Spring Blessings!

Spring is Larry's busy season. For one to two weeks after blossoms begin to open, he may work 8 to 16 hr days, without a day off. Our first year in the Northwest, this went on for about six weeks.

Larry has a small but excellent group of helpers -- or tech support. The lead lab tech has been with him throughout his NW tenure. She deserves much of the credit for his success, and he is mindful to include her name on papers, even though she isn't a scientist. Often she thinks through the experiment -- what might have gone wrong, what might we do better, where might we next go -- and is the director of most lab work. She is invaluable.

Returning this year is a lady who worked with their group for about 12 years, but was released due to insufficient funds to pay her. Twelve years working on these projects makes a tech very knowledgeable, skilled, and fast. All three are essential elements. Fast can make the difference between 8 hour and 12 hour days.

Larry focuses and gears up for this period with determination and ambition to get through. He now reduces the expectations as he realizes all of them have much less energy to forge ahead than even 5 years ago. Life isn't what we expected when we started -- we're getting old, AND tired. Larry focuses not just on the work, but on his workers. He is depending on God to lead and carry them all.

I am helping on whatever scale I can. I usually take them goodies when they work weekends, and work with them in the orchards, counting blossoms, innoculating with the fire blight bacterium, or selecting infected blossoms for study in the lab. What I like about spring with Larry's workers isn't the work -- God DIDN'T make me science-minded -- but rather the fun of being with the people. I always want to lighten their stress, remind them all that mistakes work out, and hopefully deter headaches with prayer and laughter.

I'm thankful for this team, first, because I want to assist my husband, but also because I've come to know and care for the families represented here. I admire the commitment they have to their families as well as to Larry's work. Part of my support is to pray for strength for them on the daily basis, and I pray that God will let them know their endurance comes from Him, and not from their determination OR health plans.

This team is the foundation for Larry's success, in the past as well as the coming years, if not for the rest of his career. Their work leads to discoveries that lead to papers that lead to meetings that lead to collaboration that lead to new work, new discoveries, new papers. A discovery many years ago lead to a product now produced and sold by a leading Northwest agricultural company. That not only affects the farmers and quality of fruit we can buy; it gives Larry new inroads to collaboration with scientists throughout the country and even the world, comparing, sharing, brainstorming, researching together -- even friendships and touching lives. The little details are an integral part of who he is and what he has done.

And all this affects me. How? Because Larry's success is dependent what he thinks other people think, and even more, on what I think. Evaluations and awards and promotions go a long ways, but they are nothing without a team with whom to share the winnings.

I am not the only wind beneath his wings, but I am thankful for all the currents that keep him in the air.