Friday, June 28, 2013

If you have been a faithful reader of this website, you may remember the post on January 12th about “January Thunder”.  That told the story of an old family expression that said, “Thunder in January– flood in June”.  Well, I’m here to tell you that this old particular adage has proven true again.  Yes, the White River (West Fork) is currently above flood stage.  It is predicted to recede into its banks by Monday evening.  The crest will hit 3 feet above flood stage, which the National Weather Service calls “a minor flood”.  I suppose that’s true, unless you have river water in your growing crops!   It is quite an attention-grabber to see the muddy water flowing through some otherwise beautiful corn and soybeans.  Maybe this ‘minor’ flood won’t take out ALL the crops in those 5 farm locations, but it’s not going to be pretty.   When the water goes down and the fields dry, a decision can be made about replanting, at least for soybeans…. it is ‘way too late to consider a replant of corn.  Those decisions cannot be made today, so we will wait patiently to respond appropriately.

We continue to have wheat harvest ‘on hold’, for the grain and the soil are too wet to run the combines.  This last heavy rain event really soaked both, and even though today is a beautiful day, there is not sufficient dry grain or soil to return to the wheat fields.  We really need only a couple days to get done, but we are unsure when that will occur.  After today’s magnificent weather, rain is predicted for each of the next 4 days.  Perhaps there will be little windows of opportunity between the thundershowers.

Looks like wheat harvest and DCB planting will extend into July for sure.

Our French guest, Yvertin Jaquet, (pronounced eve-ur-TAHN zhak-A)  is preparing his valises (luggage) for his return trip to Artenay, France.  He has been a very welcome part of the farm and family for this month.  We will surely miss him, but it is a terrific thing that we have built a good (and I think lasting) relationship.  It’s like our family is growing!

We are also preparing for the arrival of Class 15 of the Indiana Ag Leadership Program.  The class members are having their 7th seminar in our part of Indiana, and the Director, Beth Archer, has asked us to host one evening meal and program here at the farm.  We hope to have John give the group a tour of the farm, and Ross show them his horses and training facility.  Should be a low-key evening, but it is another opportunity to tell our farm’s story to a hopefully interested audience.  There is some touch-up painting to be done on a couple buildings, and some stone put down in the driveway and inside the tractor storage building.  The weed-eater needs to run and, of course, the 6 acres of mowing will be done twice before the event.  We look forward to this time with the IALP folks.