It is difficult to believe that we were lucky one more time and the severe winter storm that was supposed to hit our area on Friday missed us again. Believe me, we are not complaining. We have to remember that it is March and we need to be prepared for most anything. However, the geese (or ducks), I can’t tell them apart, are circling over our head and telling us where they are going. I only have one problem and that is I can’t understand what they are saying. Spring must be on the way as on one of our sunny days I went outdoors and looked across the lawn and am sure I could see a slight tint of green! Crocus and snowdrops, which are perennials that come up every year, will be among the first greeters and what a welcome will be theirs. Feathered friends shall return to abandoned trees calling out their greetings. Buds will burst forth and brooks will run free, all in time. March is but an interim. Nature keeps her own schedule; we are the ones who grow impatient.Tyler Suzie, son of Linn and Mary Jo Suzie of Steen, left Wednesday from Sioux Falls, S.D., with the South Dakota Air Guard for Iraq. He will be stationed in Baghdad. Nelson Bonnema was taken by ambulance to the Luverne Hospital Thursday evening. He was able to return to his home on Saturday. His daughter, Carla Coon, has been visiting her father. Anita (Mrs. Gregg) Bosch, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, came Friday and spent the weekend in the home of her sister-in-law, Michelle and Gregg Van Wyhe in Rock Rapids where she got acquainted with their new twin babies which she enjoyed very much. She returned to her home on Sunday. Congratulations to the Hills-Beaver Creek girls’ basketball team who played Adrian at Worthington Friday evening in the playoffs. The H-BC girls won their game and will meet the Fulda team at Marshall on Thursday evening. Good luck to them!Ginger France, Sioux City, Iowa, came Saturday to visit her mother, Mickey Bonnema, who is a resident at Tuff Home in Hills.Dries Bosch entered Luverne Community Hospital on Thursday evening. He was able to return to his home on Friday.Salute is a Christian organization that has taken upon itself to help our troops overseas by sending care packages. They have asked Steen Reformed Church to help them with the needed supplies. Items needed are stocking hats, gloves, candy and other foods. A complete list can be obtained from the church if you would care to help. Coffee guests in the Mildred Keunen home Saturday morning were Ginger France, Don Bonnema, Berth Bosch and Jo Aykens.The month of March has been designated "Salute to Agriculture Month." Last week was National FFA Week in our schools. If you can’t remember what the FFA stands for it is "Future Farmers of America." All of us living in agricultural areas are hoping there will be many of them living on the land. The H-BC Chapter will attend some agricultural meetings this month. They will attend the Pipestone Meat Contest on March 16, Little International judging in Brookings, S.D., on March 19, and their annual FFA banquet is on March 23. Their officers elected for the coming year are: Aaron Clark, Parliamentarian; Robert Baker, reporter; Drew Spykerboer, historian; Terry VanWyhe, president; Melinda Sandstede, secretary; Dylan Klarenbeek treasurer; Jessi Wassenaar, sentinel; and Lance Larson, vice president. Good luck to them! I was happy to hear that they are recognizing the importance of this nation’s agriculture. Those farming the land have kept our nation out of the red ink for many years with the products they export from the farms. Since I was born and raised on the farm and have lived on one all of my life, I have a special spot in my heart for agriculture and especially for family farmers as well as everyone that lives on the land to supply food so the rest of the world can eat. What would we do without them?Those of us living in rural America are painfully aware of the decreasing statistics and the nation’s economy that has created these problems. However, farmers are a strong and dependable people. They live on the land and produce things for others and they do not give up easily. Think about the early settlers who settled these lands and you will understand why people today still love the land. I have a question I would like you to answer. Actually, it is an old question, "Who came first, the chicken or the egg?" The answer is "It was neither, it was the farmer!" Farming is a very different type of making a living, you can do everything that needs to be done and done correctly, but if it doesn’t rain, or the grasshoppers come or one of the many other disasters that can happen to their crop before it is harvested there is nothing they can do but make the best of it. And believe me they know how to do that without crying on everyone’s shoulder. They always look forward and say, "next year it will be better!" I salute our nation’s farmers. Without them we could not survive.
