Sunday, May 20, 2018

I Have Plans For You

The year was 1995. I was still in my thirties. Mike, our oldest, was graduating from high school and heading for the Marines. This was our family. We had no idea what plans God had for each and every member of this family.
It's definitely graduation season. There have been kindergarten graduations all the way up to college graduations over the past week. Below Osky Christian Grade School had their 8th grade graduation Friday evening. Doug and Ginger's son Ben is in this class.
Mike and Sylvia's youngest daughter graduated as well. The class asked Mike to be their speaker. He did a great job.
Friends Joel and Lisa had Cory graduate from college, Ryan from high school, and Trenton from 8th grade all in just over a week. Plus they have a wedding coming soon. Talk about a lots of plans and a busy spring.
So the busyness of seed and planting have slowed down. You might wonder what the plans are now other than graduations.
Well we broke down seed boxes, sorted pallets, and made a plan to get them delivered back to the seed companies.
We have been cleaning up equipment and putting them away. While moving our field cultivator we blew a tire in Lovilia and blocked the whole street for a time.
Kasey had a good plan. He took off a wing tire and we used that for a spare.
BJ and crew have been tiling a bottom field southwest of Lovilia on a farm Kurt rents from Gary. We have beans to plant on this field yet.
Alex mowed some rye on a farm BJ rents from Scot. They hoped to bale and wrap it yesterday however I think those plans may have been changed by weather.
One of our next big push is spreading nitrogen on rowed corn. We load a majority of these semi loads out of CPS north of New Sharon. No one is better than Kathy at getting our semi loaded and back to the field in a short time.
This is the third and final time we feed the corn crop. We start with either hog honey or NH3 usually late the previous fall. We use 32% liquid with our herbicides when we spray immediately after planting in mid April. We finish off with this product when the corn plants are about a foot tall. This urea is treated with a stabilizer product which makes the yellow color in case it doesn't rain for a while. However we have been having wonderful timely rains.
In the field the spreader drives in-between the rows spreading an 80 foot swath. The tracks you see in the picture just to the left of the spreader are sprayer tracks.
In January we decide on a two pass herbicide plan for most of our corn crop. Believe it or not it's much more economical than a one pass and usually guarantees a weed free crop. We do three passes on our soybean crop. The third pass is foliar feed and a bug and disease prevention plan. Both sprayers have a tender semi that brings product to the field.
We use all hot loads. That means our products are pre-mixed at the plant and delivered ready to spray. There is a right plan and can be a wrong plan to mixing herbicides. The wrong plan can turn into a semi load of pudding. We have had no issues this year. Thanks Nathan and Mike doing a great job and thanks for all the extra hours you stay to keep the rigs running.
Matt and I stopped by Osky Christian School one afternoon during a farewell for Ruth and Lois. They are retiring from teaching kindergarten forever. They have taught most of our kids and grandkids. Best wishes gals on your future plans.
Yesterday ended up being a busy day that wrapped up a busy week. Last July and August we started planning for this season deciding what crops go where. In December and January we bought crop inputs. In February and March we planned and got equipment ready for the rush of the season. In April we first worried about snow and then about dry weather as we planted this crop. My point is we can plan all we want however you don't have to be a farmer for very long to know that God is totally in control. He gives us opportunities. He gives us abilities. And He gives us the appropriate amount of water and sunshine. No, there are no guarantees of a crop. However there are promises that He loves us, cares about us, and will take care of us. Often we see His plan in the midst of troubles more than the absence of them.
1995 was a long time ago. We were still recovering from the 1980s. Some days felt like survival. But we had each other and God had us. We had no idea what God's plan was for us however back then we watched Him take care of us. We are watching Him take care of our kids and their families. And we look forward to watching Him take care of this next bunch of graduates including our grandkids. Becky and Brian's oldest son Ezra helped me yesterday spread urea on the fields northwest of Pella.
As Kurt, Alex, and Matt ran the tenders and brought us product yesterday Kurt said, "Dad, since we're here at the old Sneller house in Pella, lets do lunch together". Never underestimate the importance of kitchens. Remember back in the old days. Everything happened in the kitchen. Yes, food and family. Devotions. Washing and drying dishes together. But also impromptu visitors and guests. Business, bookkeeping, and planning. Folding clothes. Building cadet cars. Graduation parties. Both the good times and the tough times happened around the kitchen table. Even though things have changed and we all have different venues don't give up those kitchen experiences. Relationships happened there and our ultimate purpose is a relationship with God and others. Have a good week.

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