Saturday, July 25, 2026
It’s raining this morning, not a downpour, but steady. This will alter my plan for the day. I thought I’d do a little roadside mowing this morning and then mow my yard this afternoon. That’s not gonna happen, even if the rain stops at midday as predicted. So, I have other tasks I can undertake.
When the internet provider came to repair and restore our internet service last Monday, he replaced the receiver dish and the router. This resulted in my need to re-establish the connection to many wireless devices. The last one to do is for the Generac generator. That connection will be a bit more complicated, for it appears I’ll have to remove the outer walls of the case that contains the system, in order to access the proper internal devices. There are sufficiently detailed instructions from Generac, so I hope to get that done sometime today, after the rain stops.
I assisted John yesterday morning in repairing the hitch on the R15 rotary cutter. It has a type of spring-loaded cushioning on the front hitch, with a little chain that limits its travel. That chain broke and I could not use the cutter until it was repaired. The replacement chain arrived yesterday morning and together we made the ‘fix’. It wasn’t hard. At least not for John!
After the repair, I spent the remainder of the day running the cutter on roadsides. Towards the end of the day, I started the most difficult parts… along US 50 near the Wheatland stoplight. Some of that gets pretty steep and makes me a bit nervous. But I got about 1/4th of that section done before the end of the workday.
Mowing along US 50, a ‘before’ shot.
… and ‘after’.
Along IN 550, near Wheatland, with our church there on the left of the picture. Wheatland Christian Church.
During my mowing, I received a FaceTime call from France. It was one of our French sons, who lives in the Beauce region, between Chartres and Orleans. Victor is one of 31 French agricultural students who we met through a program sponsored by Indiana Ag Leadership and the agricultural college near Chartres at La Saussaye. Beginning in 1996, and over a period of subsequent years, we hosted in our home 14 different young La Saussaye students, most of whom are now farmers. The rest of the 31 were hosted by neighbors here, but we had them all here at the farm most of their days in SWIN. The French ag students’ typical visits were 3 weeks in October.
I visited with Victor for about a half-hour and learned about his challenges there. Drought… secheresse, in French. Victor was in his tractor, seeding some sorghum (or was it sudangrass? I don’t quite remember) to become feed for his cattle. He says his irrigated fields are okay, but those without are a disaster. His daily work includes care for his cattle, and nowadays irrigation. As we compared notes about our farms, it was another reminder that even though he is thousands of miles away in France, as farmers we are more alike than different.
Victor and his wife Raphaelle have 4 children, and it was great to catch up on the news of his family. This call was a delightful highlight of my day. I marvel at the technology. One farmer in Indiana, speaking with another in France, and we could see each other as we spoke! It makes me feel like I’m George Jetson!
Victor, Raphaelle and their 4 children
Th joys of a big family
So far, we’ve received .39″ (10mm) of rain. Looks like a little bit more is coming.
Have a good weekend.
