Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Harvest 2010

Soybeans have been done for more than a week. Yield was not good (thank heavens for crop insurance). A lot of loss due to white mold. Soybeans are always an "iffy" crop, but you hate to put all your eggs in one basket so to speak and plant all corn although it has been discussed with approximately the same frequency as "what would we do if we won the lottery tonight".

Corn is progressing. The yields are very good, it appears that Farmer Greg's population and strip till tinkering were again successful. The corn is standing well so far and it has dried down a bit, I think somewhere around 24%. They are now alternating between putting wet corn in the bin (you can't put too much at one time or there are problems with the bin) and hauling the wet corn to town. The elevator has been slightly flooded with incoming wet corn (not as bad as last year, yet) and is shutting down earlier than normal (whatever that is). We have possession of a strip till bar and he is trying to strip till when the elevator shuts us off or after dark, so far, not much progress on that front, but he's only had the bar for a day or so. It is raining here, but not really all that much, just about enough to shut down the operation, so we are about in the same boat as those getting tons of rain.

All in all, I'd say aside from the extremely late start to harvest, things are moving along fairly "normally" again, whatever that means. I have not heard yet about modifications/tinkering for the 2010 crop, but Greg has to spend a LOT of time all by his lonesome this time of year doing his thing, I'm sure he'll come up with something. He always does.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Comments encourage me

Encouraged by a comment made by the former V.P. of Weather (aka Aunt Mary), I post again!

So far TGF has 56 acres of corn planted. He disced the pipeline Monday, May 11th and planted the pipeline part of Aunt Bernices farm and perhaps Hochsteads (sp) on Tuesday, May 12, working until after 10pm thanks to some new and fabulous lights that he purchased this spring for just this occasion. It has now rained steady every other day since. He has taken great pains to point out to me that he has been, "so good" about these rain delays, but he isn't fooling me, I know he is knotted up inside worrying about the weather and the planting.

Jack is home from UIllinois, having survived finals. I went down on 5/9 and cooked dinner for the frat boys, pulled pork and brisket (thanks to TGF), cole slaw, strawberry pretzel salad and tollhouse chocolate chip cookies all from scratch. Jack is relieved to have the semester behind him and a new adventure beginning on Monday as he starts his summer internship. I will let you know on Monday if we will miss him being around for the summer or not.



In my last post, I reported that Lady passed away on St. Patties day this year. We have found a new dog to live with us as her forever family. We named her Indy (Indigo), she is an Australian Cattle Dog/Blue Heeler and we got her from a rescue. OMG is she different from Lady. She is very laid back, but Blue Heelers want a "job" to do and she is constantly looking at things trying to figure out if she needs to do anything. She isn't nearly as big as Lady, but I think she has a wolfish enough look that folks will still look twice before they step out of the car at the house which is the point. She has some training, walks well on a leash, sits, lays, fetches, is crate trained and seems to be housetrained. So far, she is really neat and I have heard the adoption horror stories, she seems to be very well adjusted, the kids like her, but MBM isn't so crazy about her, but again typical for the ACD's, she is a little "mouthy" and he doesn't like that, no she hasn't bitten him, but she will nibble. We start obedience training next week and hopefully that will give me some better tools to deal with those behaviors.

Well, they seem to pay me to work around here, I suppose I'd best get back to it. If anyone has any control of the weather, some warm, dry days, about 14-21 of them would be helpful, please.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Hello? Is anyone out there?

I see from my stats that I haven't blogged sinch March. Not much has been going on in Serena Township. Oh, wait. Lady our beloved golden retriever-type dog of 13 years crossed over the Rainbow Bridge on March 17. She deserves a post of her own and perhaps I'll do that but suffice it to say that she was the best dog a human could ever ask for. Not only does she leave large pawprints to fill, but a giant hole in our hearts.

Here in Serena Twp, it has been rainy and dreary alternating with rainy and dreary. Within the past week, we have had about 4 gorgeous almost perfect days, but rain is predicted today. Not a wheel has been turned in the field to my knowledge as of this minute. TGF has been surprisingly tolerant of Mother Natures most recent practical joke, but I know he is aching to get the corn in the ground. I found 2 morels in the BACK YARD! and TGF claims he found about a dozen, but I have yet to see proof of such.





A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending Mothers weekend at UIllinois. I can honestly say that I am not old enough to be "Mrs. Marshall". It made me extremely uncomfortable, but I guess I'll have to get used to it. Jack is preparing to take finals to complete his 1st year of college and as far as I know, he will be invited back next year both to the University and to his frat (IlliDell). I pick him up on May 14th and he reports to his summer internship on Monday, May 18th. He will be working for Hartung Brothers, Inc.
training in Madison, working in Bowling Green, OH, Seattle and perhaps Sturgis. He is allegedly monitoring pickle tanks, but he isn't really sure what he'll be doing and income is income. It will be a long summer for him, but hopefully we'll get out to see him so that we don't forget what he looks like.

That's all the news that is fit to print. We are all relatively happy and healthy and hope y'all have a great spring.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Disney 2009

Our Disney trip. MG loved the swimming, she was a little intimidated by the dolphins, we saw the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Animal Kingdom, Discovery Cove (where MG swam with a dolphin - Lester) and SeaWorld. I would have to say that Discovery Cove and SeaWorld were our favorite. For some reason the thin filter on my camera wasn't working (I am surely much thinner than I appear in those pictures). We could not have wished for better weather, the company was perfect. It was really a wonderful trip, but I was glad to be home.

When I called home on Sunday, Michael said, "Are you coming home, mommy?" Melted my heart.

Oh, TGF bravely took one for the team and stayed home to hold down the fort while I cavorted with Mickey Mouse and friends, but don't feel too badly for him, he leaves for Arkansas fishing in a week or so.

To View the pictures:
Ok, so I can't link to my flickr profile. go to www.flickr.com and search for amarshall102 under the people tab. You can see all the photos that I have uploaded onto flicker, but the Disney ones are in a set for your viewing pleaseure as they say.