The Triumphant Return of Ol' Blue.

With the soybeans safely sprouted, we took the opportunity to change out the motors, since old blackie wasn't exactly running on all eight cylinders (only seven hahahahaha!) 'Ol blue has a special place in my heart as the first (natural gas) irrigation engine I purchased. I purchased it used, straight off of an overhaul. It is a souped up 454. If I were cooler I would be able to tell you what about it is different other than the larger oil reservoir, but I do know it is quite a bit more powerful than your standard 454.

The Great Race, Part 2

See Part One

7-10-2008This is fun for me, because I took this picture early in the morning, and I found a little plant who emerged during the night and so had not yet met Mr. Sun
I am not sure how long it takes for the color transformation to occur after exposure to light, but it can't take more than an hour. This guy below didn't have a as much stubble to cast a shadow on him.

7-11-08

The Corn. 7-10-08

Just starting to push a tassel out...

And a look at a couple of ears...





Here is something that bothers me a little bit. This plant has produced a tiller, or an offshoot. This is something you don't want to see in corn, and is something that has been for the most part bred out of corn. Raising corn is all about harvesting solar energy. I want 30,000 plants per acre. I want those plants to be spaced 6.97x30 inches apart. I want each plant to produce one and only one ear of corn. I want all of the plant's resources, to be directed at filling grain in that ear of corn. Basically I want each individual ear of corn to harvest the full potential of its alloted 1.452 square feet of sunlight. My goal is to provide each plant with enough water and nutrients so that the only thing limiting its ability to make grain is the amount of sunlight it receives. A tiller simply robs that particular ear of corn of its potential by siphoning off its water, nutrients, and sunlight. (special aside to Betsy: No this is not something to worry about, it is not that big of a deal, the farm will not go under because of a few corn tillers, etc.)

I know that you all already know this, since you have eaten corn on the cob before, but there are always an even number of rows on an ear of corn. At this early stage it is very easy to see the pairs of rows.

Post Reapum Depression

There is nothing exciting about cleaning up after harvest is over.

In Which lobiwan Starts on the Road to Hollywood

Someday I will make a full length feature film consisting of all the times I try to take a picture only to find the camera is in movie mode. Consider this the "teaser" trailer.

The Great Race, Part I.

[This section currently unavailable]Chris helped out by closing the sprinkler tracks up.


Heath and Kent came out on Saturday the fifth to ride have fun riding on the combine and stuff. Instead, they got to help me load up the drill with soybeans. Good thing I had a camera handy!
See that box over Kent and Heath's shoulders? That is soybean inoculant.

And here Heath looks on as I mix in the inoculant(apparently not actually a word.) Remember about the inoculant, because we are going to talk about it in later posts.


And this is where I start to regret the small size of my drill.

Sunday afternoon mllr and Jim stopped by and also got to help load the drill.


And here we are calibrating the drill. I know what you are thinking. Shouldn't you have done this before you planted those first 42 acres? Ans: Yes. Somewhere Dr. Ehler is making fun of me for being a typical farmer.

I know what else you are thinking. I can't believe you would break the Sabbath to plant soybeans. Well, first of all, the Sabbath is technically on Saturday. Secondly, I really have no excuse. Don't worry, depending on your theology, God may or may not have gotten even by causing one of the wheels to fall off of the drill. (Others might point out that I failed to heed the manufacturer's suggestion to check the lug bolt tightness after the first 50 hours of operation.)


We stole three bolts from the other wheel to get home, and then Dad went to get more first thing Monday morning.

Then there was more of this:


This field has had five crops on it (including this crop of soybeans) since the last time it was tilled.

So after replanting the original 42 acres, I finally got done late Monday night, [This section currently unavailable]

Blah Blah Blah, The Rest of Wheat Harvest, Blah Blah Blah

Finishing up the hail damaged wheat-- at least 26% lost.



The top photo is never a good sight to return to, but we got by with just needing a single bolt.



This is the same day, after we discovered that the Jagalene was still a little too wet to cut.


I am not responsible for the following eleven (11) photographs: