January 2, 2026

It was early on the second day of the year when I heard the sound of a big rig that was definitely pulling a full load. It was still fairly dark, but I looked up at our outside camera monitor and saw a cattle truck going by.

A short time later I heard another one, and then another one. By the sound of the trucks pulling their load, each seemed full of animals. We only have one farm on this road, and I knew they weren’t getting rid of that many animals, so I suppose the animals were from the neighbor’s farm where they raise hogs. They have a field lane that exits and enters from our road.

I didn’t take any pictures because I was enjoying my devotional time – but I thought – “Life has returned to normal following the holidays.”

Before long a tractor puling a load of manure drove by. Notice the steam coming from the manure in the trailer.

Next there was a tractor trailer with a load of liquid manure – from our Homestead.

There were also people going to work and returning to normal life.

I wish I had captured a picture of the Amish church wagon going by, but I saw it too late to get a photo. The Amish church wagons carry worship supplies for each Sunday and are taken from home to home. There are benches, books, etc. inside. Within minutes this buggy went by. I expect they were going to help the next host family set up for worship on Sunday.

I wasn’t surprised to see this happening, because there was Amish church on our road the week before. In our area they hold worship services every other Sunday.

Not only were people busy, the birds were also enjoying our suet and bird seed. This is a male red-bellied woodpecker.