Lord Plant My Feet On Higher Ground

I’m pressing on the upward way,

New heights I’m gaining every day;

Still praying as I’m onward bound,

“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground." 

Refrain:

Lord, lift me up and let me stand,

By faith, on Heaven’s tableland,

A higher plane than I have found;

Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

At our church, we often sing the hymn whose lyrics I've posted above.  It teaches that we are to aspire to be closer to God with no desire to stay living a "low" life, but a life that reaches above to new heights everyday to a place where God wants you to be - A life unencumbered with fear, doubt, temptation and sin.  Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

That has been a prayer in both the spiritual and secular sense this past few months with all the rain.  We have been slogging through mud for much longer than I would have liked.  To alleviate a portion of our struggle, we purchased 3 loads of dirt to build up the area around our barn.  Here is an update on our attempt to get out of the mud and "plant our feet on higher ground."

Between the rains we've attempted to build up the area around the barn with dirt.  It has been a slow and arduous process as we've done it with wagons and wheel barrows.  The piles of dirt are way over by the house and the barn is in the southeast corner of the property.  I installed a new garden gate and Russ and I labored to cart the dirt down the garden path and out the gate.  We learned quickly to latch the gate as chickens kept darting through to eat on the tender winter grass growing in the garden.

Immediately upon exiting the garden, we were mired deep in the mud.  Tricia and Russ suggested that we build a corduroy road but not with logs.  We made ours with leftover tin from the barn and landscape timbers and 2x4's.  This ended up being a great idea! We no longer sunk in the mud but were able to pull the wagon and push the wheel barrow right across to the ultimate destination.

After many trips the level of the dirt around the barn began to rise!  I estimate the soil level is 10 inches higher than it was previously.  The dirt is not quality topsoil, but is "fill dirt."  It has a high clay content and tends to pack down really tight.  We learned as the cows walk on it, they compress it.  As a result we've hauled more dirt as the cows compact it.  The cows and goats really like having a high place on which to stand, out of the muck and the mire. 

Once we finished with the north side of the barn, we began filling the south side of the barn.  We got that completed on Saturday.  In so doing, we eliminated two of the three piles of dirt.   Since rainwater flows from east to west on our land, the rainwater will run between the barn and the hen house.

With the one remaining pile of dirt, we'll build up the level a bit more on the south side and then fill in the east side.  If any dirt remains, I'll spread it out evenly in the barn in low spots against the eastern wall and southern wall.  It will be a happy day once we are done with this project!

I want to scale the utmost height
And catch a gleam of glory bright;
But still I’ll pray till heav’n I’ve found,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground."