A walk through the park. 

So today I finished spraying, and I about had a musical breakdown. I cannot keep listening to the radio. It is just sick and wrong. Why did hootie come back? Why did the backstreet boys come back? Why are the counting crows singing pop music? Why don't I have an mp3 player?
It was pretty bad, but not as bad as when the laser changed into the loser. My expectations are already low.

Today I had to explain to Anna why she has to sleep in her big-girl bed from now on. She took it pretty well.

I can't decide whether I should buy a grain drill, an in-line ripper, or a strip tiller. Pros and cons all around.

Betsy has been at school all afternoon.

Today we learned that 1920 is indeed the correct throttle setting to spray 6 gallons/A @30PSI


In my office.

K......P, Q-R-S

Sunday night I watched Kung Fu Hustle at the folks house. It is a pretty sweet movie. I need to watch it with someone like DANM so he can point out all of the movie references.

Monday had me spraying again. Apparently 1.30" was just enough to get the rest of the volunteer wheat to sprout. Also Megan and Lucy stopped by to see Anna, so that was fun.

Yesterday we held the first meeting of our artist's guild. We are all going to go in together on a booth for Art in the Park next summer, and so are going to get together weekly to work on our projects. I am probably going to sculpt more than anything, 'cause it comes a lot easier to me than other things, but I am probably going to start with some drawing and painting just to see if I can do it.
Jonas told us about his first day of school in which he learned to go up the mountain, down the mountain and across the mountain in order to make an A. They also learned a variant of the alphabet song where L-M-N-O is left out. Curious.

Last night we learned just how bad I am at analog communication.

The cause 

The result 

Another Test

Photobucket

This is a test post from Photobucket.com

This is a test. This is only a test. If this were an actual posting by lobiwan, it would be accompanied by an explanation or anecdote. 

Today Anna went to her first field day. It wasn't a very big deal, just 5 soybean varieties side by side. We finished cleaning wheat yesterday(sort of.) So we had to clean out the "dirty wheat bin." This is the place where all the wheat screenings go after they leave the seed cleaner. It is the worst thing that we have to do all year. Some would argue that cleaning out the bin over east is worse, due to the amount of water that collects in it and the resulting smell, but I think that the the dirty wheat bin is worse because it is always so hot when we do it. The problem is that it takes long enough (around four hours) that you can't get it done before it starts to get hot outside. Any way hopefully a picture of dad inside the bin will appear here:


Now imagine you are hot, sweaty, and covered in wheat dust.

So the last couple of days I watched the Rader sentencing hearing, and it was pretty disturbing. I think it was good that they did it, though, because all of those investigators were able to get all that junk out in the open that they have been living with for all this time. I wasn't planning on watching the victim's statements, but I ended up doing just that, and I am glad that I did. My favorite was Charlie Otero. He was fifteen when his parents, brother and sister were murdered. Anyway, I remember seeing an interview with him shortly after they arrested Rader. He was in prison in New Mexico and basically hadn't seen his (surviving) brother and sister in thirty years. He was a very, very angry person. Anyway yesterday he talked about how after thirty years he had found his family and come to peace with himself and with God. It was neat to see, and you could see how his whole demeanor was different.

Last we night we learned that Anna knows when the diaper bag has been left at home, and will poop accordingly.

Oakley, Office Space, and Other Blog Sites

So this Saturday we went to oakley for the Alber's reunion. This is the first time I have been to this function since I was like 18. So there were a lot of people there that I did not recognize. The main event(curiosity?) at this reunion every year is the sweet corn. For some unknown reason the Albers family is synonymous with corn cooked in beer. I guess you could say it tastes good, besides being rather mushy. Maybe it goes good with Coors Light, I'll have to try the combination sometime. The other highlight was my cousin Daniel's movie reviews. The Aviator: "I would rather break this beer bottle over my head and chew on the glass shards than to sit through that again." The Dukes of Hazard: " She was hired to be eye candy, and she did a GREAT job." and "They couldn't have honked that horn enough."

On sunday we got to see Dan & Sarah, newly back to the States. It sounds like they had a jolly good time. Dan & Sarah are one of my favorite couples because before they got together, I could never imagine them hitting it off very well, but then I see them together and I can't imagine them not together. I think they compliment each other very well.

Sunday night Anna and I went over to Chris and Shannon's for dinner. We watched Office Space too. Office Space is even better now that Heath works for Inatech.

You may be interested to know that I have started a parallel blog on Blogspot. It is exactly the same as this one. Why? you are asking. Here are the pros each respective blogging site:

Live Journal:
Sam, my emoticon
Susan is on LJ
The fun "Friends feature" which allows you to experiment with "degrees of separation"

Blogspot:
Free image hosting
warmer page designs
The people seem classier.

Anyways I will probably upload pictures to BS and then copy the html over to LJ

This weekend we learned that Kevin is coming from California to convert us all to Greek Orthodoxy

Mini Me 

The rain falls on the just and the unjust...

When you grow up in the dry zone you really learn to appreciate rain. Last night we got 1.30" of rain, and I cannot describe the weight it lifts off of my shoulders. We shut off all the motors, it was cloudy all day, and it is supposed to rain again tonight. Rain means that I don't need to worry about wheat germinating this fall. Rain means that the corn will have good test weight, that the beans will reach their full potential. I don't know if it came early enough for a lot of my milo, but the stuff that was headed out should be just fine. Rain means I can relax.Last night Betsy had to go to town (the reason for this involves the fact that Betsy is the best friend that anyone could ever have. If you are in Betsy's good graces, there is nothing that she will not do for you.) and Anna and I were again left alone. I actually ended up dropping her off at Mom and Dad's so I could go irrigate. I needed to dig out the rows on the south side of the beans where the flood intersects the pivot (16 (sixteen) rows). The lightning got there first, though, and the last thing I am going to do is walk out in the middle of a soybean field with a shovel during a thunderstorm. So it was a pretty good thing it rained. I ended up getting back to Mom and Dad's to hear (on the tv) all about how this guy got eaten by a bear, which was pretty disturbing. The next story they had though, was about this couple that donated their frozen embryos to this other family. The main thing I noticed is that both couples were VERY wealthy, but the absolute highlight was when he asked the biological mother if it was weird that this other couple had her genetic son and her response was, I kid you not: "It's the most natural thing in the world." So today they (Farm Credit) came and interviewed me for to put me on their web site as an example of a successful "Young, Beginning, Small Farmer." It makes me kind of laugh, since I haven't actually successfully paid them back the money I owe them yet. So apparently I am about to become more famous than my wildest dreams (and my wildest dream puts me just a hair below Bono.) My very own farm credit commercial, just a click away for like, 2 billion people.Today we learned that, despite the luxurious over-sized floorboards on the 2005 Polaris Sportsman 400, standing water plus high speed still equals wet pants.

Post #2, and you thought I was a quitter

So I just spent 4 hours spraying, with more to go...Yesterday Anna and I irrigated and changed the oil in the tractor(8100). Changing oil is always exciting for me because it is a question of just how much hot oil I will spill on myself. I got by with just changing my shirt this time..not to bad. Dad ended up watching anna in the afternoon so I could get some spraying done. They ended up taking a nap. (suprise, suprise)Last night I went to practice for church on sunday and for the big Praise night thingy that Gina is putting together. Anyway we ended up working on the new songs until 10(ten). It was really nice to play the drums to the point of exhaustion again. It's been a long time. Gina's brother was there from alberta, where he apparently runs sound for the church up there and he was giving all the sound people a clinic. I've been around a lot of soundmen in my time, but I think he definitely knew more than all of them combined. I learned more about sound in five minutes than in my entire life.So today I'm spraying the rest of everything(fallow), hopefully it will be the last time this season.Yesterday we learned that if the bottle of pipe dope says "helps seal pipe threads..." the 'helps' means "will not."Today we learned that you should check to make sure the valve is closed before turning on the glyphosate pump.

Makin' Copies...

So I just printed out 30 LSF fliers incorrectly...Here I am, entering the world of digital expression. Hopefully it will go much better than my feeble attempts at analog expression.Today we got up at 4 mountain/5 central and left the Alsop cabin for good ol' GC. It was a pretty good cabin trip, all told. It mainly revolved around Anna, which is pretty much the story of my life recently. I am always struck by how much I enjoy spending time with the Alsop clan. It is so orderly compared to my family. I just wish the elevation didn't make me feel so crappy.
Today I had my first adventure as a Stay-at-home-Dad which is really a misnomer since it was more like Try-to-keep-the-baby-safe-and-comfortable-and-happy-whilst-loading-the-semi-truck-and-irrigating-and-everything-else-which-needs-done-regardless-of-the-fact-that-you-are-watching-an-infant-Dad.
Today we learned that Anna will only drink milk warmed to a proper 98.6 Degrees.