Friday, August 22, 2025
This week, Pat and I took off for a few days for a short trip. We traveled to central Missouri. I guess it is one of my quirks; to travel to somewhat lesser-known places and see what we can find.
I was very impressed by the farms and crops I saw in that area. If you map out a triangle in Missouri, bounded by Monroe City, Marceline, and Moberly, you will see some of the finest crops I’ve encountered this year. The corn and soybeans were beautiful… at least from what you could see from the highways. Their double-crop soybeans were behind what we see here locally; those DCB were just about stubble-height, much shorter than DCB here. I really did not know what to expect, agriculture-wise in that area, but I came away greatly impressed. It was beautiful, at least to this old farmer’s eyes! The only drawback was that the days were really hot, 100ºF+!
One of our goals of this trip was to take in the boyhood home of Walt Disney at Marceline, Missouri. His family operated an apple orchard on about 45 acres there from 1906 to 1910. It seems that this period of young Walt’s life had a lasting impact on him. He took a bit of Marceline with him throughout his life. In fact, the “Main Street USA” in both Disneyland and Walt Disney World are patterned after Kansas Avenue in Marceline. All around town were photos of the Disney brothers, Walt and Roy, taken when they made their frequent return trips to Marceline. The elementary school bears Walt’s name, as well as the town’s park and Post Office. Local folks proudly told us that this is the only federal building in America named after Walt Disney. We toured the Disney Hometown Museum, housed in the town’s former train station. It was a great visit. We found the museum very interesting, and the people of the area very friendly and engaging. Perhaps, that may be a trait of the people of most small towns across the middle of America.
Kansas Avenue in Marceline was the pattern for Main Street, USA.
The Museum is housed in Marceline’s impressive train station. The clock was a gift from the Citizen Watch Company, said to be valued at over $100K
This was a very interesting visit!
In the former Allen Hotel building (ca. 1900), is now Ma Vic’s Diner, and the server Rhonda makes the pies. This coconut cream pie of Rhonda’s is one of the best I ever had!
Out on the north end of town, the Disney family home is still standing, and is still occupied. Of course, it has been modernized and added to since the Disney’s lived there. As I understand it, the current occupant of the farmhouse is also the owner of the museum in town. First name is “Inez”.
Downhill and behind the house is a re-creation of the Disney family’s turn-of-the-century barn… Walt Disney had it built in the early 1960s. The property’s current caretaker, Roy, was there on this hot day (101ºF), and he gave us some of the back story about the house, barn, and museum.
The Marceline Post Office is in the Walt Disney Federal Building.
The Walt Disney Elementary School, built in 1960. Disney had his artists from California come to paint murals on the classroom and gymnasium walls. If you look closely at the lower right of the picture, you can see two flowerpots… one painted like Mickey and the other painted like Minnie Mouse!
Back on the farm this morning, I found that the guys were delivering the final loads of 2025 wheat crop to market today. As of this afternoon, we are MT of all grain… ready to fill back up again starting in a few weeks! The hot weather has departed, to the delight of everyone.
After a visit to the doctor this morning, I took out the JD 6145R with the R15 rotary cutter to mow a few nearby roadsides. While Pat and I were away, Brandon D used it to groom some waterways and the riparian strips on our levees. Boy, oh boy… do they look nice now! He’s out again with it this afternoon, doing some roadsides.
Mowing at the Shake farm along Old Wheatland Road late this morning.
The ‘after’ look is what I’m happy to see
Here is a waterway at the Huey farm, made more beautiful by Brandon D.
The printer in the office quit working last week, it was getting frustrating the way it ate paper and crumpled it while feeding halfway through the printer. It finally quit. John ordered another similar one off Amazon. It’s working well now!
I got another USDA survey in the mail. I wonder what I could do to get off their mailing list?
This one is about small grains.
Have a great weekend.
