Monday, July 6 2015

Hope your 4th was a good one.  Pat and I were in Busch Stadium Thursday and Friday nights for Cardinals baseball.  Good nights, but doggone it…the Cards didn’t win.

Saw the Gateway Arch while in StL. The grounds around the arch are under a MAJOR upgrade, so at the moment, it’s not very pretty between the old Court House and Arch and Mighty Mississippi.

On Saturday, we got to see Ben for a while.  He’s in St. Louis, training with Republic Airlines.  Soon, he’ll be in the nose of an Embraer 175!

Here’s Ben’s ‘home’ for 4-5 weeks of pilot training. An impressive place.

Scouting?  I went out on the Gator this morning to spot spray some small patches of Johnsongrass near Wheatland.  I also scouted the nearby fields that need replanting.  I found only one small patch that is close enough to dry to replant today.  Maybe 1 or 2% of all the needed replant, but I’ll go do that right away.

Here’s the little patch to which I’m returning this afternoon. The good news is that I had estimated 12 acres dead, and today I’ll replant 3 or 4 acres! It’ll take longer to travel down there than to do the replant!

So, we turn our attention to other tasks, like bush-hog work on waterways and roadsides and riparian levees.  John is out in the 4730 sprayer; he is doing mostly field perimeters, but he has to be careful in his choice of fields, to make sure he is working where the soil is dry and firm enough to support the sprayer.

Here goes John spraying the perimeter of the main field at the Pond.  You can see that the field has broad areas where the soybeans have ‘yellowed’ due to excess rainfall.  You can also pick out the healthier, green stripes directly above where the drainage tile is installed.   The yellowing can improve as the tile drains away the excess moisture from the soil profile.

Corn is beginning to tassel!

Tassels are emerging and spreading their pollen to the waiting silks on the ears below. This brings my favorite aroma of the summer.  This pollinating and silking aroma is even sweeter than that of fresh-cut grass!

Rain is predicted for tomorrow and Wednesday…