Wheels In Motion

Good morning. Today is Sunday. We are thankful for a day of rest. I don't know how folks work 7 days a week. That's not how God set it up when He created the world and us.

We are also thankful for the two to four tenths of rain we received so far. We have no gas in the tank when it comes to subsoil moisture.

Spring finally arrived. It always does. We had a big week of anhydrous. NH3 is two forms of nitrogen. Nitrogen is a must if you are going to grow corn. Thanks to Alex, Mark, and BJ for keeping the FS bars going.

Kurt and Brad with Matt as a fill in  worked as a team hauling their own smoke for Cargill. They applied for a customer where they pulled the fertilizer 50 miles one way. They put over 2000 miles on Kurt's pickup this week. 

Speaking of fertilizer one day Zach said, "hey Grandpa come see our cow poop. We are going to put it on our garden." Now that's what I call on the job training.

Soil temps started out the week in the low 40s and finished the week in the mid 50s. Seedcorn takes 50 degrees to germinate and grow.

We started the week with one planter anticipating warmer temps. Crop insurance doesn't cover replant on corn planted before April 11. However we have never replanted due to planting in early April.

By late in the week we were running both planters with Mike even helping out one day with the 8 row and IH 1066.

Sometimes the wheels get to going too fast and as a grandpa it's our job to say, what's your hurry.

Sometimes we get stuck in a rut and the wheels of motion go too slow.

Once in a while we break down and the wheels come off. In life just like in machinery when the wheels fall off you take it a day at a time and trust Someone who can fix it.

Once in a while the wheels turn upside down. That's when you call for help, make a plan, tackle the problem, and get back in the drivers seat.

All winter we got seed in. This week a lot of seed went out. Thank to Karl for coming up with a plan and making it happen. Below Dana, our boss in the seed business, is loading his family's seed order.

Dana's family farms near Lytton, Iowa. His father Roger is past eighty and still going strong farming with a son and a nephew. Dana's father's favorite pasttime is hauling cattle for his neighbors.

Today is not just a Sunday. It's Palm Sunday. It's the day some 2000 years ago when our Lord rode into Jerusalem on a donkey with the people rejoicing thinking He was going to be their King. He was but not like they thought. Little did they know that our Lord was putting the wheels in motion for the church leaders to call for His death just 5 days later. He did it for us. Next week we celebrate that He conquered death, paid for our wrongs, and wants us for His own.