Sunday, April 23, 2017

Observe - Analyze - React

Life consists of 10% what happens to us and 90% how we observe, analyze, and react. Our past week was just a continuation of unexpected and unplanned mishaps. In the picture below the receiver hitch pulled out of the pickup on the way home from planting beans.
I received a call from a friend who was borrowing this tractor that a front wheel would no longer turn. Jacob from Wan Wall Equipment found that the differential in the front left wheel had gone to pieces. As Matt and I were leaving the tilled field I suggested we return to the road on a neighbors cornstalk field where we got stuck. I had to call Jeff, the owner of the field, and apologize to him for leaving a few tracks in his field.
For some strange reason we had a string of gauge and closing wheels coming off. Some bearing failure. Some just coming loose. It's always fun driving around a field in the dark looking for parts.
We must have had at lease a dozen tire and wheel bearing breakdowns. The crew was always good at getting themselves fixed up and going again.
Twice we had field cultivator issues. Once the hinge on the wing fold broke and once the wing cylinder broke. In most cases breakdowns can be resolved with time and money. Sometimes a lot of both.
Jim was delivering seed with the old tonner when he lost his brakes and steering. A just replaced air conditioner compressor bearing froze up and burned off the serpentine belt. I had to rescue him with a replacement pickup while we left this one along the road for a day.
BJ received a call from his mechanic that the rear differential on his tiling machine was toast. The partial list of parts estimated for repairs is already over $12000.
As I was getting ready to go out early one morning my shoestring broke for about the tenth time and I finally had to go look up a new shoe string. I could go on and on about breakdowns and mishaps but I'm running out of pictures and time.
Karl and Kristin came up on a large snake last Sunday on their Ranger ride. There is something about the relationship between people and snakes. Most of the time we just want them dead.
We farm several fields northwest of Pella where the fields are low. The field is tiled to a cistern where a large pump pumps the excessive water out of the cistern and over the levy.
Kurt, Casey, and I took a break over lunch time yesterday and had a tenderloin at Eddyville raceway so we could stop and see our helper Jim race his Camaro on tune up Saturday. Jim's car is a 1967 Camaro and his home built big block motor has 910 horsepower.
As I came over to the shop this morning to visit with you I noticed we had a little frost and wondered about the beans that were just popping through the soil crust. Oh well. I'm not going to worry about it today. Many times when the soil temps are warmer than the air temps there is not a problem with freezing young plants off. I also received a text picture from Jason and Valerie who have corn in the row.
This is the view from Mom's hospital window in West Des Moines. Eight days after her surgery to redo a hip replacement she fell and broke her second hip. The doctor was able to just pin it and she will be coming back to Oskaloosa tomorrow for rehab and recovery at assisted living. Happy Birthday today Dad. I woke up late and didn't have time to find a picture.
Our helper Andy had to take a morning off to go see Eric at the dentist office. Never a fun visit even though Dr. Eric is a great guy.
This is an MRI machine. It's like a road culvert that they roll you in for about a half hour with not much room. It sounds like a machine gun when it takes pictures. While you are in it all you can do is blink and breath. One little move and the picture is no good. I went to get a shoulder checked out. I think all they found was high mileage, too many mishaps, and low maintenance.
Kudos to Lucas, Colton, Matt, and Andy for helping Karl, Kristin, Malaki, and I put in a large seed corn test plot on the Eddyville flats yesterday. If you are ever traveling to Eddyville from the north just look to the right about a mile from Eddyville.
Despite a week full of mishaps we were able to have great progress at getting the crop planted. All week we had to work in different areas at different times because of scattered rain showers.
Karl worked day and night to keep things sprayed behind three planters. Pablo and Jim drove the tender loads of spray to Karl. Alex, Andy, and Casey ran on little sleep while they did the bulk of the ground preparation ahead of the planters. BJ, Kurt, and Alex ran the planters putting in long hours. Matt, Ryan, and I kept the planters going with delivering seed and helping seed customers as they came to pick up their seed.
Sometimes our plans seem small when we look at the big picture. Remember, and I constantly need to remind myself, there is never a reason to be unkind to someone. I love my job and I love the folks I get to work with. As you go to church this morning also remember people would rather see a sermon than hear one any day. They would also rather you walk beside them than merely showing them the way.

 
 
 

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