Listening

Last week Sunday the kids and grandkids brought over dinner for Mother's Day. It was fun and made Jan's day special. I enjoyed listening to the conversations. It made me thankful once again for family.

Our shop office has been a collecting point for clothes that come out of vehicles or when the day gets warm. So Jan had me bring them all in the house where she washed them and we set them out hoping the girls would recognize their kid's and husband's clothes and take them home. 

After lunch some went fishing. Jackson is fishing out of a bucket. He should have pretty good luck because that's the bucket his cousins are putting their caught fish in.

We finished off Mother's Day with a graduation party and then a visit to Jan's sister and her husband.

Alex left me a message that he was going to start planting beans very early Monday morning. I brought him more seed at 6 a.m. He finished 130 acres before getting rained out.

A rainy day job is to break down pro boxes and load them on a semi that returns them to the seed plant. We had lots of help and loaded 2 loads Friday morning.

Remember last week I told you about the boys starting to build a pond.

They were able to clear the brush and dig the core last week between rains. Digging the core is when you push the black dirt back on the toe or back of the dike. Then you dig down under the dike until you get good compacting clay. Finally you build your dike out of clay so the pond won't leak. The last job is to level off the black dirt up and down the back of the toe so it grows grass.

Mark ordered new rails for his track hoe. That meant he had to remove all the pads off of the old rails and install them on the new ones. He and Elijah put the tracks back on his hoe with the help of a skid loader Thursday.

Karl got some spraying in for CPS on Thursday and Friday. Below he is spraying burndown next to Cargill/Eddyville. Burndown means you kill weeds with spray rather than tillage.

Jan keeps busy and does an awesome job of helping folks have a meeting place for their get-togethers. Our cabin has been extra busy with graduation parties. Last evening I counted close to 60 vehicles on our yard at one time.

I am blessed to work with a great bunch of guys. When it rains, life slows down a bit. We usually end up working in the shop together on repairs where we visit and listen and plan. 

Leadership often involves more listening than talking.

This is my first tractor. I bought it 43 years ago from my Dad. I sold it to Irvin and Byron when I thought I needed a bigger tractor. 21 years later I bought it back. When I was young I put on a chrome stack instead of a muffler. Since their were few tractor cabs in those days it made for a noisy tractor and probably effected my hearing and listening abilities today.

There are three things you probably should not listen too closely to or it might worry you needlessly. Old tractors have their own personal noises that make you wonder if they are going to break down. 

Listening to long range weather forecast is about a 50/50 proposition. It might rain in two weeks. It might not. I usually ask Mike. He says it always rains 100 days after a fog and keeps track. 

Listening too closely to rumors of folks speaking ill and falsely about you can be hard on your health. Don't let bad people ruin a good week. Solomon said in Eccl. 7:21-22 "Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you. For you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others".

Finally, even though I don't know who you are I occasionally pray for you and this morning I'm asking you if you would return the favor. I have been asked to speak at a Corn Milling Conference this coming week in Peoria, Illinois. They are asking for a farm family's perspective on the economics of corn farming. I hope to use the picture below to close out my talk by saying it takes more than planning, technology, production, and marketing. It takes Divine intervention with the proper amount of precipitation and sunshine. Thank you friends.