Occasionally we second guess the past. Which is over and we can't bring back. Or we get anxious about the future. And worry about things that may never happen. Late last Thursday afternoon after Cargill closed we hit the pause button on harvest and enjoyed chili soup and homemade bread at Kurt and Emily's house, enjoying the food, the company, the conversation, the now. Thanks Emily.
Enthusiasm often turns into endurance when we experience obstacles and it seems all we see is red lights.
We had an enthusiastic Monday morning plan to start combining early. And then it started to snow.
It snowed enough north of Pella that the sieves got covered. That happens when wet snow mixes with corn silks. Sieves in a combine is the process of cleaning the grain just before going into the hopper. If it's cold enough the snow will blow right out the back however that wasn't the case Monday morning. So Karl brought over a couple of kerosene heaters which heat the back of the combine and melt the snow.
Mike is just about finished with a two and a half acre pond along Highway 63 south of Osky. He has started building farm terraces. Thanks for the picture Mike.
We have been hearing in the news media lately how we have got to eliminate fossil fuels. I feel privileged to be part of the one and a half percent of folks that farm in this country that feed the world. We couldn't do that without diesel fuel which now burns clean in our newer machinery. Americans spend just over 6% of their income on food. My friends in Africa and Asia spend half of their income to eat. God created this world including the gift of fossil fuels with the ability for sustainability for it's population now.
We started our visit this morning thinking about second guessing yesterday and worrying about tomorrow. While we have the responsibility to process, to plan, to prepare, to provide, and to protect, I think we also need to enjoy today and to know our purpose in it. Thanks for the picture Andy.
Tillage during my life has changed dramatically. When I was a hired hand for Walter back in the early 1970s I plowed with a WD45 Allis Challmers and a 4 bottom plow. In the 1980s we purchased a new Glencoe Soil Saver for $5300. It was designed to chop residue and mix stalks and dirt. Then came an era of no-till. Then back to a disk-ripper-disk for breaking tillage layers and compaction. Then vertical tillage tools designed to leave residue on top. Thanks for the picture Mid Iowa Equipment.
Today we still chisel our heavy black ground going back to corn. We no-till a fair amount of hilly stalk ground going to soybeans. We use a newer tool, a high speed disk, on acres that need to leave residue on top while still mixing it with soil. And we use cover crop on some highly erodible acres. Most larger newer tillage tools today are 6 figures in cost. Yet we still feed the world with grain prices not much different than 40 years ago thanks to genetics, traits, technology, efficiency, and reasonable fuel prices.
Speaking of the past Ezra, Elijah, Karl, and I went to a farm auction in southern Mahaska County where they sold a 200 acre farm with an average CSR of 77 on 170 acres of tillable ground. Believe it or not the farm had not been farmed for 50 years and was in grass. It sold in 5 separate 40 acre chunks. It brought $6250/acre average.
Yesterday Brian and Becky's, Ezra, and Mark and Stacy's, Elijah, helped us harvest after the sale by running grain cart. Because of teachers conferences BJ and Cassia's, John, also ran cart this past week and is a pro at it. We are still harvesting corn. We are doing tillage as time allows. We are tankering hog manure from the building to the field for others. And we are trying to work in jobs that need to get finished before cold weather.
My thoughts for this morning came from a conversation over coffee in our farm office when our oldest son Mike told folks to enjoy the times we have today because time flies by. He and Suzanne's son Cody, a senior, worked his tail off in his last football game as a high schooler. Cody runs the ball on offense and is good at it. However I measure his success by how hard he works on defense, breaking a single season record at PCHS in tackles. In life sometimes God may want us to run the ball and sometimes He may want us to work our tail off in the background defending others. Thanks for the picture Suzanne.
Once in a blue moon. Last evening we had our second full moon of the month. The first one was called a harvest moon. The complexancy, the details, and the amazingness of the world we live in and the solar system we are part of is unbelieveable. I hope whoever we elect to lead this country in the coming years recognize God and creation and purpose now. And not that we are just on an evolutionary journey where we as humans are in charge.
We visited earlier this morning about obstacles and red lights which feel like closed doors. We are not living in a time when things just sort of evolve. We have a purpose given to us by the One who created us. Sometimes He stops us for our own good. And sometimes He gives us the green light. Let's have a close enough relationship with Him that we do not become colorblind. Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a great week.
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