Soils, Syncopations, Solitude

Monday, December 12, 2005


Best getaway ever...after he restarted it. Posted by Picasa


Linda. Posted by Picasa


Chelsea. Posted by Picasa


Jenni. Posted by Picasa


Anna. Posted by Picasa


This is Keenan and Sara(h). Posted by Picasa


Katrina, with Anna. Posted by Picasa


Kent, with Sara(h) Posted by Picasa


Megan, Betsy, and Jenny. Posted by Picasa


Kent and Jenni... Posted by Picasa


This is Heath, Kent's sister and Father; the bigger the cards, the better the poker. Posted by Picasa


This is a hungry, hungry hippo. Posted by Picasa


This is DANM. Posted by Picasa


This is Travis. Posted by Picasa


Kents wedding was October 15, most of my pictures were blurry. This is Heath. Posted by Picasa

An update

Well I guess it's been awhile since I made an actual update, and there are several reasons for this, and there are no reasons for this. Anyway we had milo harvest, a trip to baltimore, thanksgiving, and a couple of performances.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005


November 14 1998, K-state 40, Nebraska 30 Posted by Picasa

The End of an Era

K-State has always been a part of my life. My parents met there. Growing up, K-State was always there. One of my earliest memories is attending my sister Margaret's graduation in Ahearn Fieldhouse. I remember visiting my sister mary in the dorms, a picture I had drawn on her wall. I remember attending a basketball game with jeanette--one of my fondest memories (la...KIETH). I spent my spring breaks in high school at KSU. I remember shaking Jon Wefald's hand as he handed me my scholarship. I remember walking across the stage to get my diploma.

And I remember K-state football.

I remember my first K-State football game. It was against KU. "The Governor's cup" or as it was better known "the toilet bowl" We didn't pay to get in, we ust waltzed in after the second half... and we left early. I had a sweatshirt when I was younger..it read "K-state football '87... The Art of Winning" KSU won zero games that season. I remember going to a game at oklahoma, and the jovial atmosphere, since it was simply a question of how badly they would beat us.

The game to watch back then was basketball.

K-state basketball in the late eighties! The stoic Lon Kruger, blood on Steve Henson's uniform, another three from Will Scott, NBA rookie of the year Mitch Richmond. Linda crying as they lost in the round of eight. Then.. a new coliseum, Dana Altman (think Frank Solich) and the medeocrity of Asbury. but by then...

I remember seeing on the news Bill Snyder's first K-State press conferance and the words he spoke "I see us in ten years being competitive in the conference, going to a bowl game now and again. It was Crazy Talk! Hadn't Sports illistrated just declared the "mildcats" the worst team in college football, possibly of all time? And then, he introduced that ridiculous new logo: the "powercat" only like the ugliest thing ever. so sleek, so modern, so very un-k-state football.But then bill did something in his first season that no-one expected, he won a game. IT WAS A MIRACLE. Suddenly K-state football was interesting. Suddenly, we paid attention.

I remember the night before the inagural game of the big XII conference. I, a freshman, was returing to the dorms from band practice, my new polyester pants draped across my shoulder. Walking by the Derb, I crossed paths with an older gentleman, he smiled and nodded as he passed. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was none other than Bill Snyder, and I didn't even say hello! I remember the sky that night, that deep purple sky. The K-state football purple sky.

Bill Snyder has given me some great memories. The Cotton Bowl: "first on the first!" , the Fiesta Bowl: 50,000 K-Staters in Arizona! College Gameday and Hell Freezes over as K-state defeats Nebraska! Sports Illistrated: "the greatest turnaround in college football ever, possibly in all of sports history." The horror of the TWA dome and a narrowly avoided elopement. The heartbreak of 2001 in Kansas City, the glory of 2003.

Thank You Bill Snyder. We all had a great time.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

There is peace in the valley again

So I am now done with both corn and soybean harvest, and it has been a pretty hectic few weeks. So let's start with my harrowing trip of near death. A few saturday's ago I went down to sipes to pick up some seed wheat. We had 244 50 pound bags to pick up, and for some reason we decided we could get it in one trip. Let's see 244x50= way way overloaded. Back in school I would haul seed home on the weekends from Manhappenin' in iggy. The first time I did so we were trying to figure how much I could haul and I found in the Owner's manual how much it could carry. When I told dad the number he said "well, you can double that." This gives you some idea of why I was trying to get all of the seed in one load.

Anyways, to make a long story short(er) We got the trailer loaded poorly at sipes, (too much in the back) and so the first hill I came too (there are actually 3 "hills" between here and sipes, which is southwest of Ulysses and about 5 miles from CO) the trailer began to violently fishtail and I nearly wrecked and lost 44 bags in the process. It was getting on towards dark by the time I got the bags rearranged on the trailer in a semi-stable manner and so I just took the trailer back to sipes and left it there.

On monday I went back to sipes to get about half the load and while I was getting de-loaded and reloaded one of their employees explained to me my problem. " The problem," he said " is that you're driving a half-ton. You need to get a truck with some @#$%ing hair on its *ss." He then proceeded to tell me of how he had convinced his father to buy him a truck with some "@#$%ing hair on its *ss," giving me technical details about the engine size, transmission, differential etc. etc. (I did not mention to him the technical specs of the truck I was driving so as not to embarrass him.) Anyway, now I know that next time I buy a truck, I should look at it's *ss to see if it has @#$%ing hair.

I found out that it was a good thing that I had left the trailer there when, about five miles west of old Sante Fe, the wheel became unattached from the trailer.

My attempt to make one trip to sipes ended up costing me two more trips...

We cut corn all that week and it went really good. The field over east made 244, which for you uninitiated, is about halfway between "That's a really good field of corn" and "You sir, are a liar." So my averaged yield for this year ended up at 228, which is 10 bushels higher than my previos best yield for a singe field.

So jay put up this big huge taj ma corn that will hold 1.5 million bu under a tarp. they got it finishe like on friday and then they were slowly filling it with corn. When I went there on monday with my final two loads of corn they were sitting around waiting for the wind to die down, so as to not stress out the tarp. On tuesday we started on soybeans and they were still waiting on the wind. I ended up bringing in a load late that night and lo and behold they were loading corn ito the tarp. I found this to be quite interesting, as the wind actually picked up on tuesday night from it's previous levels. Anyways, when I went in with a load wednesday morning, there was a big huge hole in the tarp.

The soybeans did real good too. I had more beans off the field than I did two years ago on the same field, but the yield was actually slightly less... thank you, Farm Service Agency.

So I've been taking it pretty easy since then, trying to get ready for milo and making my third trip to sipes for seed. Yesterday it rained all day, so I am very relaxed now.

Fall (post corn harvest) is my favorite time of year.


Apparently that 60/40 rule for loading a trailer is pretty important... more of my harrowing trip of near death to come... Posted by Picasa


See previous caption. Posted by Picasa


"Hurry up and wait" is the official motto of corn harvest Posted by Picasa


I have seen a lot of cool things in my time, but Jay's Mother Tower of Corn is awesome. Posted by Picasa


Faster Daddy, Faster!! Posted by Picasa

Saturday, September 24, 2005


Let's see Spencer pull this off. Posted by Picasa

Thursday, September 15, 2005

I got the Woot!, baby...

So we just got done with wet corn harvest. It went smashingly well. Now I know you are thinking: 'but Matt I thought you had sworn off cutting wet corn.' Well I kind of had, but let's face it, I'm a waffler. It is just too hard to watch everybody else having fun. Plus, if the government is willing to give me 40 cents per bushel so long as I cut it today, who am I to argue? Anyways the corn did real good (212) and we had no major mishaps or breakdowns. I would have cut more, but the rest is all contracted dry(for about 70 cents above the current market price, thank you very much.) It was also a kind of subdued harvest because apparently everyone forgot to check their corn earlier (so their wet corn was too dry to be considered wet by the time they cut it), resulting in heritage taking in about half their normal quota. Normally heritage is a teeming mass of loaders, tractors, trucks, and men all narrowly avoiding each other. The best way I know to describe it is it is kind of like riding in a cab in Mexico. The cab has no dents in it, but after five minutes, you have no idea how. The longest line I saw was 3 trucks long. It's normally closer to 10.

In other news, woot is awesome.

In other other news, Linda has been in Salina all week playing paintball. And getting paid for it!

In other other other news, I was talking to Anna recently and this is what happened: Me:"you need to be a good girl for your mama this evening, okay?" Anna: "okay."
Betsy was there so I have a completely reliable witness.

This week we learned that fried chicken followed by taco bell is better than any alarm clock.


Wet Corn Harvest Posted by Picasa


Wet Corn Harvest Posted by Picasa


Wet Corn Harvest Posted by Picasa