Views From Around the Farm

This is a picture of one of my Grandaughters sleeping in a carseat. Do not try this position at home without the aid of a diaper.

Just trust me on this one.

This view from the porch is a week old. It proves that I'm having trouble with the lens on my camera. The same lens that made me look overweight in the photo below, makes those corn rows look crooked. I'll admit that they aren't 'perfectly straight' but as I've mentioned before, it's hard to plant straight rows because of the constant rotation of the earth. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

We Also Ran

I got done planting corn twice last week. It could happen again. As another 30 feet of dry ground appears around the water holes, I'll make the circuit and plant 8 more rows here and there. I have one field of beans to plant but that will have to wait for more dry weather. We do have time yet for the timely planting of soybeans.

So our local Country Club was holding a 3 man scramble golf tournament and me with my planter at a stand still, decided to call the boys to assist at donating to the cause. These little tournaments are obviously and idea of some flaming liberal. It is a means by which they take money from the average or in our case, less than average golfer, and redistribute the wealth to others. They would be unable to hold events like this with out us. Without our money, they would have nothing to pay the winners. Our golf professional didn't need to smirk when he saw our card and say "Well men, thanks for supporting our tournament. However, a good time was had by all. This picture is of Dan and Tom with ol' Dad. The pic is a bit deceiving as Tom is actually a bit taller than I and Dan isn't that much shorter than I. Also the lens mad me look overweight.

They came up with their 'girls.' Between them it's the two wives and Dan's two daughters. My Grandson was baptized on Sunday and they wanted to be here for that. The bottom photo is of my Daughter playing the organ during the church service with one of Dans girls inspecting her footwork on the organ pedals.

We had a good long visit. I love it when they can come and kick back for a while.

Like Diarrhea

I've decided planting on years when it's too wet, is like having a bad case of diarrhea. You're never sure when it's over. The corn is done. Or is it? I'm going out this morning to take some more stand counts. I have some poor stands in two places. And a lot of corn that isn't even up yet. Replanting requires a lot of decisions the least of which is will I be improving my chances of a good stand by replanting or will I be better off accepting what I already have.
Then there are the areas that were too wet to plant. Do you wait until the last few days of May and go try and plant another pass around these miniature lakes I have adorning my fields.
There also is the field the Missouri River reclaimed last week. When the water goes down as it is doing now, the catfish leave with the receding water, but the carp aren't that smart. They will get trapped in the ponds that are left and stay for the hazy lazy days of summer. Not smart. That's when they run out of oxygen and water for that matter and begin suning their bellies.
The water also leaves logs, sticks, bottles, more logs, planks, picnic tables, old refridgerators, boats, logs, duck blinds, decoys, maybe a dead farm animal, and then of course, logs, scattered all over the field. It will all need to be cleaned up when it is dry enough. IF that happens. Another decision waiting to be made.
So whilst I busy my self with normal farming activities for this time of year, my mind will be trying to decide whether or not to plant something else or just put the planter away for the season. Like diarrhea, the urges are there but I'm just not sure.

And Then There Were Three (acres left to plant)

An update on the bridge. It hasn't fallen to the bottom of creek. Yet. The south east corner has dropped about 5 feet. I don't think I'll be walking out there to take anymore pics. They have excavated both sides to expose the piling. The pilings down to bedrock which in these here parts is about 100'. But the piling on one side sort of gave up and let the bridge collapse on one corner and sway to the side in that direction.
I fear the cost of this repair.
I got up this morning bent on getting done with corn planting. Heavy rain was forecast for tonight. I had only about 100 acres to do. The last 40 was just down the road from a large machine shed I own where the first 60 was that I planted. It usually takes about 2 minutes to 'road' the equipment down there from my building. The bridge was out so I had 6 miles of travel to get there. Saw some unfamiliar farmers. They all sort of looked at me cross eyed and then the light would come on over there head and you could almost read their thoughts..."Oh yeah, the bridge is out, that's what he's doing over here."
Everything went smoothly until late in the afternoon. A small rainstorm built quickly in the west and moved across southern Burt County drenching me, my planter, and the field with rain and small hail. And of course I only had about 3 acres left to plant. Here is where I must invoke another farmer saying. "If it was easy, everyone would be farming."
Well it's been raining off and on this evening. Enough to be able to say I won't miss any farming whilst attending my meeting in the morning. I hope there will be some sort of moderation in the amount of rain we receive this time.