Making Progress. (September 2012.)

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A Look at the Wheat.

On the 13th, Mark and Dad and I ran Over East to look at the wheat, and at Phil's new well.

The outskirts of the circle looked pretty harsh.

But looked just fine once you got into it a little bit.

And here is another look at the difference in the corn stubble quality from last year. You can see the benefits of a hardier corn stalk on the left, where there is still snow cover. Again I will point out that the BT corn was on the right, non-BT on the left, if only to again mention my pet peeve of all the talk in Ag over the "tougher stalks from BT corn" which is pure nonsense. We have tougher stalks, yes, but this is a result of conventional breeding selecting for better stalk strength which correlates to better late season plant health and yield. The beauty of GM crops lies in the ability to introduce very specific traits WITHOUT affecting the other traits present in the crop. Referring to tougher stalks being a byproduct of the BT trait is like saying "this new highway sure gets a lot less potholes since they started using that new paint for the center stripes." Drives me crazy.

We then took a gander at the dryland Over East. It got burned back pretty bad by the super cold temperatures last month, but you can still see plenty of green too. The wheat palnt at this stage has its growing point underground, so the plant is still perfectly able to grow at this point. The killing off of the top growth at this point is #1 largely cosmetic, and #2 almost preferable to me in these uber-dry conditions. A plant that is green is a plant that is losing moisture or has the potential to lose moisture as far as I'm concerned.

It sure doesn't make for a pretty picture, though.

And here is the moisture that has accumulated in the rain gauge over the last couple of months. Which was actually quite surprising.

On Monday morning I picked up the tractor from the shop and drove it home.

I parked it next to the Puma so I could look at them side by side.

Because I like to look at tractors.

Dad and I went back over east later on Wednesday, as I was wondering if we shouldn't fire up the sprinkler with the 80 degree weather.


The moisture probe said no.

Then we went over to the Gray Havens, where the wheat had gotten some pretty good growth before the cold hit.

But it also looked like it would be just fine.
I tried the moisture probe in a few places, though I figured it was a lost cause. The trouble is what little moisture we have in the top soil is pretty shallow, which means you can't get the probe in the ground more than a few inches. Finally I spotted an ant hill and thought maybe, just maybe...
Yep. My little friends had burrowed below the dry layer far enough that I could get the probe past it. After that it went right in (remember the crazy wet fall of '09, all that moisture is still in the soil, waiting.) That is what has been so frustrating with this dryland wheat crop from the beginning. All we needed was a nice half inch, maybe three quarter inch rain soon enough in the fall to bring the soil moisture together, allowing the roots to reach that subsoil moisture, and we would have been looking at the potential for an outstanding wheat crop. We still have plenty of potential for a decent crop, but not for a great crop. And still we need a decent sized moisture event to go from potential to reality.

We stopped to look at some seed wheat Tom planted for us on the way back home. It looked really good.


Finally, on Monday the 21st, I took a gander out at the wheat at home.


Not much on the surface, but it doesn't take too much effort to find some baby plants.

Even if some of the baby plants are questionable.

You could even find some emerging going on in spots. See:

You kind of have to look pretty closely.

I finally remembered to bring a spade with me to do a little digging, which I keep forgetting to do when I head east.

I was pretty pleasantly surprised:

And it looks like we have a little bit of a moisture buffer here for a little bit.

But still the dry layer. It is deeper here, since we had less rain over the summer and didn't get a (halfway) decent rain on it until December. I could get the probe in a little deeper, but not much.

Luckily my friend Mr. Rabbit managed to dig below the dry zone for me.
So close. So close.

January 2011.

2011 is going to be a good year.
I was looking at the pretty snow when I noticed the shocking difference in the quality of corn stubble between the two hybrids I planted:
A lot of people talk about the tougher BT cornstalks, (in fact people say a lot of things regarding BT, triplestacks etc... that in my opinion are simply not true) but in this case the BT stalks were on the right. This will definitely be something I pay attention to when choosing hybrids in the future. Better stalks = more snow catch = wheat yield.

Later in the week Mr. LaBoeuf's front plate came. He felt a lot better.


And I finally got the room done.

Chris and Dad helped me move.

And The Lerkim opened for business.

We took advantage of some nice weather to pull the tanks off of the 8100.

Then I hauled some wheat from Boots's. The new kindle worked perfectly.


The next day we went to Baby class where we learned all about tattoo placement options. Then we had Streit Christmas. They were all nice enough to come to GCK so Betsy wouldn't have to travel.

Anna and I traded hats at supper.

And Anna got a duck to love in the gift exchange.

It was a good night.

Anna made sure that the new duck felt welcome at our house.

And then Heritage called and said they wanted their corn. I waited each day until it was in dual digit temperatures to start the trucks, so it made for short days.





Galen got a new toy while I hauling in one day.

The delivery guys kind of got in the way.

I guess that's what reverse is for.

At least I didn't have to back in like the other guys.


That there is a big generator folks. Galen said it would power half of Sublette.


When I was done hauling corn I emptied out some of the wheat bins.

That weekend I assembled some stuff for Anna's new room.

And we moved her in (with a lot of discussion.)

She loves her new room.

Then Betsy and Katrina did some wedding planning Skyping with Chelsea.


On Monday I hauled in a touch more wheat.

I hauled in the last load through the rain.

I have never been so excited about so little rain in my life.

The next day I checked out some of the wheat.

It looked like we made it through the cold alright.

And everybody got a little rain.




Mr. Laboeuf enjoyed getting out and about.


Then I took Mr. Labeouf to get his new nerf bars, compliments of GMC.
I got the kind that help you get the wrench you just dropped in the bed of the truck back out.

We celebrated with some ethanol.


And some more pictures.



Anna liked the nerf bars. Pregnant Betsy LOVED them. Mr. LaBoeuf was now serving as our primary means of transportation due to Lady needing some (warranty) transmission work.

And then we finished the nursery.

And the crazy nesting lady decided to make Anna a quilt.

Anna helped out in The Lerkim.


And here are Betsy and Tummy at 39 weeks.


We decided to have one last Grand day out as a family of three. It was 70 degrees outside in honor of Jeanette's birth, so we went to the zoo.


And to the museum.

And had supper in the park. (Anna's favorite Burger King, of course.)




The next day was Kansas's 150th birthday. It was also Gameday. So I took some poetic license with my favorite piece of Kansas:
And Linda wanted to celebrate right. Marci posted something to do in each county in Kansas to celebrate and so we picked four out to do. I am counting our trip to the zoo from Saturday 28th, since that was the fun in Finney County.

The fun in Haskell County was to find a lonely county road and revel in the flatness:



Then we went to Gray county to pick up Betsy's new sewing machine. Can you say 20 year mechanical warranty?

Then we went to Montezuma for lunch. I had the official Kansas Explorer meal of chicken fried steak. It was perfect.

Then we went to the wind farm as per Marci's suggestion.



Finally, we went to the Ford County Santa Fe Trail tracks.

Happy Birthday Kansas! I can't for the life of me remember how the game turned out ;)