State Fair Part Two

Both girls like their corn dogs.

Anna got to pet a grandma cow.


Caramel apple slices just keep giving.

Doin' art:




And a view from the top.


The worst part of the fair is all the weirdos you run into.

State Fair Part 1;

So on Friday last we loaded up the car and headed to Hutch for some State Fair Fun.

We were lucky enough to get a last minute room at the "Big 'Ol Cowboy" hotel so that Anna could thoroughly exhaust herself Saturday morning before we even made it to the fair.

I liked this sign.

The "Big 'Ol Cowboy" was undergoing some renovations. They are apparently removing the water slides and lazy river to add more convention space. Let's see if I get the process right: Hotel installs super fun water park. Hotel increases convention business due to super fun water park. Someone realizes that they could make way more money on conventions if they only had more space. They remove super fun waterpark to add convention space. This kind of American business sense is why we will all be speaking Chinese someday.








Here is some pathetically short footage of Anna singing on her way to the pool and some slidin':

To Boots's!

Anna and I went to Boots's last thursday to take a load of screenings in for Chris.


Chris takes Anna to see the spinning vortex of wheat.

This is Chris's friend he had met the night before.

It was a dusty load.

And Anna didn't quite make it home.

Later That Day...

...We played a show in Johnson. Dom was really helpful during set-up.
And I changed my snares. I have wanted some of these Grover snares ever since I first saw them on a Grover snare at college. They come in six variations though, so I wasn't sure what to get. Anyhoo I think I will end up using these (Jazz darks) on my Ludwig snare and use it in the musical, and get a set of Club Brights for my PDP snare.


And here's a sample:

1 Down, 7 to Go.

On Wednesday I went to Hugoton to pick up the first load of Seed Wheat.
I went well.
But then I had to unload it.

Too exciting for words.

Corn Update

Well we made one last round on the corn last week in an attempt to boost test weights. I find it hard to believe that I shut off the sprinkler for the last time on September 12. The cool weather has really slowed growth down. We usually are well into wet corn harvest by this time if not finished. Not really sure what this all means for yields...


Here you can see why corn is the ideal crop plant. It sacrifices everything it can in order to make more grain. This leaf is dying from left to right as the plant transports all available nutrients from the leaf into the corn kernels.



This has me not feeling so great about corn harvest. Uniformity is key to good corn yields and these ears are anything but uniform.

A Look at What Might Have Been.

You can see here where the sprinkler was parked when the beans got sprayed. I would be pretty nervous about all this cold weather if they were still alive right now, though.

A View from the Porch.

This guy was spraying Boyd's sunflowers caddy-corner to us.

Fertilizing Fun

Loading Up


In these two photos I added some lines so you could see the banding pattern.

I find mushroom circles to be very creepy. And not just because of that uber-weird X-Files episode. I need to remember that before I go over to the Gray Havens at night. I would estimate there are 50 distinct mushroom circles in this field. (They are really hard to get a decent picture of.)

Here is some more exciting wildlife photography for you. Two coyotes hunting together. 2 coyotes working together actually can not run any faster than a single coyote, as Mr. Jackrabbit proved.