May 27, 2016
It’s a sunny Friday afternoon, and rather breezy. The rain that fell yesterday just before noon has the soybean planter stopped. Again. We will wait for drier field conditions to get the soybean planter going once more. Looks like Monday.
This morning, I took the Gator to Steen, Newman, Steimel, Harvey, and Steen Hill. I applied a herbicide called Crossbow to the woody species in the ditches there. Then, I performed a close inspection of the ‘stand’ of soybeans in those fields. Yes, I will need to replant some acres of soybeans in some of those locations, but the number of acres will be much less than I had anticipated. We will take that as good news.
I did get the yard mowed today. Check that off the list for another week!
The clusters of peonies (Indiana’s state flower) that decorate our yard are getting just a little bit past their prime, but they are so beautiful and the fragrance is sweet. We are happy that most of our collection of peonies were from starts that were dug up from my Grandma Carnahan’s yard. She’d be pleased to know we carry on her tradition.
John and Brandon worked from morning to midday to get the soybean burndown finished, and now the spraying is ‘caught up’. The sprayer was then washed and the tank and boom rinsed out. John will get the remainder of the corn ‘laid by’ next week, and then concentrate on helping me get the soybean planting finished. All those plans are, of course, tentative… depending completely on the weather.
The first week of June could provide the end of soybean planting (and quite possibly replanting). We are hopeful. Now that the daytime highs are in the 80s, the soils should get dry a bit more rapidly. My goal is to get #plant16 complete by June 7. Weather permitting, that’s quite possible.
Pat is using her talents today to decorate family members’ gravesites for the Memorial Day weekend. I can remember that our mom called the holiday “Decoration Day”. John, Philip, and Ben will be attending the Indy 500 on Sunday. It’s an annual get-together for the brothers. This is the 100th running of the “greatest spectacle in racing”!
I can recall many Memorial Days in the past when we were planting soybeans. 2015 was one of those. Doesn’t look like I’ll have any field dry enough to do so this year, so I can watch the 500 as it happens.
We hope this holiday is a good one for you, too.
