Deciding To Fix

I've read somewhere once that if you want something you've never had you have to do something you've never done. That often requires us to step out of our comfort zones. It sometimes takes an investment. There is usually a risk. There is often a reward. Gideon and Ethan spent their spring break working at Outer Limits fixing trucks.

Drilling a hole in your black and blue fingernail after smashing it is one of those jobs that's kind of scary but usually fixes it by relieving the throbbing pressure. That's what Gideon did after a semi brake drum landed on his finger.

I think the subject of this week was the conditions of our gravel roads as the frost is coming out. Earlier with the ditches full of snow our roads couldn't get rid of the melting snow and water so they turned to mud.

Muddy roads mean muddy vehicles. Earlier this week many gravel roads needed 4-wheel drive to navigate. There have also been a number of vehicle parts found on these roads like mud flaps, mufflers, and tail pipes.

Getting hog feed in and fat hogs out of some finishers has been a challenge, especially at a new site like this one at Andy's farm. Some counties put load limits on the rural roads until they settle.

Flooding has also been an issue with melting snow, ice jams, and then a day of rain in some places. This road is by the South Skunk River just southwest of Peoria. I've heard from friends that eastern Nebraska has had some devastating floods. Yesterday Interstate 29 was closed and the Missouri River was to crest at an all time high tomorrow.

Although it's still cool the sun has shone some and the roads are slowly drying out. With folks visiting our cabin regularly and since the county road graders can't be everywhere at the same time I decided to do some fixing on the gravel road we live on. Thanks for the pic Kasey.

A number of you have asked about our current shop project of getting planters ready. Below Karl is remounting a trash whipper after new bearings were installed. This tool rides across the top of the soil in front of a row unit and sweeps residue over so the seed has good seed to soil contact.

The next job a planter unit does is create a firm V in the soil for the seed to land in uniformly. We want our seeds all the exact same depth which allows them all to emerge the same day anytime between 7 to 14 days later depending on the soil temperature. This is called a smart firmer. This devise measures organic matter, residue, soil moisture, and soil temp as it plants. This information is used for variable rate seeding on the go with more seeds on the rich soils and less on the clay soils. Karl writes most of our variable rate seeding rates for our fields.

Then the planter delivers the seed to the bottom of the V we just talked about. Until recently most planters either dropped or blew the seed in place which was why planting speed had to be slow for uniform spacing. Two seeds in one spot is called a double and competes with each other. A missing seed is called a skip. On a picket fence stand on a good year every plant on 1/1000th of an acre represents around 8 bushel so take 8 times a 30,000 population and you come up with 240 bpa with God's blessing. Below is the belt we talked about last week that brings the seed to the V uniformly allowing faster planting speed.

The last job on this project is making sure all the planting attachments are communicating with each other. This is when Jarod and Chris come and hook up all the wires and hoses. They are our precision and technology dealers.

Believe it or not we are also thinking about and getting ready for fall/2019. Ryan went over one of our combines and suggested what needed to be fixed or replaced to get through another harvest with minimal down time.

Karl and Kristin's Sydnie is sharing her KFC meal in the office with a kitty Friday evening.

Looks like more 4-H projects. BJ and Cassia's John and Natalie are bringing home baby goats. Thanks for the pic Cassia.

For our last story this morning I'd like to share with you about a supper Jan and I and friends went to last evening at Des Moines Christian School. Joel (I generally don't use last names on the internet) is an author. 18 years ago He wrote "The Last Jihad" about terrorists flying a plane into a building. This book was written 6 months before 9/11. He and his family have dual citizenship in US and Israel. Joel's father was a Jew. Joel is a Christian and a friend to many country leaders in the Middle East.

Joel started a new series starting with "The Kremlin Conspiracy". His new book soon to come out is called "The Persian Gamble". He starts a book tour here in the US next week.

Cassia is a fan of Joel's books so I asked him if he would write a note to her and sign a book I hope to give her soon. Many things in our country nowdays seem unfixable. Our failing culture in this country is a battle between God and Satan. Fortunately we have a book (the Bible) that tells us God wins. That should help us look forward to a great week. Blessings. And let's decide to fix little things at a time.