Saturday, June 15, 2013
Some famous guy said “There is nothing so rare as a day in June.” This has been true for 3 days now, with beautiful skies, and warm temperatures. You just can’t beat 80ºF under blue skies with little puffy white clouds. And these few dry days in a row have been good growing conditions for the corn and soybeans, and good drying conditions for the nearly-ripe wheat crop.
On Thursday evening, I was rejoicing, for I was finished with the replanting of soybeans! Or at least I thought I was…. until yesterday when John was spraying at the Nellie farm. He discovered some small areas where the beans had ‘drowned’ in the latest heavy rain. Aside from those small pockets of depressions in that field, the other 2-inch-tall soybeans were beautiful. So, I took the air drill there and replanted those areas. Yvertin, our french visitor, accompanied me on this task. I think it took longer to drive to the field and back than it did to plant the 12 acres in little spots across the 125 acre field. Now, I’m pretty sure that the replanting is finished! That’s a relief, and the late date makes it even better to be done. I see the neighbors are close to getting finished, too. Many of them are just now completing their initial plantings. Maybe they won’t have to re-do any of their acres!
So, now the pickup and tractors are washed. Dad always said, “Take care of your machines, and they’ll take care of you.” We try to keep things clean and neat.
Here, Yvertin Jaquet washes the 9330 tractor to celebrate the completion of replanting. He also washed the white F-150 pickup. Thanks, Yvertin! Or, I think I should say, “Merci beaucoup, mon ami!”
We will keep the air drill hooked to the 9330, for there will be double-crop soybeans to plant after the wheat harvest in a few days. But it feels good to have it washed again. Next week, we will prepare the trucks and combines for the harvest!
John and Ben are out today at the Huey farm, spraying the soybeans there with Roundup herbicide and “Warrant” tank-mixed to stop current weeds and lay down a residual barrier to newly-sprouting grassy weeds. They should be done by early afternoon, for the field there is only 240 acres.
The construction work at the new Burke farm is complete. The grain bin buyer is returning again today to do some more work towards removing the remaining grain bin. I hope the bulldozer work there is done for a few months. We did receive authorization from the NRCS to remove a 10-acre woods there this fall. After harvest, the trees will be harvested for lumber, and the stumps cleared to prepare for some corn in 2014. A small wetland-type area will remain in the SW corner of the main field of Burke. And the woods west of Kessinger ditch will remain untouched. It is too steep and too isolated to clear. We will get some good mushrooms there next spring!
John has been very welcoming to Yvertin and allowed him to drive the 4730 sprayer in many fields. These kinds of activities adds to Yvertin’s Indiana experience. Upon his return to school (lycee) in France, he must make an oral report of his experience, in English! He also must prepare a written report of many pages (in English) about the farm here; not only the technical agricultural information, but also his impressions of the whole experience and his reaction to it. He will be a very busy guy on his return. And, it will be wheat harvest time at home when he returns.
Ben and Haley are doing the ditch maintenance with the little orange AC D-15 tractor and hand sprayer. She seems to be picking up the task very well.
We will be attending a wedding this afternoon and evening, and Pat is acting as a ‘personal assistant’ to the bride. We won’t see much of her today!
Good weekend, everyone….
