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.

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.....