Things That Didn't Happen

Welcome to our family blog and a rundown of our week. Many of our efforts were concentrated on soybean harvest. Yields are variable with farm averages running from 27 bushel to 61 bushel per acre. For those of you that aren't from a farming background that range is from pretty bad to really good.

 I spent a fair amount of my time in a truck hauling soybeans to either a processing plant in Des Moines or an export elevator in Burlington.

The state of Iowa has raised our load limits 10% temporarily so we can haul more soybeans per load. Earlier in the week I had been crossing the Mississippi River and unloading in Gulfport, Ill. since there was road construction to the elevator on the Iowa side. One morning a friend called and said he had heard on the CB radio that the Illinois D.O.T. was waiting on their side of the river ticketing all the heavy loads coming from Iowa. Thanks for the heads up Kurtis. 

I am always thankful to arrive safe and sound. Waiting to unload really wasn't an issue. Soybean quality and moisture were also not a worry while being graded.

 Many of our soybeans were directly loaded on a barge ready to head down the Mississippi River.

 Jennifer is an ingredient buyer from New York for Rich Food Products. She was in Iowa to visit Cargill and came out to the farm for a combine ride. Thanks for the visit Jennifer.

 One morning I noticed I had an oil leak. Karl helped me check it out and found a loose oil filter. I'm thankful it didn't fall off going down the road.

 We had our share of tire troubles. Fortunately the repairs and replacements were all timely and fixable.

Every year the vertical drive hub goes out on our Kinze wagons. So this year we replaced them at the beginning of the season and one still broke this week. Fortunately we were close to the shop and the crew is good at pulling the auger just enough to get the new drive hub in. It was enjoyable to see a couple of grandsons run graincart a little.

 The Omish came and put a new roof on BJs cattle barn. The young Omish fellow that headed up the project has five children under 7 years old.

Alex hauled honey after his fulltime job in town. He got over 100 loads done in spite of having to repair a hydraulic line, replace some filters, and work around road construction. Thanks for a good week Alex. 

 We also made a plan and spread some fertilizer for next years crop on acres not getting hog honey.

We started doing a little fall tillage. When growing corn on corn a person needs to get the old crop residue mixed and buried so it can start decomposing and start building organic matter. It takes nitrogen to break down old stalks and if you wait until spring all the nitrogen is working on the old crop instead of the new one.

 Last night after tilling some of those old stalks I hunted up the harvest crew and brought them supper from the Longhorn Saloon in Barns City which was close to where they were working.

 As our week wound down and folks were getting wore out I couldn't help but feel thankful for things that didn't happen. Even though we had a fair amount of hiccups there was always a solution. It didn't take long to get things fixed. We didn't have anyone get hurt. There were no accidents with all the road miles. We had no loads rejected for bugs or rocks or damage. The weather didn't hold us up.

"And you saw how the Lord your God cared for you along the way- just as a father cares for his child. Now He has brought you to this place." Duet. 1:31  Sometimes I just need to get on my knees and say Thank you.