May 22, 2023

We just finished a most beautiful weekend.  The weather was perfect.  Clear, blue skies, and about 77ºF (25C).  It was a relaxing Saturday, and church on Sunday was really special.  Now, today, we are in for another clear sky day with a temp of about 82ºF.  The crops love this kind of weather.  Last Friday night we received .7 to .9″ (18-23mm) rain.  The forecast is for dry days through the end of the month.  By that time, we will be asking for another rain.  But at this moment, we could not ask for better.

The sky looked pretty threatening last Friday as dusk approached. Bad as it looked, we got no thunder or lightning, no strong winds or hail, and about .8″ of rain. So grateful for that.

I took some time this morning to check on the stand of soybeans at the Roberson farm, and found that where Dustin Hatton built the new terrace, the beans were a bit behind the rest of the field.  But still a ‘good enough’ stand.  Then, I went over to the Waldo farm and repaired two WASCoB risers.  Those were 8″  risers, and expensive to replace, so to reattach the top of it using nylon zip strips saved a couple hundred dollars!  They should function like new.  I guess equipment operators (like me) should learn to miss them when working with a planter or disk around them!

Brandon is out with the Tony truck, getting the A/C recharged and ready for wheat harvest.  I just got the invoice for the parts for the repair…the cheapest invoice I’ve seen in many years!

Cheap invoice!

John used a bit of yesterday afternoon to spray the johnsongrass in the soybean fields on the south edge of Wheatland.  We would prefer not to work Sundays, but he felt it was important enough to do those spots while the wind was in a favorable direction.  He is cautious about any drift harming any neighbor’s growing plants.    He was able to have his daughter Molly accompany him, and it was a fun afternoon for her.  I caught up to them as I was returning home from Sunday dinner (most call it lunch) after church, and I captured a few pics and video.

John (and Molly) spray this field on the south edge of Wheatland, near the intersection of IN 550 and US 50.

This sprayer, with John at the controls, does a beautiful job. If you look closely, you’ll see Molly wave to Grandpa (me) a couple times!

Here is a clump of rhizome johnsongrass immediatly after the sprayer’s pass. See the shiny drops on the leaves? That’s Roundup doing its job.

I took some other pictures today of the main farmstead.  They turned out pretty nice, but I think the view will improve as the corn gets knee-high or taller. ( and it should not take to the 4th of July to get that tall!).

Here is a view of the main farm from Old Wheatland Road.

… and here is a view from the other side, looking to the northwest.

I’ll probably do some more mowing this week with the bush hog.

I need to search through our old picture albums at home to locate some photographs we took in June of 2003.  On Fathers’ Day that year (6-15) we moved into our new church building on the south side of Wheatland.  That was a special day, as we started the morning in the old building, then moved outside, closed the door behind us, and the 100-or-so of us walked to the new building for our first service at an entirely new facility on the other side of town!   What an exciting day, and it is hard to believe it has been 20 years already.  I’ll find those pictures, and that will help us celebrate on June 18 of this year.  We will have a special service that day, a carry-in dinner, and then special music to commemorate this milestone.  And, just a couple years away, we will celebrate the 150th birthday of our congregation, Wheatland Christian Church, which first met on May 11, 1875.  It was not until 1888 that WCC had its own bulding or “meeting house” as some called it.   No, I was not there in 1875 when they met to start WCC, but I have been a part of this fellowship for almost half of those years!

Have a great week.