2008 in review

I was looking for a picture of Jack from the day we took him to University of Illinois and I discovered this gem.  My how time flies:


2008 has been an exciting and trying year.

After 4 gruelling years of Serena High School, DS#1 left home for college, University of Illinois, I miss him, but am exceedingly proud of the young man he is becoming. It is interesting to feel the disconnect as he begins to make his own decisions (afterall, he has told me for years that he can make better decisions than I do) and begin to weave his way through this thing called life. He has an internship lined up for the summer with a pickle packer of some sort that will either lead him to Bowling Green, Ohio or now I hear they offered the "travelling internship" position to him which will lead him to Oregon, Texas and Sturgis (allegedly not during bike week-I emphasize allegedly). Of course this means that he won't be back here at home for any significant amount of time until perhaps Summer 2010 if then, so essentially aside from tuition and expenses, he is out of the house. Bittersweet.

DD#1 (MG)is now 8, the other morning before coffee, I got to explain "lesbian". She is swimming on the Ottawa Dolphin swim team and loves it. It keeps us busy, 3 days a week with practice and swim meets every single weekend, either Saturday or Sunday. I am told that her times are improving and that is a good thing. I am amazed at how well she swims. Her schoolwork is going well, girls seem to do school much more easily than boys. She is cheerful and outgoing and developing into quite a nice young lady if I do say so myself. I can see in the future her father will have to clean his gun quite often to keep the boys away.

DS#1 (MB) is a hoot. He is a healthy, happy, bouncing young boy. He had his first stitches this year, flipping the kitchen chair over at dinner and splitting his head open. 1 staple and an hour in the ER and all is well. MB is very articulate for his age and has never met a stranger. He says he is ready for college and misses his big brother quite a bit. Papa Kueteman is his best friend, they spend many hours in Papa's shop and riding the golf cart, 4-wheeler and tramping in the woods. He brings joy to our lives.

In February, Greg and I bought 26 acres down the road and we harvested our first corn crop this year. I drove the combine when we combined part of our harvest, it was a special thrill for me. The farm did very well for the first year and GCM plans to use that farm as our experimental farm as he tinkers with population, fertilizer and whatever else he tinkers with in the never ending quest for larger yields with less expenditures. Overall the farming yields were up exponentially which is a good thing because our input costs for the 2009 crop increased by more than 100%. Greg told me the other day that our normal fertilizer costs ran around $25k and this year the same fertilizer cost $66K. OUCH! It is a good thing that the harvest was good, because again this year, no deer were taken during the annual hunts. The weather was miserable and the deer just weren't moving. I think I can manage to learn to like beef instead of venison.

Greg added beekeeping to his arsenal of skills this year. He put a hive in the woods and we did enjoy some honey in August. The big honey harvest should be next year as the hive grows and he has high hopes for adding more bees to his apiary.

All in all, I think 2008 was a success. Here in Serena Township, we had our ups and downs, but we appear to have survived another year here in Gods country.

I've been remiss about posting

FYI - That IS Mary Grace, she is growing up (9) and we are looking into birka's and making applications to Convents, any assistance on that front would be appreciated.

Harvest officially ended December 15, 2009. It was a long, hard slog at the end. This year, we saw snow before the crop came out. We had about 30 acres still standing when the snow came and I pondered how long it would take to hand-pick 30 acres. Luckily for me, I have friends and I think many of them would have stepped in to help-who would have ever thunk that we would have to harvest by hand in 2009? Fortunately, that wasn't necessary.

The corn yield was excellent. Our little 24 acres yielded enough to make the mortgage payment. There were some bumps along the road, but for the most part we are just glad that harvest 2009 is OVER, DONE, in the bin.

Someday I will grouse about why it seems that despite the fact that the grain bins are only used once a year, they never seem to work and other related rants, but all in all, I have to say that I am thankful that the crop is in, TGF is safe and healthy and we will all live to plant another year.

A belated Happy New Year to everyone reading. I hope we all have a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Michael has been defending us from sabertooth tigers, indians, coyotes and bobcats. TGF is planning on decreasing the coyote population in Serena Township and he and Michael have been watching videos about coyote hunting, never a dull moment!

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.

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.

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.

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.

A Farmers "Garage'

This is the scene that I saw upon walking out of the house Friday morning. TGF said he was coming home on a tractor and he sure did, parking it right in line like he would have parked his truck. Who needs a Hummer when you have a Tractor!

One more field of beans to harvest (I think), it was still a little too green, so they switched to corn on....Perhaps Sunday, harvest is going well except for a small crunch in the chaff spreader on the combine. No one was hurt and that is the most important thing.

2008 Harvest begins

Uncle Bill, here is your long awaited update.

2008 harvest officially began Friday, October 3, 2008. They began with the beans at Aunt Bernice's farm, I am never quite sure of the "plan" although I know there is one, but I think they plan to fill the bin there and then haul it out. Serena has no bean storage, but that is a story for another day. Having no elevator storage (we typically store most of the corn in the grain bins and haul the beans to town) makes things a little interesting, but last year it worked out well, so fingers crossed that it will work out as well this year.

I have heard that, "You farmers are all spoiled by the good weather these past years", but I feel a little tense that no wheels were turned in September, but the beans simply weren't fit yet and the moisture in corn was high and with the cost of LP gas, we needed to afford to dry it in the fields a bit.

This financial crisis has been troubling, we've been trying to watch the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates, I hope that one of these days we get a candidate that we want to vote for rather than voting against.


Family wise, Jack is still at U of I. He called me a week or so ago on a Monday and the conversation went something like this...

Jack: Mom, on Thursday we are having an event at the house and they usually make the freshmen be bouncers, now what exactly is the "rule" when the police come? Do I have to let them in without a search warrant...

Angie: If I were you, I'd try my darnedest to stay away from the door, but for the record, no search warrant, no entry, period, end of discussion, however, remember, there isn't a lot of $$ in your monthly allowance for bail.

That's my Jack, always be prepared.

Week before last, we had our first trip to the ER with any of the kids, Michael was finally eating supper and he managed to flip one of our heavy kitchen chairs over and cracked his head open on the radiator. Only 1 staple, and he was fine and then the following Sunday he got eaten by these Hurricane Ivan mosquitos and first his left and then both of his eyes swelled shut. He looked awful, but didn't seem to feel too bad. It was a long week.

Well, that's all the news that is fit to print and then some, I suppose. Here are some pictures taken 10/4/2008 of the pipeline, pretty boring, but I didn't want to get in trouble for trespassing on the right-of-way. Safety issues and all you know.....

The Handsomest Kid at the Prom

The best looking couple at Marquette Prom, 2008. Even if I do say so myself, that is one handsome boy and Hattie isn't bad either. (Love you Hattie)

New Toys at TGF.






On February 26, we had a sleety rain and then overnight got some beautiful snow. It coated the plants outside and it was really beautiful. This is my walking stick bush against the outhouse in the garden. Photo is dark because it was taken at about 5:30am, it was really beautiful.

Some things are meant to be.....

A new day has dawned at TGF. Today (Monday, February 25, 2008) we closed on our farm. 26.404 acres just south of our house. It touches both E. 22nd Road and E. 2150th Road. Its story is interesting to us, perhaps it is interesting to you. About a year ago. (March 2007) our banker, Richard Bend called me and inquired if we had noticed the auction notices for some land that was close to what we currently farmed. I teased him about his unusual method of drumming up business. We talked it over and decided to go to the auction to bid on the property. I had a little health scare (breast-all is FINE, thank you) and wouldn't finish the tests until after the auction. Because of that and general unknowns, we decided to bid $X. It was interesting to go to the auction as the neighbors were all nosy and there not perhaps to bid, but more importantly to see who bid. If you've ever been to an estate auction, a land auction is similar. Our parcel was the last to be sold. The piece that sold ahead of our intended piece went for less than our maximum bid. I was sure that we were going to get the property and then someone from the doorway bid and when we reached our maximum, we stopped bidding. I was so nervous, I thought I was going to pass out-seriously, I thought I was going to hyperventilate. TGF had teased me that I would buy get my arms a-waiving and buy the farm regardless of the bid, but when the time came, I couldn't bid-it was all I could do to stand upright, he did the bidding for us that day. Anyway, we didn't buy the land that day and my health issue turned out to be nothing but a scare (yes, thank heavens). The new buyer planted it and by the beginning of the summer, we heard rumors that he wanted to sell it, pretty soon we saw a listing sign on the property and I checked it out. He had it listed for $10,000 per acre, definitely more than we were interested in paying. Cut to January, a Thursday, for some reason, I was home alone that day and I saw him come down and pick up some of the bales that he left on the property. I heard the tractor stop and then a knock came on the front door (no one who knows us knocks on the front door). He asked to speak with TGF who wasn't home. TGF called and we worked out the deal. Coincidence? I think not, but I'm a little nutty that way as perhaps you know. I plan to walk the boundaries of the property, make a snow angel in the middle of it and pray extra hard for soft rain, good sunlight and a bountiful harvest. I have recently come to discover that unconsciously more than consciously, I longed for the safety of owning a piece of "God's Green Earth" as my friend Janette says and today thanks to the banker, TGF and I do.

HAIL TO THE CHIEF

The 4th generation in the AG Department at the University of Illinois. Katie was the 1st 4th generation, but Jack is the 1st 4th Gen in Ag. It's a good thing as there is so much orange and blue around here, if he didn't get in, I don't know what we would do. He was accepted into Purdue (chemistry) as well, but U of I was HIS first choice. Heaven help my checkbook and keep good thoughts for him that he uses his best study skills to absorb all of the opportunities available at the University of Illinois. HAIL TO THE CHIEF!

Time Flies???

It is Illinois Today. We were dumped with about 8" of snow yesterday and last night, it is beautiful to look at and I'd love to take a walk in the woods, but alas, I was faced with the following choice. Go to work or Referee the hoard of children who were not in school due to a snow day - easy choice for me. TGF was not so lucky as he has no work excuse, hee, hee, hee.

I don't remember the last time I posted to the blog, but I think it was after harvest. We were blessed this year with timely rains, abundant harvest and increased prices for the corn and soybeans that we grew this year. Of course the imput prices (fertilizers and seed and etc) have adjusted their prices accordingly, but all in all, it was an excellent year for us. All harvest was accomplished in a safe and more or less organized manner. I have said before and will probably say again, I think farming is the most important job in the world, without TGF and his partners in relaxation (i.e. other farmers) we would not enjoy the abundance of goods to be purchased at the store. If we don't eat well, we don't live well. It does us good to remember that from time to time.

2007 Harvest in the Bin

TGF finished the last 10 acres of beans yesterday (October 24). Now on to the Anhydrous application, and fall spraying and of course the negotiation of what new implement will need to be purchased before the end of the year. But first a well deserved vacation to one of the Dakota's with TGF brothers (Steve and Dickster) for some Pheasant slaughter. Good luck to the Pheasants.

Harvest 2007

TGF began the 2007 harvest on Thursday, September 20, the earliest that TGF's father has ever remembered starting. The moisture in the corn was 16% and the yields were, well, lets just say amaizing. Scary amaizing. (yes, I said amaizing for a reason) The first day began without incident, they took the headlands off of Dick's farm and then they progressed to the Greg 40 which is currently about 2/3 harvested. On Saturday, they moved to Hochstead's and harvested that, hauling the corn to the elevator in Serena, hoping to beat the crowds as the other area farmers either haven't started, or are currently working on their bean harvest due to sudden death syndrome or brown stem rot (no, I don't make this up). On Saturday I was helping them jockey machinery and I had occasion to drive into the field. I couldn't believe how tall the corn is, the ears are attached to the stalks at about shoulder height (a good 18" higher than normal) and they are huge, the corn was probably at least a foot higher than TGF's huge 4wheel drive truck. So far everything is standing well and we did have some down-time last week for a couple of miscellaneous breakdowns, but so far so good is the report from the home front.

Hummer-Birdies

I have feed Hummingbirds for several years. They are preparing to head south for the winter and they are "swarming" the feeders. I put 2 feeders on the front porch so that Michael and I can watch them. He calls them "Hummer-birdies" and we watch their dancing/fighting. I hope this shows up. Greg thinks he saw at least 7 tonight, but I think I only caught 4 on film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPTrU9kmEy8

5/18/2007 - BEANS PLANTED: CHECK

Today, TGF will finish planting the beans! Let's say it all together please, like a chorus of angels, "HALLELUJAH!" Overall, although perhaps TGF might report differently, planting went well. No accidents, a few breakdowns, but nothing too spectacular or costly. Probably the most alarming was the 2" nut that came off of the drill at the part that actually holds the drill to the tractor, that could have been spectacular, but TGF caught it in his pre-planting review of the machinery. Now if we can get the VP in charge of weather (i.e. Aunt Mary or Mary Marshall-Grace) to assist us with good sunshine, warm, but not too warm temperatures and soft rain upon our fields, we will be in like flynn-oh, yes, please no FR*ST. I suspect that all of the corn is now up and TGF said that he figured some of the beans have begun to break the surface, always a good sign. So things are off to a good start here in the Country.

The roads have settled and the dust from same is flying again. MG wrote me this note this morning regarding the Mothers Tea that we will attend later today. http://www.flickr.com/photos/88424487@N00/503324859/ Pretty funny, I particularly enjoy, "Note to Self".

The weekend looks like it will be beautiful. I hope you all have a great weekend, until I type again.... :)

Mary Grace

http://www.flickr.com/photos/88424487@N00/503324859/ Check out this picture. This is the note I received this morning from Mary Grace. They are having a Mothers Tea at school and she has been looking forward to it for 2 weeks. So precious, I can't believe it. That girl is something.

The corn is planted

For the record, TGF began planting corn...April 16, 2007. He planted some headlands at Dick's farm and then we got some rain. On and off, he planted and finished up corn without incident on May 7th or 8th (I can't remember exactly, the days all run together when field work is being done). The weather gods/goddesses cooperated and he sprayed for 2 days (or at least he said he did) and then commenced to planting beans on May 10th.

Our corn is up, no death by rotary hoe at TGF and looking good. TGF feels that the strip till was a good idea so far and I think it is a good idea because he can't plant after dark because he can't see the marks, so at least I have some sort of ETA for when he might arrive for the evening (must get the beer cold afterall)

It is hard for me to wrangle the 2 little children by myself and get to work with clothes/shoes/makeup on by 9am, so I look forward to the planting being completed.

Michael takes a bath

I posted a pic of Jack and now Michael, I'll have to get a good pic of MG so that they all have equal time. Michael loves his bath. My digital camera is slow and it is hard for me to get a good shot of him, this is the best that I could do. Not much cuter than babies in a tub.