StillWatersIowa: The Right Path

Good morning. Welcome to April in southern Iowa where the weather changes from heavy coats on some days to sleeveless shirts on others.

Have you ever been going along and wondering if you are on the right path? Looking forward sometimes we can't see over the next hill. Looking back is usually 20/20 vision.

However looking back usually shows we had help. That help is always available for a conversation. Often we use prayer for a spare tire when we're in a bind when we should be using it for the steering wheel daily.

Mike tackled some dozing projects close to home this past week.

We spent a day hauling rock getting a yard ready for farm traffic during the spring and fall seasons.

We have also been watching the soil temps. Unworked ground is still cold however fall tilled soils are warming up.

We worked on our yard this week. It wasn't leveling off like I wanted it to with the garden tiller so I went and found some bigger equipment.

The right path for getting things accomplished is being prepared. We added some more technology to the planter including the speed tube that delivers the seed to the ground by belt rather than just dropping it from the unit.

So we took it out last week to see if everything was working.

When it's early and there is no field work pressure we have more time and help to check things out and fine tune them.

The goal in corn planting is to have uniform depth, a picket fence look on seed placement with no skips and no doubles. You also want the satellite to shut off the individual row units within a foot past the end rows when coming to the end and turning them on just inches before leaving the end rows.

Dr. Bob and Cheryl are following God's path for them to Greensville, South Carolina where Bob will be a principle at a Christian School. Dr. Bob was principle at Urbandale before going to Des Moines Christian for 14 years and then helping us out at Oskaloosa Christian for the last two years. Dr. Bob has been a good friend and I'm glad our paths crossed.

JCA had their friends banquet this past Friday evening. JCA is a Christian School in inner city Des Moines and is helping children find their right path serving the Lord. They operate on the fraction of the budget of many schools and are producing results second to none.

Allowing kids to help and making jobs for them when they are small helps them on their path growing up. It teaches them responsibility and helps them learn to care about others rather than just doing their own thing.

Then when they get to be young teenagers they have that already built in. Ethan and Gideon helped Grandpa and Brad pick up sticks on a bottom near Lovilla.

I enjoyed this snap from Suzanne. These are grandkids about ten years ago. I've heard it said, "don't grade parents by their children. Grade them by their children's children." Did they show their kids how to show their grandkids the right path?