True Story

The rain of Wednesday brought its blessing and its curse
Thursday dawned clear and sweaty
And would soon become a fence fixing day
Dinner came without a problem
Excepting the fact that it was a few minutes late
Because of that damn slough

We'd had our fill of Runza and ice cream
Headed to the big pasture south
More than once I caught myself staring at
The thunderheads like popcorn in the western sky
While I stood under the shade of the blooming Cottonwoods
Listening to Prairie Creek meander on its way

We had three strands of barbed wire left to stretch on the north end
Down by the creek and the high tension power lines
We tightened the wire to our specifications -
"Yeah, good enough for the girls I go with." -
I was ready to head to the next pasture but
I noticed Grandpa was gone

He was headed down to Prarie Creek to check our wire that crossed the stream
I followed to see what I could see
When something in the knee high grass bit me
I looked down to find a 2x4 attached to my foot
Words I'm not proud of left my mouth as I
Stepped on the board with my left foot to yank the nail out of my right

3 inches to the left or the right and I
Would not be writing these words to you
Remember, the next time you're by a creek that floods
Watch where in the hell you're walking

The Possibilities Are Endless

I'm sitting in my cave, listening to my wife on the radio and drinking coffee, pondering what I'll do today.

Really, the possibilities aren't that endless. Grandpa will be out of hay after he feeds this morning, so that means cattle will have to go to the pasture tomorrow. Which means I'll be fixing fence today. Until it starts raining again this afternoon. I like taking cattle to the pasture. It's kind of fun to watch them jump off the trailer and run around like the bunch of idiots they are. Sometimes they get off the trailer, stop where they are, and start eating. Sometimes they make a lap around the pasture.

I'm not sure how much rain we had yesterday. My gauge had a half inch in it after the afternoon storm passed through. It rained off and on through the night. That's alright, we needed a decent rain.

I've got about 75 acres of beans planted. I'm approximately 14% done with bean planting. I noticed yesterday that Grandpa, Dad and I all have corn popping out of the ground. I always get a little nervous until I see it coming out of the ground. I don't know why. Every year I get nervous, every year it comes up.

Beans!

Soybean planting has started. I didn't take any pictures today, but I'll try to take some tomorrow. I like soybeans. They're easy to plant, not too difficult to raise, and leave nitrogen in the soil for corn the next year. They can be a pain to cut, but once you get used to it, it's not too bad.

Supposed to rain tomorrow and tomorrow night, with a chance Thursday. Remember when I was complaining about rain? Well, we could use some now. I just hope if it does, it's not a repeat of the last 3 springs - We hope for a rain, and end up getting a monsoon. 

We also planted a test plot today, which is exactly what it sounds like - You plant a bunch of different corn varieties in a small area. This helps us to see what works in our soils and what doesn't, and it gives the District Seed Managers some numbers to point at when trying to sell seed.

Holy Hotness

It was 97 degrees today. A new record. It's going to be 63 on Friday. I will spare you all the jibber jabber about Nebraska weather and let you reach your own conclusions.

It was a big day around our house. I scooped some rocks and wood chips out of Shay's flower bed, mowed the yard, and helped Shay plant her garden tonight. We hung some plants today, too. Shay worked her little tail off. She raked her flower bed, tilled it up, planted her flowers, cleaned around the house, and planted her garden. We've got sweet corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, pumpkins and cantaloupe. If we actually raise all of these things, my palate will have to change. Out of that list, I currently only eat sweet corn.

I'm going to start planting beans tomorrow. I don't know whether it's right or wrong, as there is rain in the forecast. If we get rain after planting and it gets hot and windy again, it could crust, which is problematic when little soybeans start trying to poke out of the ground. I'm anxious to get started, though, because I was planting beans until June 1st last year, and I'd rather not do that again.

Some Spring Snap Shots

 

I've done a lot of disking the last couple of weeks. Enough to make me want to scream. I think I'm almost done, though. 

I finished planting corn this morning.

I pulled around a fertilizer trailer quite a bit. And our seed tender. It's nice when the corn comes in the big boxes. A lot easier to fill a planter when you don't have to throw a bunch of bags around.

Here are a couple of pictures of things in my tractor cab. The first one is my fertilizer controller. In the 2nd picture you can see my planter monitor and hydraulic drive controller. They have loud buzzers on them to let you know when something goes wrong. Pretty idiot proof. 

And here's an action shot of Michael W. Peters (Dad) planting:

I Am Mad

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hyrIkGc3IKMU2cyMOpOorEUCi9qQ?docId=8bb7064aa68847018e1f117bfae0be12

I'm so pissed off about this that I can't even think straight. I heard about it on the radio today, but until I saw the pictures, I couldn't comprehend. 

"Hey, where should we build our town?"

"Oh, how about where two major rivers come together?"

"Brilliant!"

I can't believe this. I realize that if the town would've flooded, people would've lost homes and jobs. These farmers are losing an entire year of income. They can receive crop insurance if they had it, and can get loans to rebuild.

"Hey, didn't we build the levees to protect the farmers and their land from being flooded?"

"Yeah. Fuck 'em."

Got the GFE Going

That's an inside joke for a couple of people that read this. For the rest of you, it simply means we started planting. I took some pictures, but the camera is out in the pickup, and I'm too lazy to walk 15 feet to get it. I'm also too lazy to put the pictures on my computer and then add them to this blog. Maybe tomorrow I'll do it. Depends on what kind of mood I'm in tomorrow night. I planted about 65 acres yesterday and 60 or so today. Not good days, but yesterday we started late because we had to get everything set and because the people at Ag Service aren't smart enough to make sure the motors on their fertilizer trailers work before they bring them out. They had to bring out a new motor and pump. I thought the top of Dad's head was going to blow off. Today I started late because of Sunday School. 

It feels good to be planting. I'm always about 50/50 - nervous and optimistic. I get nervous until I see the corn pop out of the ground. I'm hoping that this will be the first year of my farming career (I think this is year 6 of farming my own ground... I can't remember shit anymore) that I don't have any hail or flood damage. I hope we get some good rains. I'm nervous that it won't yield as well as I'd like. And a million other things. 

Shay went back to Parks this weekend and she won't be home until tomorrow. As much as I bitch about sleeping with her because of her ice cold feet and nuclear body heat (Seriously, how does that work? That's the first question I'm asking God when I get to Heaven) I can't sleep very well without her here. Wife, if you're reading this, come home soon, ok? Thanks pal.