In Which lobiwan Returns to Find a Farm in Disorder.

So I arrived back at the farm after three days of travel. I was not welcomed.

First, Dad had let it hail Over East. Nice.

The thing to notice here is all the light hitting the ground. Farming, in its most simple form, is merely the transformation of light energy into nutritional energy. Every place light hits the ground instead of a corn plant, we are losing yield. It is that simple.


And a look down the row.

Now compare the last two pictures with the next two. This is what it is supposed to look like:

And a look down the row

So the motor Over East was shut off because 1. we did get some moisture along with the hail, and 2. the economic returns from irrigating a hail damaged crop are significantly different than a healthy one.

The motor at home was shut off because of pump problems. Deep in the belly of the well, a bearing had stopped turning, causing the whole of the inner pipe to rotate, unscrewing this piece at the wellhead:
So we called out the professionals:
To dismantle the well.

And pull the casing.

All three hundred feet.

Until they got the pump itself out.
Which went to town to get repaired or (ultimately) replaced (with a used pump).

We had to drag their rig in and out of the field with the tractor, which did not a little damage:

It was especially nice of the pump to give up the ghost this year, since we have (had? :( ) been planning on drilling a new well (at which point we will have to buy a new pump.)

Well they came out to drill a test hole, since we couldn't irrigate any way:
They drilled and drilled.
And did not like what they found...

Always good to come home.