Sex in the Cornfield Again, Soon very Soon (304)

I took a walk today, as I do almost every day during the growing season. We farmers do that as we have a lot of money invested out there in our crops and we need to be re-assured, almost daily that what we have done, or failed to do, has not messed up in any way what God's mighty hand is doing each and every day. Most of the corn in our area is now between 'knee high' and 'waist high' as you can see by the picture I took today with my cell phone from the south end of my corn field where I live. We have had ample maybe way more than ample rains since we planted this corn between frequent showers this spring. This field was planted May 9th, the first day I was able to get at the job that desperately, "needed done". I was pushing it, as I really would have preferred to allow it to dry a few more days. But when the weatherman says more and lots of rain coming at us and optimum planting date of May 10th fast approaching, you take a chance. As you can see it turned out OK and more rain did follow and the seeds did indeed get the start they needed. Had it then turned off dry, as it sometimes does, it may have not been such a pretty sight. It is indeed as pretty a corn crop as I have ever grown or seen. As my farmer friend John Lehe stated not so long ago, "farming with water, sure is better than farming without water". We have some ponds scattered around the country side in corn fields, but I remember a "wet" year like this maybe back in the 70's that I remember reading a Pro Farmer newsletter in which the writer proclaimed, "forget about the ponds, on each side of a pond is a slope and that is where your corn will yield and make up for the pond". I think that is the case, this will be a great "hillside" year in which land that sometimes lacks for water and restricts the yield will tap the unused fertility that has accumulated in those areas and possibly produce an above average yield. It is looking so far like that kind of a year. Rains are predicted yet again for next week and soon after the 4th of July this corn will begin to send out its tassel the male part of the plant. Followed by the ears that will appear the female part and we will have once again, "Sex in the Cornfield".

Those little silks that stick out the end of the ear will await the arrival of the pollen from the tassel above. And miraculously the microscopic pollen will attach and work its way inside the silk and travel all the way to where each silk attaches to the cob and will then form a kernal of corn...maybe 100 or as many as nearly 200 of those miracles will happen on each and every ear of corn. Farmers are very fortunate in that we see God's design being played out over and over again. And witnessing this, one has to know that evolutionist, that do not have a stong belief in God, have to have an even bigger faith of a vacuum, that those of us who know that the creation does indeed prove the presence of the creator.

Things change almost daily during a growing season, and I count myself blessed to be a witness to life here in the fast lanes of Indiana watching corn grow.