It’s a beautiful, windy and sunny Sunday afternoon in southern Indiana.  The best thing is that today is my brother Ross’ birthday, his last one with a “6” to start it.

Philip has taken some video footage of the corn and soybean planting operations, and I look forward to seeing the finished movie posted on our YouTube site.

We finished the planting on Friday, Ross with the corn and me with the soybeans.  I pulled out of that last field just before dusk, and as I was driving back to the main farm, the rain began to fall.  It was a welcome rain, and it was a cause for thanksgiving.  We were beginning to become concerned about the dry weather, and its effect on newly-planted crops.  The decision about planting depth for soybeans was the most perplexing, but the good, soaking rain helps to ease my mind.

Today, the warmth of spring has returned; it’s over 80 degrees this afternoon, and on the way home from church, I saw some tiny soybeans popping through the soil!  If it stays this warm, the rest of the crop will be up and going by next weekend.

Folks have asked me, “OK, now that planting is done, what are you going to do?”   It makes it sound as if there will be nothing to do but lounge around until harvest….but that is not the case.  The property tax bills have arrived, and I must complete my cataloging of them into the computer, there are reports to file and sign at Farm Service Agency (FSA), and I must reduce the stacks of paperwork that have accumulated over the past two weeks.  We can assist the folks from Midwest Ag Systems (MAS) with the new dryer installation, and there is another improvement project to be performed on our largest storage bin, replacing the fill auger with a conveyor.  The roadsides are asking for their first mowing.  There are ditches that need Ben and the ‘suntan machine’  (really, that’s Ben’s name for an older, small Allis-Chalmers open-station tractor towing a small spray tank of herbicide) to hand-spray the woody sprouts.  There are two grain bins that need cleared of the last remains of the 2011 crop, and that corn must be delivered to market.  The list goes on…

It will be nice to feel ‘on top’ of things again, and because the planting is accomplished early, I should be able to have a pretty normal life for several weeks, at least until June when the wheat will be ready for harvest.

Have a great week.