They\u2019re gone.<\/p>\n
The swallows have left the farm.\u00a0 It\u2019s not quite as predictable as San Juan Capistrano, but it\u2019s close.\u00a0 They were lining up on an overhead wire. taking turns dive bombing for bugs the night before.\u00a0 The next morning, they weren\u2019t here.\u00a0 They left in the dark, beginning a journey to Central or even South America.\u00a0 They don\u2019t tell me where they\u2019re going.<\/p>\n
It is one of those acts of nature that is remarkable if you think about it.\u00a0 Small birds, less than ounce, flying a couple thousand miles twice a year.\u00a0 For those hatched in our sheds this summer, it\u2019s all new.\u00a0 Yet they know the way.\u00a0 GPS? \u00a0God\u2019s Perfect System?<\/p>\n
Day to day, we don\u2019t think about this amazing planet we live on and the universe that surrounds it.\u00a0 We wouldn\u2019t get much done if we sat around dwelling on it.\u00a0 Maybe we should.\u00a0 We seem to have ample time to argue and disagree and put down others lately in this country.\u00a0 Maybe a little more time focused on nature might help.\u00a0 Regardless, a low level and constant sense of awe at Creation is warranted.<\/p>\n
Our barn swallows are companions as I work outside long summer evenings.\u00a0 I\u2019m on the ground and they\u2019re not, but otherwise we share the same farmyard.\u00a0 They\u2019re entertaining to watch, darting here and there, light reflecting off their shimmer-blue backs.\u00a0 Plus, they eat mosquitoes!\u00a0 What more can you ask?<\/p>\n
A couple days before they left, I was on top of a bin doing some work.\u00a0 One of the swallows was out on a mission and rose slightly to go up over the bin.\u00a0 He came face to face with me.\u00a0 His look said, \u201cWhat the?\u201d as he veered suddenly.<\/p>\n
Barn swallows are among most common birds around the globe.\u00a0 The ancestors of our seasonal guests nested along riverbanks and caves.\u00a0 They adapted rapidly and readily to human structures.\u00a0 They were likely attaching their mud and grass nests to Indian shelters before Europeans came with their farm buildings.\u00a0 Here, that\u2019s the old granary and pig house.\u00a0 Sheds with metal roofs don\u2019t seem to interest them.<\/p>\n
Not every farmer is fond of them.\u00a0 They do leave a mess below their nests. \u00a0As the famous children\u2019s book teaches us, \u201cEverything Poops.\u201d\u00a0 Swallows aren\u2019t an exception.\u00a0 There is a bit of cleanup when they migrate away.<\/p>\n
We learned in history class that human immigration occurs due to pulls and pushes.\u00a0 Swallows are no different.\u00a0 The pull to these summer homes is the abundance of food.\u00a0 This is their breeding home.\u00a0 The abundance of flying insects to pluck out of the air gives them nutrition to raise up several generations in a summer.\u00a0 \u00a0The push is to escape predators that prowl and fly nearer the equator.\u00a0 Farm cats aren\u2019t much of a threat.\u00a0 The swallows seem to enjoy harassing them.<\/p>\n
I came in the house to tell Pam the morning they were gone, and she noticed a melancholy in my voice.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t have that many friends; I don\u2019t like it when some of them leave.\u201d\u00a0 I told her we need to put in the will that whoever is here after us has to leave the granary door open in spring.<\/p>\n
The swallows\u2019 leave-taking is a marker of the change of seasons which is here.\u00a0 Summer turns to fall, and there are signs everywhere of a downward slide in temperature and day light.\u00a0 Most of the signs are gradual: slow turning of the leaves, slight change to the air, angle of the sun.\u00a0 But the swallow disappearance is a sudden and striking message: winter is coming!<\/p>\n
There is much to do before we farmers turn our fields over to winter.\u00a0 But it will happen fast.\u00a0 I love the harvest with its challenges and demanding pace.\u00a0 I need to remind myself in the midst of it to live in that moment and remember how much I enjoy this. \u00a0Even if a fuel line is leaking or the combine is making a noise.<\/p>\n
On the other end of the fall is winter.\u00a0 Besides the swallows, I have more and more human friends who migrate south for the winter.\u00a0 I\u2019m finding myself a bit jealous as I watch their taillights disappear over the southern horizon.<\/p>\n
Pam and I have taken a few short trips to warm places in the cold months.\u00a0 Having spent 64 winters in the northland, it seems unnatural.\u00a0 If I call back here and talk to someone who is telling me about miserable weather, I feel like I should be back there pulling people\u2019s cars out of snowbanks and jumping their batteries.<\/p>\n
An odd thing the day after the swallows left: I found one dead in the grass just off the yard.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember finding a dead swallow before.\u00a0 I assume their passing is more likely where they spend the greater part of their year near the equator.\u00a0 Was this one old and not up to the journey?\u00a0 I think of my swallows as returning every spring.\u00a0 Of course, in my life there have been lots of generations.\u00a0 The ones I watched as a boy are long deceased.<\/p>\n
I started thinking of another group of my friends who have gone.\u00a0 Only they won\u2019t be coming back in the spring.\u00a0 These are folks who have gone to a \u201cbetter place.\u201d\u00a0 That is a journey we will all make.\u00a0 Just as the newly hatched swallow can\u2019t know what is at the end of their migration, we don\u2019t know exactly what we will find.\u00a0 Will that \u201cbetter place\u201d be sunny and warm with longer days?\u00a0 Will we be able to linger with people we love like at the end of a summer day?<\/p>\n
There is the great old hymn that suggests we will be like the swallows as we take that final journey.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll Fly Away\u201d is the most recorded gospel song of all.\u00a0 It was written about 100 years ago by Albert Brumley, coming into his head as he picked cotton on his father\u2019s farm.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome glad morning when this life is over\u2026
\nTo a home on God’s celestial shore\u2026<\/p>\n
I’ll fly away, oh, glory
\nI’ll fly away
\nWhen I die, Hallelujah, by and by
\nI’ll fly away\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
They\u2019re gone. The swallows have left the farm.\u00a0 It\u2019s not quite as predictable as San Juan Capistrano, but it\u2019s close.\u00a0 They were lining up on an overhead wire. taking turns dive bombing for bugs the night before.\u00a0 The next morning, they weren\u2019t here.\u00a0 They left in the dark, beginning a journey to Central or even …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weeds-by-randy-krzmarzick"],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-22 10:25:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120107"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120122,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120107\/revisions\/120122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}