At least she doesn't want a puppy.

The other night Anna was hanging out with her Grandma, and found an old John Deere calendar. She flipped through the pictures until she found this one, and promptly brought it to Grandma saying: "O-own, o-own." Grandma told Anna that Anna's daddy could surely build one for her. Now, at least once a day Anna comes up to me and says "Daddy build tractor Anna."

Three unrelated photos.

It always tastes better when you pick it yourself.

Boyd called on Friday evening to tell us that his sweet corn was ready, so Anna and I walked down and picked some for supper. It was good.

Can someone explain this list to me? It makes no sense.

From Shauna

* Bold the ones you’ve read.
* Italicize the ones you want to read.
* Leave in normal text the ones that don’t interest you.
* Put in ALL CAPS those you haven’t heard of.
* Put a couple of asterisks by the ones you recommend.
* Put a ++ by the ones you started but didn't finish.


1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)

2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) **

3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) **

4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)

5. The Lord of the Rings:Return of the King (Tolkein)**

6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings (Tolkein) **

7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)**

8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)**

9. OUTLANDER (Diana Gabaldon)

10. A FINE BALANCE (Rohinton Mistry)

11. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Rowling)**

12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)

13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)

14. A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY (John Irving)

15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)

16. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)**

17. FALL ON YOUR KNEES (Ann-Marie MacDonald)

18. THE STAND (Stephen King)

19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)**

20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)**

21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)**

22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)**

23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)**

24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold) You shouldn't use a corn field as a major plot device if you know absolutely nothing about corn fields.

25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel) Should I be interested? I don't know.

26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)

27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)

28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)**

29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)

30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)

31. DUNE (Frank Herbert) Unless its the same as the video game...?

32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)

33. ATLAS SHRUGGED (Ayn Rand) I'm sure that lowers my coolness meter, but what doesn't?

34. 1984 (Orwell)**

35. THE MISTS OF AVALON (Marion Zimmer Bradley)

36. THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH (Ken Follett)

37. THE POWER OF ONE (Bryce Courtenay)

38. I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE (Wally Lamb)

39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)

40. THE ALCHEMIST (Paulo Coelho)

41. THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR(Jean M. Auel)

42. THE KITE RUNNER (Khaled Hosseini)

43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)

44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)

45. The Bible ++** I just can't ever make it through the prophets...

46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)**

47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)

48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)

49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)**

50. SHE'S COME UNDONE (Wally Lamb)

51. THE POISONWOOD BIBLE (Barbara Kingsolver)

52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)**

53. Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)

54. Great Expectations (Dickens)++I feel really bad about this one...

55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)

56. THE STONE ANGEL (Margaret Laurence)

57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)

58. THE THORN BIRDS (Colleen McCullough)

59. THE HANDMAID'S TALE (Margaret Atwood)

60. The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) But I might go to the movie...

61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)**

62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand) Just 'cause Betsy liked it so much...

63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)**

64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)

65. FIFTH BUSINESS (Robertson Davies)

66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)

68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)**

69. Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)** (OK, it was an abridged version)

70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)++

71. Bridget Jones's Diary (Helen Fielding)**

72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) With a title like that, how can you go wrong?

73. SHOGUN (James Clavell)

74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)

75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson) (Betsy made me change it to italics)

76. THE SUMMER TREE (Guy Gavriel Kay)

77. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (Betty Smith)

78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)

79. THE DIVINERS (Margaret Laurence)

80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)**

81. NOT WANTED ON THE VOYAGE (Timothy Findley)

82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)**

83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)**

84. WIZARD'S FIRST RULE (Terry Goodkind)

85. Emma (Jane Austen)++ I was really doing well until the book fell apart into three pieces..

86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)

87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)**

88. THE STONE DIARIES (Carol Shields)

89. BLINDNESS (Jose Saramago)

90. KANE AND ABEL (Jeffrey Archer)

91. IN THE SKIN OF A LION (Michael Ondaatje)

92. Lord of the Flies (William Golding)**

93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)

94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)

95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)

96. THE OUTSIDERS (S.E. Hinton)

97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)

98. A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE (Barbara Taylor Bradford)

99. THE CELESTINE PROPHECY (James Redfield)

100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Typical July Morning.

The Substitute

Substitute piano player to lobiwan: "Why don't you give me four?"
lobiwan proceeds to dial metronome; gives four clicks at 124 bpm.
SPP proceeds to play song("Trading My Sorrows") at 146 bpm.
Song falls apart at verse, due to singers inability to sing that fast.
Singers question lobiwan about tempo.
lobiwan remarks "That was pretty fast."
SPP to lobiwan: "I must have over read your tempo."
SPP to singers: "We can slow it down for you. No Problem."
SPP proceeds to play song at 142 BPM.
See above.
Singers postulate possibility of skipping verse altogether.
SPP remarks "Don't worry, Matt and I can slow it down if we need to."
lobiwan thinks non-worshipful thoughts.

Something I meant to talk about a long time ago, but was just recently inexplicably reminded of.

A few weeks ago, the residents of Ford County voted to approve the construction of a destination casino in Dodge City. Proponents argued that the Casino would fit in nicely with the "Wild West" theme which has made Dodge City the bustling center of tourism which it is today. What other aspects of life in the "Wild West" could also be reintroduced to give the tourist an even more authentic taste of this most wonderful era of history?

Gambling is So Addictive!

My Harvest Bonus (or How to Install a Raven Envizio Monitor and Phoenix 200 Antenna in/on an John Deere 8100 Tractor in Seven (mostly) Easy Steps.)

Step One: Find a piece of scrap metal and paint it green. Step Two: Install extra power outlets in tractor cab. (Notice upon reviewing pictures that the plastic cover which protects the tractor from this kind of thing is not in place. Try to recall if it got closed. Resolve to double check right after lunch.)


Step Three: Using industrial-grade suction cup, attach Envisio monitor to cab windshield.Step Four: Using automotive double-sided tape , affix painted scrap metal to (fiberglass) roof of tractor cab.Step Five: Position antenna on center line of cab using integrated magnet. Try to ignore the fact that your tractor now appears to have a dunce cap on. Step Six: Power up unit and ensure proper function. (You should see it after the sun goes down. The "Envisio" glows red, giving you the feeling that William Daniels will start talking to you at any moment.)
Step Seven: Practice using parallel guidance system with a non precision task, such as disking.
Congratulations! You have now caught up with the Jones's (if you ignore the fact that they also have auto steer, auto boom, and a rate controller)! Now, after spending an entire day outside in the glorious wonder of creation, you will feel as though you just spent an entire day playing a crude video game on a four inch screen. Rest easy knowing that if you are ever lost in the wilderness while carrying your monitor, antenna and an adequate power source, you will not be stuck wandering aimlessly in poorly defined circles. Your circles will be perfect concentric rings a predetermined distance apart.

Free Air Show.

This plane was applying fungicide to Boyd's corn. Everybody is spraying every single acre after what happened last year.

Babysitting

Fixing the drops isn't so bad since you can park the sprinkler in a convenient place.

Usually working on the sprinkler involves a hike like this:
This gearbox has gone bad. This tower was deep enough in the field, and we are busy enough, that we called the experts to replace it. They have a little motorized tracked vehicle that runs between the corn rows to carry heavy parts and/or tires to the middle of the field.
That is corn pollen on my hat. A good sneezing fit is always important after a trip through the corn this time of year.

Bronze

(brŏnz) n. 1.a. any of various alloys of copper and tin, sometimes with traces of other metals. b. Any of various alloys of copper, with or without tin, and antimony, phosphorus, or other components. 2. A work of art made with one of these alloys. 3.a. Color. A moderate yellowish to olive brown. b. A pigment of this color. -adj. 1. Made of or consisting of bronze. 2. Color. Of the color bronze. -tr.v. bronzed, bronz-ing, bronz-es. To give the appearance or color of bronze to. [Fr. < style="font-style: italic;">bronzo.] -bronz' er n. -bronz' y adj.

An Elephant's Eye

These two pictures were taken three weeks and eight hours apart.

Anna Get It

The other morning Anna decided to get her cereal for herself. She couldn't quite reach.

Oodles of Pictures

I like seeing Anna and Dad spend time together. It makes me feel like every major life decision I have made in the past ten years was absolutely correct.


Morning like this are why harvest took so long. There were multiple days where we couldn't start until late afternoon (And had to quit as soon as it got dark). If you run the numbers, we ran the separator on the combine less than 7 hours a day on average.
Those skid marks on Lear road are what happen when deer jump out at you at 11:00 at night after a long day.
The very end.