Thinking Inside The Box

You've often heard folks, even from these visits, say we need to think outside the box. To broaden our horizons. Be open to new ideas. Last week we said if you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done. Thinking outside the box helps us grow.

However many times ideas come from within. From the folks we already have. From equipment we already use. From jobs we already tackle. From a process we might do every day. Solutions around here often come from our early morning coffees. Or working together in the shop. It seems this past week we did a lot of thinking inside the box. 

One morning last week I went north of Sully with a tractor to pick up a planter. On may way home I noticed how pretty this farmstead looked and took a picture of it. Good job Lawrence and Helen.

An advantage of cousins getting together on Mondays at Grandmas is they learn how to work (actually play) together on a single project. These little fellows are building a Lego house inside a square base.

Grandpa told them about a secret little room one day. Now their favorite activity is to climb up the ladder and play inside a finished storage room above the garage. Of course it requires Grandpa's supervision because the really little folks want to be included as well.

This past week was a rock week. As the weather is slowly warming and as the frost is coming out the rock on our yards seemed to vanish over the winter. Thanks for the picture Kasey.

Thanks to a hardworking crew that sees projects on their own we had a good week working inside the shop on equipment. This walking tandem needed a new shaft and set of bearings.

Kutos to Mike and Kasey for putting on 100 new cultivator sweeps. Kasey was reminded the hard way never to hold a plow bolt in place with your bare fingers.

Thanks to BJ and Alex for getting new bearings in this disc chisel gang. BJ and his kids overhauled this JD 4850 this past winter. The guys put the duals on this past week and this outfit will be our combine rut fixer on ground we intend to no-till.

This TW20 was on a manure pump last fall. We brought it home, cleaned it up, put it's old clamp on duals on, and hooked it up to Kurt and Karl's planter that does small fields and plants close to home. We teased Jarod, our precision and technology guy, that this tractor was 14 years older than he was.

Occasionally God has His ways of keeping me in line. After installing a 20/20 Precision monitor and GPS in a 40 year old tractor I thought it would be fun just to see if everything worked and suggested we try it in the hay field. Not for real. Just see if it worked. Kurt said, "It's pretty wet Dad". Well the top of the hill was fine. That's where fine ended. I got stuck and Kasey had to pull me out. Ouch. We have a lot of drying to do. 

Kutos to Matt who organized and staged seed yesterday. Our roads have been soft. However it's delivery time and we hope to get started this week.

Becky and Brian's Elliott was also good help yesterday. He learned how we blow up tubeless tires. He helped with all kinds of old jobs.

One of his jobs was to blade the yard. One of my favorite memories as a kid was on a Saturday afternoon in early spring when things were trying to dry up was my Dad and I would blade the yard. It would be our last job for the week and made the winter ruts look nice again and promised spring was just around the corner.

Kurt and Emily and family are getting a new basement. Half of their house is sitting on jacks while preparations are being made for new footings and walls. After the walls are poured it will be like digging inside the box with a skid loader preparing for a floor.

We're not hearing much in the news about our neighbors to the west however we need to keep them in our prayers. I have a friend who has an acquaintance in Nebraska who lost 600 calves. As the picture shows many lost last years crop. One can only imagine what their equipment looks like in their machine shed covered in muddy water.

Since my sister Donna and her boys were here, and since it's been a long winter, and since our family hadn't been together since Christmas, we decided to have a Saturday morning breakfast together. BJ cooked 7 dozen eggs. Mark made two pans of pancakes with all the toppings. Jan and Ginger cooked 10 lbs. of sausage and bacon. The girls all brought cinnamon rolls and monkey bread and fruit. I made coffee. :) We had a great time.

When I look back, God had a family for me I couldn't have even dared to dream of. My parents. My five siblings. Their spouses. Nephews and nieces. Jan. Our six children. Their spouses. Grandkids. I also consider co-workers, friends, landlords, and customers extended family.

When I look at the present, as long as we're on earth, I realize we all have loved ones, some we know about, others we don't, that are fighting battles. We need to be family to whoever needs us because relationships are so much more important than things and jobs.

So when I look to the future, I know I am helpless without God's leading and provision. We are in His family if we accept His gift. And not just salvation but even in help with decisions here on earth. I smile and close with a story about one of Donna and Roger's sons, Devin. Devin has been considering moving to Iowa from Colorado. It's a big decision. So he prayed and asked the Lord if he was supposed to move, to make it very clear because he was not good at taking hints. Well the next day he was called in by his boss at work in Colorado and told he was not needed anymore. Well Devin, looking forward to seeing you more often come the first of April. Have a good week everyone.