Once In Awhile

I stumble upon a song that I listen to about a billion times in a row. Do as the man says, and look up the picture of James Blake Miller before you listen to this song. If you listen to the song. I think you should.

Spraying Pictures

I had a few acres of beans that got planted late because the ground was really wet this spring. They're a little behind the other beans in the field, so of course, I have weeds growing in them like crazy. Instead of paying someone to come spray 7 acres, I decided to do it with Grandpa's 3020 and 3 point sprayer. It was a little warm, but I got the job done. Hopefully, all the weeds and grass die. If you let them go, they'll choke out the beans. If those weeds cost you 10 bushels an acre over 7 acres with beans going for $12/bu, you're looking at a loss of $840. I think I can sweat a little bit for that.

In case you're wondering, we put a quart (32 ounces) of Roundup on per acre. An acre is 43,560 square feet. This is mixed with water at a rate of 10 gallons an acre. Basically, we put a lot of water on with a little bit of Roundup. Our fields are not drenched in chemicals, as many people would have you believe. Did you know chemicals have a recommended rate? If you go over this rate, you may burn or kill your crop and it can cause weeds to become resistant to the glyphosate, so it's not in our best interest to drown weeds in Roundup.

August Next Week? WTH?

I helped Grandpa lay out his soybean irrigation pipe today, hilled about 90 acres of beans, irrigated, worked on some seed sale invoices, etc. I think we're going to lay some of Dad's pipe out tomorrow. I've got all of my wells going, as we're headed to Parks, Nebraska this weekend. It's fair time! I'm trying to get all of my corn watered before we leave. Pollination seems to have gone pretty well, judging by the few ears I picked tonight. Every one of them I picked was filled with kernels to the tip. I'll try to take some pictures for you in the morning. This post kind of has ADD.

 Great Song With a Terrible Video:

I love this song, and I like the red and white striped shirt, but the fake concert? And the guy (who I'm pretty sure is Ricky Skaggs. And the one dude dancing might be George Strait) sitting there smoking and looking at pictures? No thanks. Clint, what were you thinking?

Some Random Pictures

Here are a couple of pictures from the road of my corn and soybeans. Both are twin row:

Here are a few of some of our cattle. They got pretty curious and had to come see what was going on, but my camera battery died, so this is what you get:

Weird Weather

Normally, I'm not in the house this time of day. Today has been weird. Woke up early to irrigate, got two wells changed, and it started lightning pretty bad. I really don't want to know what it feels like to get hit by lightning, so I quit. Got ready to go out again at 8, started raining again. Finally got out about 8:30. I had two wells left to change at about 9:15, when I saw lightning strike around me. One of them was close enough that all I saw was the flash. Then the heavens opened, and it started raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock. So far we've had a half inch. It's about done, so we'll keep irrigating.

I sprayed pipe the other day when it was a billion degrees outside. After we lay the pipe out, we have to go back and spray it because weeds and grass grow in the driveway and on the berm next to the pipe. It's a real pain in the butt. I wanted to get out before the weeds got big, but it rained last week, so the weeds got big. Of course.

In other news, the corn is tasseling, so that's nice. There's pollen everywhere. Normally, hot weather is bad when the corn is pollinating, but this year the corn seems to be taking it ok. We've had plenty of moisture, so that helps. Corn is cool. The tassel comes out, then drops the pollen and fertilizes the ear, causing the ear to develop kernels and fill the ear. Our corn has grown like crazy this year. We have one field that has some corn that is 10 or 11 feet tall. I was going to take a picture last night, but of course, I didn't have my camera. Next time I get a chance, I'll take a picture.

I hilled some beans yesterday, but once again, didn't have my camera. The beans are also getting huge in a hurry. I won't be hilling today with this rain, but maybe tomorrow or Saturday I can take some pictures.

I shouldn't say this, but so far, the crops look better this year than I can ever remember. That doesn't mean much, though. I've developed a short memory with all the flooding we've had the last few years. And just because it looks good doesn't mean it is good. We had a lot of stuff that looked good last year but didn't produce very well. Time will tell.

Happy Anniversary, Shay

I knew there was something different about this girl when she told me the night we met: "Either I'm going to the fridge to get you something, or you can quit bitching about being hungry."

A year and two weeks later we were married. That was a year ago.

It doesn't seem like it's been that long. I'm still learning things about Shay and trying to figure her out, and I think that's why things are so good with us. This woman is wilder and sweeter than any woman I've ever been around. One minute she's mocking me with her characteristic "shmee shmo shmee shmo shmee!" taunt and the next she's got her head cradled in my shoulder passed out like a baby. This is the woman who is terrified of ants, but shrugs her shoulders when the talk turns to killing rattlesnakes.

I never felt the need to change something about myself because I thought it might scare her off. I wanted to change for her. I wanted to sow the seeds and reap the harvest of being a better husband for her. I'm still working on some of those seeds. She nurtures these seeds, not by threatening me our bitching constantly, but by supporting with a firm stance.

She doesn't care what car she drives, doesn't care where she lays her head at night, doesn't care if she doesn't have the fanciest clothes and purses. She's comfortable with who she is, and doesn't much care if you don't like her. She's tender when she needs to be, tough when necessary, but always loves.

So, Shay, this is why I didn't get you a card. I hate those things. I'm not going to let someone else try to put words in my mouth. You and I aren't the mushy type, but I want you to know that I love you more than I sometimes show. I don't want to know where I would be without you. I can't wait to see what the next 5, 10, or 20 years will bring for us. And I'm really glad I went to that party in North Platte, July 3rd, 2009.

Now, would you finish getting ready so we can go out to eat?

Ambush!

You thought this was a blog about farming. Wrong.

Well.

Right.

Most of the time.

I need to break out of that shell for a few moments. I was wasting time on YouTube today and came upon a channel that "specializes" in country music videos. Not just any country music videos, mind you, but those from the early to mid 90s. I had forgotten how terrible they were. Today, I give you the first installment of:

Great Songs With Laughable Videos

I love this song. It was one of my favorites growing up. Thank God we didn't have cable at the time, because if I would've seen this, I would've hated the song. Or tried to cop the dance moves and the mullet. No, it's not what you think. And by the way, Billy Ray Cyrus had some great songs, so leave the guy alone about the mullet and the dancing. No, I bring to you another great mullet of early to mid 90s country music, Hal Ketchum with his hit single, "Small Town Saturday Night". The video within the video creeps me out.

High Wind + Corn = Greensnap

We had some high wind earlier this week. I think it was Sunday night. My days are kind of running together. Anyway, the couple of weeks before corn tassels are when it's most prone to snap off when the wind blows 50+ mph. The edges of our fields got beat up a little, but I don't think any of them got hit too hard. 

The corn that wasn't snapped off is already standing straight again. It looked pretty damn ugly, though. We were laying in bed when the wind came up, and the only thing I could think to say was "shit." Luckily, I think we came out of it ok. We'll probably have some yield loss, but I've read online of some places in Iowa, Indiana, and Minnesota where fields are flat because of 100 mph winds, so I'm not going to complain.

Remember the last time I showed you soybeans and they looked tiny? The next two pictures are of the last beans I planted, which was the 6th or 7th of June.

Those are twin row beans, but they're still pretty big for only being a month old. It's supposed to get hot for the next week, so they'll probably really take off now.

New Layout

I got bored with the all black. I tried uploading my own picture for the background, but it was too large, and I couldn't resize it because my trial of Microsoft Office ran out, and I tried using a product key I found on the interweb, which, of course, didn't work. Now I'm uninstalling Office and hoping to install another trial. Heh. I suck at using computers.

44 Weeks Of Vacation

There's an old joke that my friend Andy likes to remind me of once in awhile: "Farmers have 4 weeks of planting, 4 weeks of harvest, and 44 weeks of vacation!"

That's about all the energy I have tonight.

Irrigation Pics

Yep, I'm Still Here

Sorry for the long lay off, kids. Shay's brother got married this weekend, so I left the compy at home. We were busy Sunday night and last night, so here I am. The wedding was a lot of fun. I got to see some people that I haven't seen for a long time or don't get to see much, and also met some cool people. Congrats to Kiley and Caitlin Roundtree.

Not much going on here. We're starting to irrigate. I took some pictures, but the camera is in the pickup, and I'm too lazy to go get it. Remember the gates on the pipe? After a few years, the gates get worn and leak a bunch, so you have to replace them. Dad, my sister Caiti (Cat Head) and I did that for awhile today, then I cultivated some beans.

Shay's watching Teen Mom. I didn't think it was possible for people dumber than me to exist, but apparently, there are some out there.