January 2015

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Tradition! Oregon 2012 edition.

A'int no party like an Oregon party 'cause an Oregon party don't stop.

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The Return of the Groove Master

That's what the Classy Cats used to call me, anyways. True story.

So the first Sunday in August found us gearing up for our annual concert in the park.  By us I mean "Not Worthy," the worship band from church, and by "the park" I mean Stevens Park in GCK. I was pretty excited, as it had been a LONG time since I had had what you could pretend was an actual gig.

We got a little spit of "rain" while we were setting up, so everybody scrambled to cover all our gear.

I decided to go all out and play the full 7 piece this time. 

You may be wondering why we set up on a trailer instead of in the band shell. It has to do with sound quality and shade. The band shell is fabulous for something like the Municipal Band, where no one is miked and everyone is blending their sound and there is someone up front making faces at you if you are playing too loud.  But for a high volume miked situation where everyone has their own monitor mix and are playing really loud because for once we aren't playing in a church and it would be really nice just to crank it up and have some fun and if not now then when the band shell really causes problems. It makes Mark cranky because he can't control the mix as much as he would like. (The real reason is that I play too loud (see previous sentence) and by the time everyone tries to compensate it is just a big mess.) Also, a big chunk of the stage has no shade, which makes everyone (musicians AND instruments) cranky--'specially when it is a hundred and bazillion degrees out.

And here is a view from my seat.  They had a big cookout/picnic, so most people were sitting out in the shade eating.

Cephas wanted to be closer to the action.

And my little family came back in time for the show. Here's Anna jamming afterwards.

We actually had a really nice shower Over East that night.

We only got about .20" at the Gray Havens, so I decided I'd go ahead and a shot at killing weeds over there.

There were some very lovely (as in "pretty," not as in "rainy") clouds to keep me company checking the motors that evening.

I spent the rest of the week trying to take it easy, per doctor's orders.  Dad and Katie took it easy too.

The Roaches came through on their way to Denver, so we had a chance to meet their newest addition, as well as compare him with Katie.

The big kids had a grand time, too.

The next Monday Katie and Anna and Dad and I all went to the zoo while Betsy was at work.

We met a bird there.

He was pretty friendly.

I don't recall what kind of bird he is.

And I apparently had some irrigation engine trouble that day since I took this picture walking down the pivot road to reset the sprinkler.

One thing that I hardly ever seem to do is take pictures when things go wrong with the irrigation engines, probably because it just makes me cranky. Come to think of it, this whole summer has been unusually short pictorially for me.  Although between the back troubles and Drought troubles and a couple other troubles which shall not be discussed here, I am surprised I was ever in a picture takin' mood.
Luckily there is nothing like a nice walk through the corn at evening to set your spirits aright.

lobiwan Descends Into Hell for a Bottle of Milk

Or as close to Hell as SWKS has ever come, meteorologically speaking. It was hot. Record breaking hot. As in an entire month with triple digit highs hot. Good thing I got to leave early.

July 2011

In Which lobiwan Continues, but in a Much Less Impressive Fashion.

Here is a link to my "April 2011" picasa album. If you want to know about April, this is all you're getting.

April 2011

Flushing out any remaining family members.

Mrs. Frisbee did not move her home in time.

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.