Finding The Ordinary

 2020 was not our usual, routine, normal, expected, ordinary year. 2021 won't be either. My goal this morning is to find the ordinary in extraordinary times. With no rain in many places for the last month or longer, the planting season in southern Iowa is on a fast pace and in many cases completed.

This farming practice is ordinary to many of you. However not all of you live in this area. Cover crop is a grass, usually rye, that is planted in the fall after harvest to do a variety of things including erosion control, helping with compaction, and weed suppression. Then in the spring it is sprayed with Roundup and no-till planted. Below are 15 inch soybean rows on a hill that Alex planted just east of our home.

How many of you remember a planter plate? In the 1950s this type of plate was used in the bottom of a planter box. As it rotated mechanically a seed would drop in the spaces. As it turned it would bring the seed to a hole in the seed box where it would fall to the ground between a runner or disc opener that opened the soil. In the 1960s these plates went to plastic. In the 1970s plateless planters came out. Doubles and skips were common in the seed row. Today air pressure blows seed from a bulk box to a row unit. Then a seed belt in the row unit takes the seed to the ground. Below we are planting sweet corn with a couple of these older ground driven seed row units.

Last week was a busy week for most farmers. Most are wishing for a warm rain. Some early corn plants are under a crust and struggling to emerge. Some fields going to soybeans are out of moisture in the top 2 inches. It takes rain to activate herbicides. It takes rain to incorporate added 32% nitrogen and keep it from volatilizing. One of my favorite statements is, "We plan, prepare, and plant, however God determines the harvest". That's true in a corn field. It's also true in life.

After an early start and a long day in the field I was driving home with a flashing fuel gauge in our sprayer telling me we were low on fuel. Obviously I was hoping to make it home. Traveling west of Cedar a message appeared on my dash telling me I had low fuel pressure. Now I know it's just a matter of seconds before my machine dies. So I wheel into a driveway, tell the farmer my dilemma, and ask if I can buy a splash of diesel. Thank you Danny Joe for getting me out of a bind. Just an ordinary act of kindness in this country from one farmer to another.

A Mike story: For years we have worked for Dan on the Cricket farm southeast of Bussey. This farm has a large creek running through the middle of it. For years we would cross this creek on an old rickety wooden scary  bridge. One day Mike was working on this farm with his very heavy dozer and needed to cross the creek but didn't totally trust the bridge. So he drives up to the bridge, puts his dozer in low gear, and sends it across by itself. Then after it makes it over safely, he walks across. 😊 As you can see, the bridge has since been removed.

One of the many blessings of being in the seed business and working with folks is relationships. And by the end of the week the pressure of farming was wearing off. Below BJ, Matt, Karl, and I enjoyed "catching up" with a three generation farming family. Thanks for the friendships Virgil, Dan, and Wyatt.

A couple of weeks ago we visited about small family business being the backbone of our country and economy. Just ahead of my sprayer hood is Catfish Charlies where Buddy, Eileen, and family make catfish bait that goes all over the country and even the world. Thanks friends for allowing us to be part of your farming operation.

Last evening I received a thank you text from a farming operation with this picture. It made my day. Thank you Jay, Diane, Dan, Carol, and families. And thanks for the picture Dan.

Last year many graduation parties were cancelled however this spring the cabin is again full every weekend with friends getting together and celebrating the ordinary milestones of life.

Well, it's posting time and I overslept this morning. Let's find and enjoy the ordinary, day to day, maybe even job to job, activities and relationships as we travel and live in unordinary times. God is still in charge and heaven is not shaken by the changes in our country. 

If we get rain soon let's remember to say Thank you together next week.