What Will Virus Free Look Like?

I had just written and returned an email that had requested some of my personal information. I pressed send and reread the info. I noticed at the bottom of my message it said "virus free". For a split second I wondered how my computer knew I wasn't sick. Then it dawned on me that it was just saying this message was safe. Thanks Ezra and Elijah for helping Grandma plant trees.

This Grandma's Ranger is ready and equipped for her many tasks. Jan carries a spade and a tree pruner in the back. And as you can see in the front she has her water, her jacket, a car seat, and her gun, in case she sees a snake sunning itself around the pond.

We have taken the current weather break from farming this week and have been cleaning and putting spring machinery away. The corn crop continues to progress however our soybeans seem like they need some warm temps. Thanks Pablo. Thanks for the picture Alex.

Karl assisted a neighbor and friend in getting some rye chopped for cattle feed. These fields will get planted to corn. Thanks for the picture Karl.

We have switched to skinny tires and our sprayers are ready for second pass corn as soon as the weather allows.

The pond here on our yard has been overfull since the drain tile that keeps the water level steady has been not working. So after several attempts to fix it we used Memorial Day weekend to install a new drain tile. John and Jayden are observing as BJ keeps the ditch at the correct grade (height).

Below is a chart of the corn market from mid February through mid May. The 52 week range has shown about a $1/bu. or 25% drop. The USDA this past week announced help for farmers based on the inventory they had in their bins as of January/2020. Since our family delivers most of our crop to market at harvest this program will have little effect for us.

Another chart from a similar time frame shows a similar curve. It's showing the dropping rate of Covid deaths in the USA by age from early February till mid May.

I have personally and would like to publicly thank our Governor for her efforts in being safe and yet keeping Iowa as normal as possible this spring. This is an earlier picture when I was thanking her for allowing heavier semi loads of grain on farm to market roads during harvest. Thanks Governor Kim for not only your hard work but also your faith through all this. She has given the church network extra responsibility while state government has been busy.

We are enjoying company this week as my sisters and their families are visiting.

A number of our crew has used this holiday weekend to relax and spend time with family in various ways. Thanks for the picture Emily.

We had a drive through congratulations line on Friday evening as John, from BJ and Cassia, and Amelia, from Mark and Stacy, graduated from 8th grade at Oskaloosa Christian.

Jan has been working hard and is enjoying the growing and blooming part of our Iowa growing season. For those of you who visit here, whether using the cabin, on business, or just as friends, Jan is the reason things look neat.

Jan also appreciates a clean and empty yard for visitors. With an active seed business filling our current machine shed with seed six months a year, and being an active farm family, it's sometimes impossible to keep our yard machinery free. So tis the reason for the season in adding additional machinery storage across the road. 

My goal this morning has been to keep this visit as short as possible. And yet to show you we have been living life as normal as possible this spring. We welcome visits. The grandkids continue to come and interact. We work and play together. We are investing in the future. We are teaching the young ones sweat equity still pays off. We are also doing our best to show them we are to help and support others. We are pushing back when folks ask us to give up some of our freedoms. And we are living each day as if it is a gift from God and we are going to make the most of it.

Our media is still focusing on new and positive cases. (I'll be first to admit living in a nursing home sucks right now.) On deaths. On the next new wave of fear. Have you noticed they have quit talking about other countries? You and I have folks that join this visit from all over. Malawi is busy harvesting. Italy (I hope to meet you folks someday) is moving on. Israel did a 180 turn around as soon as they realized "stay at home" wasn't working. Montana has kids back in school. Also, no more talk about flattening the curve. We just looked at the curve. It's not only flattened. It's nosed dived and close to normal.

Folks, we won't see "virus free" in this life. We have had virus's all our lives. They will continue. However we have hope and happiness in the midst of hardships because of our Lord and Savior being in charge. We need to start living that way. We need to use personal responsibility like Gov. Kim has asked us, and not government rules, to decide what's the right thing to do. This is the reason we live in the greatest country in the world. And this is also the reason we take a holiday to remember the folks that went before us, to keep us this way. Thank you so much for stopping by.