Monday, May 28, 2012

5/28

Remember the time I said it was really dry out here? Well, we've gotten about 4" of rain in the last 10 days. Prairie Creek has a lot of water in it and some fields have standing water in them. We had a pretty big rain last night and are supposed to get some more Wednesday night. It is what it is. The major downside to this is that when I can get back in the field, it will be to finish cultivating and then start hilling corn, so I don't think I'll have time to spray my beans, which means I won't be able to use my sprayer. I don't know. I guess we'll see what happens.

Yesterday Dad and I finally finished the chicken house and Shay moved the chicks into it. I kind of like them better now that they aren't stinking up my garage. Shay's happy, so that's the main thing.

I've got some beans that I need to go look at. They got hailed pretty badly last week. Dad and I are hoping that we won't have to replant. They were looking rough, but beans are weird and recover from weather pretty well. Some guys intentionally damage their beans to make them bush out more. Kind of a weird plant.

Hope everyone's Memorial Day is going well. I should probably go mow the lawn.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

So...

It's been so long since I've blogged that Blogger has changed my dashboard. I never saw it coming. I don't really like it, but hey, it's free.

A lot has happened. I got don planting a week ago, the corn is growing, the beans are out of the ground and the rain has gone around us. Grandpa told me today that he doesn't remember a spring this dry. We had a half inch of rain right after I got done planting corn, which was almost 3 weeks ago, and before that it hadn't rained for a little over 2 weeks. I understand for others that this isn't a big deal, but in this area, we aren't used to this little rain in the spring. There's a chance this weekend, but I see the National Weather Service has decreased the chances since this morning.

I'm hoping to be cultivating by Monday. I might start this weekend, but we've got a lot of other stuff to do first: haul corn, put up hay, get the cultivator ready. Plus, I don't know if I want to open the ground up with the way the wind is blowing. It's blown 20-30 mph most of the week. Supposed to gust to 40 mph tomorrow. If I cultivated, it would dry the ground out even more. I don't really know what to think on that deal.

I am really pleased with the population of my corn, and it looks like I got a pretty good stand. I have done some stand counts and so did Ag Service, and they are right around what I was shooting for. I'm always nervous until I find out how well my crops emerge. Now, I can concentrate on raising a crop. The beans are coming along, too. I've found the best thing to do with beans is plant them, make sure they are sprouting, and then don't look at them for a week or two. I always freak out about my bean stand, then I wait 3 or 4 days, go back and check, and am surprised by what I find. I'll try to take some pictures in the next couple of days.

Grandpa and I also got our cattle to pasture. I didn't step on a nail this year, but I did step off of the 4 wheeler into a hole and rolled my ankle pretty badly. Contrary to popular belief, I don't hurt myself to get out of fixing fence. We had our first jailbreak today. All of the cattle in one pasture were out. Luckily, they drove back in pretty easily. For some reason, there was a big hole in the fence that goes across the creek, and they walked right under it. Grandpa fixed it today, so hopefully they'll stay in for awhile.

That's about it for now. There are other things happening, but I don't remember them all. Hopefully now that planting is over and things have calmed down, I can blog a little more regularly.