How Beautiful

I woke up this morning deciding summer must be here. As the sun comes up these days our mornings are so bright and beautiful. Our hours of daylight are about as long as we get in Iowa right now. In just two weeks our days start getting shorter again.

Is June here already? Wow. I'm still trying to remember to write 2016 on my checks. Jan continues to spend much of her summer on her yard and does a beautiful job.

Last Monday I went to Sully and watched Mark and his family race. There were a ton of folks there.

 It was neat. Only in Iowa do you get over 500 people to come to somebody's cow pasture and watch their community enjoy their Memorial Day.

 Later that evening we went to the little community of Lynnville and watched Ezra and Elliott play ball against a New Sharon team with the Dad's being the coaches and umpires. 

 With our crops looking like they have good potential we have spent the last two weeks adding nitrogen over the top of a growing crop.

 Alex takes the semi to town and loads with urea treated with a product that protects it from volatilization and then loads Kurt who is spreading 64 rows a round while driving down the rows of corn.

 Karl has been very busy spraying second pass corn. Pablo or Brad have been tendering (bringing him product) him.

We have been keeping the batwing mower busy mowing road ditches and waterways.

 It was a great week to get hay dry and baled.

 One beautiful dry afternoon we baled a bunch of small square bales. Below nephew and nieces, Isaiah, Emily, and Mariah are loading racks. They bought some hay for their horses.

 BJ baled hundreds of big round bales this week. Many times the first cutting hay crop is half of the whole summers bales.

 With the hay crop off BJ had Alex no-till some soybeans into some hay ground. The soil was hard and dry and was all the planter could do to get enough down pressure to get the seed an inch deep.

 We also spent the week spraying fence rows. It's always fun to see the edges of the fields free of weeds and small trees. This job is done with a hand wand on a cabless tractor. This job requires frequent showers as the spray drift sometimes blows back on you.

 Our first planted corn is two months old and looks beautiful. We are just a touch dry in our neck of the woods which is alright if it remembers to rain later in the growing season.

I have always said Indian summer is my favorite season however early summer is beautiful as well. With the crop in and growing we are now feeding the crop, killing weeds, and mowing hay and grass. I am truly blessed to be a part of this occupation. Also the pressure is off because God is in charge of the results this fall. 

 We received another beautiful blessing this week when we were told we were going to be grandparents again in December. How cool is that? I'll pester the girls and let you guess on that one a couple of weeks.  

"How beautiful the feet that bring the sound of good news and the love of the King. How beautiful the hands that serve the wine and the bread and the sons of the earth. How beautiful. How beautiful."