August 19, 2015 - Wednesday in Carthage

Officially the countdown has begun for our move back into Nauvoo.  We are able to begin moving some things in next Wednesday when we travel in for our training meeting, and our final night in Carthage will be Thursday August 27th.  This has been such a wonderful blessing for us to be here and we are now looking forward to our new assignments in Nauvoo, (whatever that might be).  And it is time to reduce the mission spending, and the savings in gasoline will be tremendous.

Well, we got off to a great start this morning.  We had our prayers and our devotional before leaving for the training meeting in Nauvoo.  We had a nice meeting this morning and then we joined 3 other couples and drove to Moline, Iowa, to the John Deere Tractor assembly plant.  They make and assemble up to 350 harvester machines in one year.  (That amounts to one every 10 days!)  And the average cost is over $550,000 each.  They are quite the machine, as I have pictured here;

This is one BIG machine that can harvest 30 acres per hour in wheat, corn or beans!

Front row seats!  Air conditioned and surround sound with computer driven capability

Lasher's, Larsen's, Webb's and Clark's - John Deere Factory

Let's bring this baby down to OUR size!

The drive took about 3 hours and we had the roughest riding mission van!  But we had fun and enjoyed the day of fun.  The folks at John Deere took us on a 90 minute tour of the facility and we saw the complete cycle of building this big harvester.  From the initial cutting of the raw materials sheet metal, to the finished assembly of the harvester.  They take about 10 to 12 days to build one of these machines and they do not build one without a purchase order.  The assembly plant is on 213 acres with 73 acres completely enclosed along and around the assembly lines.  I even got a John Deere golf shirt for my upcoming birthday!

Mom and I were able to get into Keokuk, after our trip to John Deere, for groceries and we were home by 6:45pm.  Definitely a different P-day but a lot of fun getting to know members of our Emma Hale cast a little better and understanding how these big harvesters work!

Then, the best news of the day came when I got word that my brother, Doug, came through open heart surgery, (double by-pass and repair of several other issues), with excellent reports.  The doctor indicated that his heart was pumping stronger and that the surgery went very well.  Today, the prayers of family members including nieces and nephews, and brothers and sisters, and son and daughter and great nieces and nephews were answered to our ultimate desires and appreciation. 

Now off to work on the Editor part for Rendezvous!