the pack nut holding the wheel on. Over time, the threads on the spindle which hold the pack nut on stripped half off. Then the cotter pin that goes through the pack nut and spindle sheared off. The end result was my wheel falling almost off on this particular day. On this day when I really wanted to go at haying! Surprisingly the tractor had run really nice with the inner wheel bearing out until this day.
Once we had it apart, I headed for the phone to call my local machine shops to see if they had the bearing I needed. To my astonishment, they didn’t have it. I turned to my family and said, “What do we do? We can’t go at haying with the tractor setting there and our milk hauler can’t even get in here to get the milk.” With that we started to pray for wisdom in what to do. With that an idea came to my mind. Our neighbors up the road have a large front end loader, so I decided to call them and see if they could bring it down and lift the front end of my tractor up and push it out of the way. I figured we could fix it later on after haying. The idea would have probably worked, but my neighbors were gone for the day.
So we were back to square one again, what do we do? Joanne kept praying while I started to make more phone calls. I finally located a bearing a fair distance away. I wanted to replace both bearings, but they only had the inner one. I asked him to hold it for me and with that we got into the car and went after it. Back home, we put the new bearing in and the used outer bearing. We greased them and tightened up the packing nut. But the packing nut wouldn’t tighten up it just started to jump the damaged threads on the spindle. Now what do we do? It seemed like it was impossible to get it fixed and out of the way.
I said to my family, “This is going to take a lot to get this fixed right and we don’t have the time or stuff here now to do it.” Catherine said, “Yes, but what do we do with this tractor in the middle of the driveway?” I replied, “We’ll put a new cotter pin through the packing nut and spindle. I think with those two bearings in the wheel and the pack nut on loosely, I can real slowly back it into the corner of the shed and park it there till we have time after haying to fix it right.” And that’s what we did.
By now it was late afternoon, and I finally headed out to the hay field just west of the barn. Was I ever happy to be finally cutting hay! The rest of my family headed to the barn to clean the gutters. I was just making my second round around the outside of the field when Catherine came walking out. On this particular day, I figured she wasn’t bringing good news. She told me the barn cleaner had broken. So, I stopped the tractor and headed for the barn. It took a little bit, but we got it fixed and running good again. I headed back to the hay field and started to cut hay again. By this time it was getting really late in the day and I ended up cutting just a few acres of hay.
It was time to get at the evening chores and to our surprise we had a real sick cow. I wasn’t expecting this at all, but a lot of the previous stuff in the day I hadn’t expected either. We ended up giving her an I.V. in her neck and praying for her. If we couldn’t pray, I don’t know what we would do! I’m so glad to have a Heavenly Father that answers our prayers. Well, we got our evening chores all done and called it a day.
Fortunately the following days went a lot better and we got our hay all off. The barn cleaner kept working well and our cow recovered. In time we got our 1206 fixed and running again.
Even though that day didn’t go at all as planned, we still had a good day working together as a family. We’ve learned no matter what comes our way, if we look to the Lord and rule our spirits we can and will overcome our adversities.

Tom Heck, his wife Joanne, and their two children, Catherine and Joshua, own and operate a 35 cow, 159 acre dairy farm in northwestern WI. Contact Tom at: lifeonthefamilyfarm@gmail.com Copyright © 2013 by Tom Heck. All rights reserved.

LIFE ON THE FAMILY FARM UNDER AN OPEN HEAVEN
By: Tom Heck
A Sleepless Night
A number of years ago, when I had a silo built here a very interesting thing happened. Something I’m not pleased about at all, but rather ashamed of. I share it with you readers though, hoping you can learn from my mistake.
In this particular situation, the crew of men that built my silo had several more silos to build after they finished mine. So needless to say, they were in a hurry to get my silo done so they could move on to the next job. Once they had my silo done they moved on to the next job, leaving a mess of broken concrete staves and metal behind.
We as a family were so glad to have our new silo done, that we joyfully went to work cleaning up the mess they left behind. In the process of cleaning it up, we found a very expensive, name brand ratchet they had left behind. They had thrown it away because it had broken.
I eyed it up, because I knew that tool company had a lifetime warranty on all its tools. Their tools were premium quality and carried a premium price tag. Thus, I had never bought a single tool from them, but I had admired their line of tools for years. Now, here I had one of their ratchets with a lifetime warranty on it. I use ratchets with sockets a lot on the farm here fixing machinery.
Once we had the mess cleaned up, I called around to find a store that carried that brand of tools. A couple days later, I took it into the store and showed it to the man behind the counter. He looked it over and replied, “No problem, I’ll give it to the company man when he comes around next week and then you can come in and get a brand new ratchet free.” I thanked him and left with a big smile on my face. Boy, was I looking forward to this expensive, top of the line ratchet. What a deal! But down inside I didn’t feel quite right about it. I brushed off those inner feelings though and went about the rest of my day.
I went to bed that night and fell asleep fast, but then shortly after that I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I tossed and turned for hours. Down inside I knew what was wrong. The lifetime warranty was for the owner of the tool. I had never bought it and the rightful owners had thrown it away. It was wrong for me to try and claim their warranty. In doing so, I would really be stealing from the company. Right there, lying in bed, I repented of my sin and asked the Lord to forgive me. And He did, and then I went back to sleep until my alarm clock went off.
After doing morning chores, I called the store up and talked to the man behind the counter again. I told him exactly what happened and apologized for being deceitful. His response, “That’s all right, people do that all the time here.” I replied, “It’s not all right, it’s stealing and I was wrong.” With that he absolutely insisted that I take the new ratchet because people do it all the time. Nobody would know the difference. I strongly replied, “I’ll know the difference and so will God. I’m not going to lose anymore sleep over a ratchet!” He was flabbergasted and said, “What should I do with this busted ratchet then?” I responded, “Throw it in the garbage; I don’t ever want to see that thing again!” With that we said, “Good-bye.”
Needless to say, I slept really well the next night. It is always right to be honest. Human nature always wants a good deal. We must always be careful that that doesn’t led us into sin. In the years since then, I’ve always been glad that I did the honest thing. If I wouldn’t have done it I would always have regretted it. I would have never enjoyed using that tool either. And it isn’t worth sleepless nights and a broken relationship with God. That would be terrible.

Tom Heck, his wife Joanne, and their two children, Catherine and Joshua, own and operate a 35 cow, 159 acre dairy farm in northwestern WI. Contact Tom at: lifeonthefamilyfarm@gmail.com Copyright © 2013 by Tom Heck. All rights reserved.

LIFE ON THE FAMILY FARM UNDER AN OPEN HEAVEN

By:  Tom Heck

Do We Care About Our Fellow Man or is it Just Money?

                As many of you readers know, the milk we produce on our dairy farm here, we sell to the Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery.  They are a farmer owned and run cooperative that produces high quality cheese curds that are sold to customers all over the country.  They have been in business for over 100 years and have done an excellent job of producing and selling dairy products.

We have counted it a privilege to sell our milk there for many years.  We always seek to take excellent care of our animals and to produce the highest quality milk possible.  We say, “We have the privilege of producing high quality food to feed hungry people.”  As a matter of fact, we have won beautiful plaques over the years from the creamery for our exceptionally high quality milk.

The creamery, because of increased growth, is expanding to handle more milk.  Part of that expansion is a new cheese store to better serve their ever growing number of customers.  I am in full support of the expansion, but I have a problem with one thing.

A couple months ago, I talked to Paul, the CEO of the creamery and asked him, “Once the new store is complete, will we be selling wine from it?”  He answered, “Yes.”  This greatly disturbed my family and me.  So a month ago, we went to the annual meeting and I talked to the president of the board and expressed our concerns about this.  He listened intently and then afterwards asked me if I would come the following week and address the board of directors about this issue.  To which I agreed.

The creamery in its entire history has never sold alcohol.  In recent years, the CEO has always been emphasizing to us farmers the importance of good public image.  We need to take good care of our animals and the land that we farm.  On our farm here, we look at our farm and the animals on it as a gift from God and always seek to take the very best care of it along with the animals.  We have received many compliments over the years because of it.

I addressed the board on the alcohol issue and talked to them for a half hour.  They were strongly in favor of selling it because from research done, it would increase cheese sales and profits.  The point I brought up was caring for our customers and neighbors.  I said, “For over 100 years this creamery has not sold alcohol and has been very profitable.  We have an excellent public image.  What if somebody buys alcohol here and goes out drinking and driving and hurts or kills some innocent people?  How would we feel about that and what would that do to the image of the creamery?”  Their response floored me.  “We have liability insurance, we’re protected.”

From talking to the board president afterwards on the phone, it appears the board voted unanimously to approve the sale of alcohol in its new store.  We as a family had been hoping and praying that they wouldn’t sell it.  We have seen so many accidents where people have been hurt, crippled or killed over the years because of alcohol.  We have seen where a parent would go home drunk and beat and abuse their family.  The very ones they should care for and love the most.  It has led to so many broken homes and marriages.  So many innocent people getting hurt.  No wonder the Bible says in Hab. 2:15, “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also.”

We as a family would much rather receive a little less money from the creamery and not have them sell alcohol.  I emphasized to the board the terrible things alcohol is responsible for, and yet they voted for it so they could make more money.  Money was what mattered.  Not the people that would be hurt and killed by it.  No wonder the Bible says, “The love of money is the root of all evil.”

We as a family care for our neighbors and customers who buy our dairy products.  We wish our creamery did too, but unfortunately that is not the case.  Now we are left wondering, “Where do we sell our milk in the future?”

Tom Heck, his wife Joanne, and their two children, Catherine and Joshua, own and operate a 35 cow, 159 acre dairy farm in northwestern WI.  Contact Tom at: lifeonthefamilyfarm@gmail.com    Copyright © 2013 by Tom Heck.  All rights reserved.

LIFE ON THE FAMILY FARM UNDER AN OPEN HEAVEN

By:  Tom Heck

Spring

                After a long, cold, snowy winter, we greatly look forwards to spring on the farm.  It’s nice to see the huge snow piles that have accumulated over the winter months melt away.  Yes, there is lots of mud around and lots of work to do, but it’s good to have the warm temperatures.

One of the first things we look forward to in the spring are the Canadian and snow-white Arctic geese flying north to Canada.  It’s great seeing their big V-shaped formations flying over our buildings as they head straight north to their summer homes honking and honking as they go.  Sometimes they will land in our fields and scrounge up some food.  Sometimes we will have hundreds or even thousands of them stop in to visit.  We greatly enjoy having them, although they don’t stay very long, with spring in the air and Canada calling.  When they leave we always tell them, “Good bye, we’ll see you again in the fall.”  And they always honk their “Good byes” to us.  It is truly amazing how the Creator, God, put it into these majestic birds to fly thousands of miles north every spring and then in the fall to travel thousands of miles south once again.

We also have a contest here every spring between the four of us.  The contest is: who will see the first robin on our farm here.  The winner usually gets a special piece of candy, so needless to say we are all very attentive.  We know with the robins back spring is surely here.

Further into spring the green grass starts to grow, especially next to the foundations of the buildings.  The kids start to pick handfuls of this lush, juicy, green stuff and take them to the barn to give to their favorite cows.  And the cows, what do they do?  Out come their long tongues twisting around the clumps of grass and quickly taking them in.  In a matter of a few seconds it’s gone and they’re looking for more with their big bright eyes.  This is always a very special treat for them.

Also with the green grass comes the beautiful spring flowers.  The kids and I love to pick them and bring them into the house for Joanne.  And she always greatly appreciates them – even if they are just dandelions at times.

With spring there is always so much new life.  Part of every spring is Easter.  Before I came to know Jesus as my personal Lord and Saviour, Easter was just another religious holiday.  But once Jesus came into my heart, Easter took on a whole new meaning.  The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus became very personal to me.  With Jesus alive and living in my heart, He gave me life and that so much more abundantly.  It was life like I had never experienced in all my growing up years!  Before, life was so dead, hopeless and loveless, but now with Jesus it’s just the opposite!

The Bible teaches that the creation declares the glory of God.  I believe this is so true in the spring of the year when creation is all coming so alive.

So enjoy the geese, robins and all the flowers and be sure and give God thanks for it all.  Spring shows us all that God sends new life every year.  And the greatest part of spring was when Jesus came out of the grave to live forevermore.  Because He lives, I live and you can too.

Tom Heck, his wife Joanne, and their two children, Catherine and Joshua, own and operate a 35 cow, 159 acre dairy farm in northwestern WI.  Contact Tom at: lifeonthefamilyfarm@gmail.com  Copyright © 2013 by Tom Heck.  All rights reserved.

LIFE ON THE FAMILY FARM UNDER AN OPEN HEAVEN

By:  Tom Heck

A Matter of Integrity

                A while back, our son Joshua got the fever.  At first it wasn’t too bad, but as time went on it went from bad to worse.  There were times when we tried to cure it, that he improved, but in time it would always come back worse than what it had been before.  As a father, I did everything I could to help my son get through it without getting burned badly.  That can be a real challenge at times though.  It took a lot of time and patience to get him through it and successfully cured.

What is this fever you ask?  It’s a thing young farm boys get and the only way to cure it is by them buying a tractor!  It’s also known as, “Tractor Fever.”  And it isn’t always boys that get it either, sometimes grown men can get extremely bad cases of it!  It has to be treated very carefully.  Many people have made very bad deals on tractors that later on they’ve regretted.

Joshua wanted to buy an old Farmall tractor to use on the farm here.  I was really glad that he liked the same kind of tractors that I do.  I laid down a couple of rules concerning purchasing a used tractor.  One was that it had to be in good working condition.  That can be a challenge when the tractor we’re looking for will be forty to sixty years old!  A second condition was that it had to be big enough to really be useful on our farm here.

Over the years, Joanne would notice many small old Farmall tractors that had been restored to like new condition and think they were so cute!  Of course, Joshua took a great interest in them too.  My reply would be, “They’re nice, but they’re not for us because they’re too small.  You can hardly use them for anything on our farm.”

Joshua agreed to my two conditions.  Another thing was he wasn’t ready to buy a tractor all by himself.  I could well understand that.  So after talking it over, we came to the agreement that we would each own fifty percent of the tractor.  That made him really happy.  He was very confident that I wouldn’t buy a bad tractor or make a bad deal.  It took a lot of pressure off of him.

So we started scanning the newspapers for a good tractor to buy.  Every week we would check them along with all the auction bills.  We came across a few possibilities that sounded good.  When we came across one I would immediately call the owner up and ask him a long list of questions I had concerning the tractor.  Usually he would answer my questions assuring me that the tractor was in excellent shape – not a thing wrong with it.  So with that, we would set up a time convenient for both of us to go and look at the “Perfect tractor.”  Many times after looking at and test running the tractor we would leave just shaking our heads in disbelief.  Often times I said on the way home, “If the owner would have told me the truth about it when I talked to him on the phone, I would never even have went and looked at it.”  To which my wife replied, “He knew that and that’s why he didn’t tell you the truth.”

One tractor we looked at was absolutely shocking.  The owner had bought it off of a farmer in Iowa that had bought it brand new many years before.  He assured us it was in super excellent condition and we had better look at it soon before somebody else bought it from him.  We went and looked at it and were shocked at what we saw.  It had been stripped down and wasn’t even safe to run.  I did run it a little and it ran terrible.  When I mentioned the condition of the tractor to the owner, he didn’t think it was that bad.  He did tell us though that his niece got killed by that tractor, but that didn’t seem to affect him at all!   We quickly told him, “No” and left.  It is amazing what some people are like.

We went and looked at another tractor that was in “excellent shape.”  When we saw it we were amazed at all the duct tape holding it together!  I am not joking on this.  The farmer assured me though that if I bought it he would get it fixed up for me.  I told him, “I don’t think so” and left.

This was getting discouraging trying to find a good used tractor to buy.  Joshua really wanted one, I told him we had to have patience and in time we would get one.  Patience can be hard to have when a boy has a bad case of “tractor fever.”  I must say though, that Joshua did very well.  Every time we looked at a tractor, afterwards we would talk it over and I would always have him tell me first what he thought of it and why.  This was very educational for Joshua, as well as for Catherine and Joanne.  I would always tell them my opinion last.  It was interesting; sometimes they would see stuff on the tractor that I would miss.

We were getting desperate to find a good used tractor.  Finally one day we stopped at our local implement shop and talked to the owner.  Ron said he had a man from a fair distance away that wanted to trade his older Farmall in on a newer tractor that Ron had on his lot.  He had pictures of it on the computer and it looked sharp!  Needless to say, we were very interested.  Through a lot of wheeling and dealing over the phone we came to an agreement that was contingent on us looking at and running his tractor for final approval.

On the set day, Ron and I drove down to look at the tractor with plans to close the deal.  Joshua had school that day and so he couldn’t go, but he gave me permission to buy the tractor if I thought it was a good deal.  Ron and I checked it out and it did pass muster.  We were ready to close the deal when the owner told us he had to have $500 more than what we had agreed on.  With that Ron got very upset and walked right out.  I stayed a minute and questioned the man about the extra money seeing we had already agreed on the price ahead of time.  But he insisted he had to have $500 more.  With that I also in disgust went and joined Ron in the pickup and left.

On the way home, Ron and I talked quite a bit.  We were both very upset with the man not keeping his word to us.  I did ask Ron if he thought the tractor was worth $500 more.  Ron thought on it a while and said, “I think you could buy it for that price and be O.K.”  That was kind of how I felt too, but both of us strongly disapproved of the owner breaking his word to us.  I told Ron I would tell Joshua the whole story and let him decide.

When I got home later that day, Joshua was eagerly awaiting news on the tractor.  I told him the whole story and his face went sad.  I told him to think it over and decide.  The next day he told me, “I don’t want that tractor.”  Later on when I told Ron, his reply was, “Fine, don’t have him buy something he isn’t going to feel good about.”  With that I thanked Ron for both of us and said, “Good-bye.”

It was getting so that I was hesitant to call on any more tractors.  But shortly thereafter, we saw a different tractor advertized in the paper.  I called on it and the farmer made it sound like a really good one.  So on a set Saturday Joshua and I went and looked at it.  Were we surprised; it looked decent and ran excellent.  We agreed right there on it and bought the tractor from Ed.  It’s a Farmall 450 made in 1957.  We have had it on our farm for awhile now and it has worked very well.

Looking back we are all very happy that we passed up all the previous tractors.  Why did Joshua say no to the nice one that the farmer wanted $500 more for you ask?  It’s a matter of integrity.  We always taught our children early on to tell the truth and to keep their word.  The Bible commands us parents, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”  So when the farmer wouldn’t keep his word to us, Joshua wanted nothing to do with him.  I couldn’t blame him a bit and I felt the same way.

So Joshua got cured of his “tractor fever” and learned a lot more about people.  He also put in practice the principals we taught him from the Word of God.  What’s more than that, he saw God answer our prayers for a good used tractor.

Tom Heck, his wife Joanne, and their two children, Catherine and Joshua, own and operate a 35 cow, 159 acre dairy farm in northwestern WI.  Contact Tom at: lifeonthefamilyfarm@gmail.com    Copyright © 2013 by Tom Heck.  All rights reserved.

Photo caption:  Joshua by his tractor.

LIFE ON THE FAMILY FARM UNDER AN OPEN HEAVEN

By:  Tom Heck

Don’t Forget Your Valentine

                That special day is coming up soon again.  That special day to tell your sweetheart that you love them and that they are very special.  That day of course is Valentine’s Day.

In our fast paced world today, it is easy for married couples to start to take each other for granted.  The person we should love, honor and respect the most, we often times forget to treat special at all.  We should never take for granted the spouse we married and pledged ourselves to.

When a married couple starts to take each other too much for granted, that’s when their marriage starts to go downhill.  I have a sad, but true story to recount here.

Many years ago, when we were first starting to farm here, I had a good friend who would come sometimes and help me fix machinery.  We would naturally visit as we worked on the machinery together.  Sometimes we would talk about “Treasure Island” and some of the really good things we got from there.

You ask, “What is ‘Treasure Island’?”  It’s the name we’d given the spot where the city had their place for people to drop off their garbage.  Back then, if you could find something of value there, you could freely take it.  So we scavengers got all kinds of treasures from there. The phrase, “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure” was true here.

One time my friend, Mike, found a very expensive window in excellent condition there.  It appears that it came from a doctor’s or lawyer’s office when they did a bunch of remodeling.  I had a glass block window in my milkhouse that was literally falling to pieces.  When he asked me if I could use his new found treasure, my answer was, “Absolutely yes!”

It took all of my carpentry skills, but I got it fit in there beautifully.  This now, is twenty years later, and the window looks as nice now as the day I put it in.  It was and still is a super quality window that was sure worth retrieving.

Another time Mike told me of something he’d found at Treasure Island that nearly brought us to tears.  He found a large wedding album filled with pictures.  The couple in the album had had a large wedding party with many guests.  They had a fabulous wedding day with everything done to perfection.

But, what had started out so beautifully and wonderfully had now ended in disaster.  The lovely bride and handsome bridegroom in time ended up getting divorced!  Their marriage didn’t last very long.  When they split up, they took a lot of their things, including their wedding album to the garbage place.  How tragic!  Mike, when he got done looking at it, gently laid it back in the trash.

Wedding albums should never be put in the garbage.  Marriages should never end in divorce either.  Broken marriages and broken people and innocent children caught in the fray.  It should not be this way.  There are way too many broken homes and marriages in our nation today.

We need to keep our wedding vows and love our spouses with all our hearts.  We need to love them and treat them special every day, not just on our wedding day.   But there are days when we can really treat them special and show them how much we really do love them.  One of those days is Valentine’s Day.  If we do this, there will be a lot less wedding albums ending up in the garbage.  If we do this we will be amazed as we look back in time at how blessed we’ve been.

The Bible says in Luke 6:38, “Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over.”  I know that as I have learned to express my love and appreciation to my wife on a daily basis, it has certainly improved our marriage and family life.  And in the end, I’m the one blessed most of all.  So men, on this Valentine’s Day do something special for your wife that says you really love her and would count it a privilege to marry her all over again!

Tom Heck, his wife Joanne, and their two children, Catherine and Joshua, own and operate a 35 cow, 159 acre dairy farm in northwestern WI.  Contact Tom at: lifeonthefamilyfarm@gmail.com   Copyright © 2013 by Tom Heck.  All rights reserved.

LIFE ON THE FAMILY FARM UNDER AN OPEN HEAVEN

By:  Tom Heck

A Bold, Cold Step of Faith

                Sometimes in life we are called to take a big bold step of faith.  Such was the case for Joanne and myself in early 1991.  I was working as a hired man on my parents’ dairy farm then, but they had informed us months before already that they wanted us out.  I didn’t know it at the time, but they were turning the farm over to my older brother Paul.

So for a number of months, we had earnestly sought the Lord daily as to what He had for us.  Through much prayer, He made known to us that He had a farm for us.  We didn’t know where it was, but we did know He had one for us.  We knew if we were going to farm, we needed a line of farm machinery.  I owned absolutely none!

We prayed and felt led that I should start to attend farm auctions in the area to buy old used farm machinery to farm the farm the Lord had promised us.  We started to look at the farm newspapers for auction bills.  The first auction we came across was on Jan. 29, 1991 at Kellogg, MN.  It had a Farmall 806 diesel tractor on it.  I figured it would be a big enough tractor for us to start farming with.

Joanne and I looked at our checkbook; we had just over $5,000 in it.  That was all the money we had, except for a few dollars in our wallets.  We did not have $5,100 total.  Joanne looked at me and asked, “Would that tractor be a good deal for $5,000?”  “If the tractor is in good condition, it would be an excellent deal,” I replied.  So we got down on our knees and prayed to our Heavenly Father asking Him in faith that we could buy that 806 for $5,000.  The Bible says in Matt. 18:19, “That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.”

Jan. 29^th came and it was bitter cold.  20 degrees below zero with a 20 mile an hour wind out of the north.  My brother Paul and I went to the auction that day.  I was walking in pure faith that day.  I knew that if I had missed it with God, I would be going home empty-handed.  We got to the farm and headed for the line of tractors.  We walked down the line till we got to the 806.  Boy, were we disappointed.  It was in real rough shape as were the other tractors we had walked by before it.  I knew I didn’t want that tractor.

But then Paul saw a tractor just beyond it and said, “Hey, look at that one.”  We looked at it and were greatly impressed.  It was a Farmall 1206 diesel in excellent condition!  We were shocked because all the rest of the tractors were in such poor condition and this one stood out like a diamond!  What’s more, this one was not listed on the auction bill.

The auctioneer kept the auction moving at a real fast pace that day because of the bitter cold.  He knew if he didn’t he would lose a lot of the bidders.  They started all the tractors up; the 1206 ran as nice as it looked.  I decided to bid on it.  The auctioneer started down the row of tractors, he had a few interested bidders in the 806 and sold it for almost $6,000.  I was surprised that it went for that much.  Then he came to the 1206 and said the reason it wasn’t listed on the bill was because it was sitting in the corner of the shed and he had missed it.  I didn’t believe him and I think nobody else did either.  But, with that he opened up the bidding.

I started bidding right away and the price climbed fast.  Soon I had the bid at exactly $5,000 and the auctioneer kept asking for $5,050.  I held my breath.  I knew if somebody bid that then the next price would be $5,100 which I did not have.  I clearly remembered how Joanne and I had asked the Lord for an 806 tractor for $5,000 and now I was looking at a larger, much better tractor for that miraculous price.  I knew if we got it for that price it most certainly was the Lord answering our prayer.  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity the auctioneer said, “Sold.”  I had just bought my first tractor.

People in the crowd were shaking their heads in disbelief, trying to comprehend what had just happened.  Later on, when I talked to the farmer about the tractor, he also was dumb-founded over the 1206 selling for less than his 806.  He just couldn’t believe the price the 1206 sold for.  He went on to tell me, “That 1206 was my favorite tractor.  I let the hired help run all the other tractors here, but I wouldn’t let them touch that tractor.  I’m the only one that ran that tractor.  I had planned on keeping it, but at the last minute decided to sell it also, that’s why it wasn’t listed on the auction bill.”

Paul offered to start driving the tractor home while I went and wrote out a check paying for it.  I caught up to him when he was driving it over the bridge crossing the Mississippi River at Wabasha.  As soon as he got into WI he stopped and came back to the pickup.  After driving it just several miles he looked like he was almost froze up.  The tractor did not have a cab on it, so we had nothing protecting us from the cold and wind.  Paul asked me, “Do you want to take it up over the bluffs on the back roads and save several miles?”  I said, “Sure, if you will pick out the route with the pickup.”

Fortunately, I had dressed well.  I was wearing my insulated coveralls and the sheepskin coat that my Grandfather had given me several years earlier.  It was the one he had worn decades before when he would go into town with his team of horses in the winter time.  Now I was wearing it, as I headed my new “red horse” north across the bluffs.  Looking back, that was the coldest ride of my life!  But it was a wonderful ride, there is such excitement when one steps out in faith and sees God answer above and beyond what one asks for.  And that is what God did that day for us.

When we drove it into the yard, Joanne was looking out the window and was surprised at how big and beautiful the tractor looked.  When I told her the whole story, she just started praising the Lord with me.  God was faithful; He had answered our prayer and more.  The Bible is most certainly true when it says in Eph. 3:20, “He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.”  It is wonderful to know that when we walk rightly with God, we can pray and fully expect Him to answer our prayers.  We are not alone in this world, we have a wonderful, loving Heavenly Father to guide us and to provide for us what we have need of.

Tom Heck, his wife Joanne, and their two children, Catherine and Joshua, own and operate a 35 cow, 159 acre dairy farm in northwestern WI.  Contact Tom at: lifeonthefamilyfarm@gmail.com  To view Tom’s past articles go to: tomheckfarm.com   Copyright © 2013 by Tom Heck.  All rights reserved.

Photo caption:  Tom by his 1206 tractor.