Catching up

It's really been 3 weeks since I wrote anything! Time flies when ... well it flies anyway. This spring has been a continual struggle. Hit it hard, then sit and wait. Hit it hard then sit and wait. We made a lot of progress Thursday. By 6 PM Friday we were back to waiting on dry ground again.

Steve came and drove a tractor for us Thursday. He disked about 150 acres while Aman cut wheat and I kind of ran around trying to keep everything going smoothly I had planned on drilling double crop beans but ended up spending about half the time in a grain truck. But we finished up wheat, caught up on the double cropping, and Steve got us a couple days ahead of where we would have been.

We finished wheat harvest. Yields and test weight were about the same. Siemer's has tightened their test weight requrements, so anything below 54 pound test weight was being rejected. Any anything below 56 pounds took a real price hit. The most common comment heard in lin at the elevator was "I may not even raise any wheat next year".

Friday I planted beans while Aman made some seed delveries. Then he planted while Sue and I went to see a lawyer for a real estate closing. We are now the proud owners of 25 acres behind the old school in West Union. It includes the paint ball course, but they're supposed to move it.

Oh, and yes, we still have ground too wet to drive on ... but I fired up one irrigator Friday morning and will probably start another Sunday or Monday if it doesn't rain.

We are still planting beans. I disked about 40 acres today for the first time this year, then turned around and disked it again. If it doesn't rain (40% chance after midnight) I intend to plant it Sunday afternoon. We planted the 40 acres at Mom's north and south, then was able to get about 20 acres on Murphy behind it and 16 acres on Gramps south of it planted a few days later. Haven't been able to touch the rest of it. Well, not entirely true. We could have made a round and half around the edge of the planted corn to plant beans but decided it wasn't worth the effort.

I told Mom my goal today was to not get stuck, anything else was a side beneft. Just about didn't achieve my goal. 3 times I had the transport wheels on the disk pushing mud. One time I thought I was stopped. No, I was stopped. I just was able to get it going again.

We were at the point today where we really only had field work for one person, so Aman and Becky took the boys to the antique tractor pull at the Martinsville Fair today to be pit crew for Uncle Ben. He bought a Super M and this was his first attempt at pulling. Becky had a photo of the boys on Facebook, and I can just see the wheels turning in their heads:


Well, yes, it is past 2:30 AM. I fell asleep watching TV and when I woke up about 1:30 I was wide awake. I think I have wound down enough to head for bed. Later all.

Buster

Hope Prairie Farmer doesn't mind, I'm copying something from page 4 of their June 2009 issue. Why is it relevant to me? Bill's wife mentioned in the article is Dad's cousin. See the entire article along with Buster's photo at http://magissues.farmprogress.com/PRA/PF06Jun09/pra004.pdf

THIS is the story of how a little city dog became a big part of our farm over the course of the last year. It’s also a great story of how two lonely souls found a wonderful friendship together. The first lonely soul is my grandpa, who after almost 60 years of living with my grandma could no longer give the level of care she needed and had to move her to an assisted living community a little over a year ago.
Being of exceptional health for his age, Grandpa focused on helping us on the farm. One day last spring, we sent him after a gas cylinder for the torch, and he brought home someone else. He was a young collie-sheltie mix pup named Buster who also suddenly found himself alone after his family had to move away. After Buster’s family moved, he began staying temporarily at the neighboring welding shop until Grandpa saw him and decided to bring him home.
During this past year, Buster has become an outstanding farm dog. He quickly made friends with our longtime farm dog, Sosha. They both do an excellent job keeping the rodents and strangers in check around the farm. Buster is Grandpa’s dedicated tagalong, riding to town or out to the fi elds. He goes no matter whether they are taking one of the trucks, the semi, a tractor or even the motorcycle. Whenever Grandpa cannot take Buster with him, he waits at the south place with Sosha until he sees the vehicle Grandpa took to town coming up the road. Then, like a shot, he runs back up to the other farmhouse to eagerly greet his master.
Buster has shown me what a positive difference a good little dog can make. I am very glad Grandpa has such a good friend to run around with and come home to instead of being alone.
Owner: Bill Furry, Charleston
Writer: Todd Easton, Charleston