Thursday, December 11, 2025
Boy, oh boy! The calendar pages are flipping over at a rapid pace. It’s been a while since I’ve had a post on this site. It has been busy here.
After Thanksgiving, Pat and I traveled down to Florida for 9 days at Disney. We were met there by our son Ben and his wife Kierstin and their daughter Emmy. We were there to celebrate Emmy’s first birthday. It was a wonderful time together and the weather was perfect… 78 to 80º every day. Just a sweater at night, and bright sunshine each day!
Yes, we realize that Emmy probably won’t have any memory of this trip, except for what she will see in the bazillion pictures we took. But the four adults created memories that will last! This trip was such a blessing…
Here are just a few pictures…
We did have a great time
Pat and I love the TRON ride…
Disney does take some good pictures!
Grandma had a good time, I think Emmy did too.
The new Zootopia show was neat.
We stayed in our favorite resort, the Wilderness Lodge.
There is not a more beautiful place in all of Disney
We had fun at EPCOT
And this is my favorite picture of all the ones we took on the trip.
Here at the farm, the fiscal year closed on 11/30 with the results just as we had carefully planned. The guys have been quite busy since December 1, hauling 40+K bushels of corn over to GPC, and moving some soybeans to ADM in Newburgh. They have even begun to run the sweep in a couple soybean bins. The Volvo truck has been in the local VoMac shop to replace the injectors in the engine. We brought it home yesterday. The JD 2660VT vertical tillage tool has been at Sloan’s in Vincennes for a “fix-as-fail” (that means the cost is paid by Deere) repair to the main frame. The sprayer and the JD N550 no-till drill have had their inspection. Each had fewer-than-expected repairs, and we will do those ourselves this winter. The older S780 combine has had its inspection scheduled…for mid-January. Yes, we know it is the post-harvest time, but it has been packed with stuff to do. I guess our situation is not consistent with the idea that we grain farmers only work a few weeks in the spring and a few weeks in the fall!
As soon as the 2026 soybean seed arrives at the local Nutrien warehouse, we can begin the task of writing the planting prescriptions. That will take me a couple days of office work. Not bad duty when the weather is cold and blustery. The forecast for this weekend is for nighttime temps to be near 0ºF with highs around 12 to 15ºF. (-18 to -9 C) Brrrrr!
We are grateful for a well-insulated house, and a furnace that is working well. If you think about it, you can always find a few reasons to be thankful.
We are preparing for the Christmas holiday. The church program will be next Sunday morning. None of our granddaughters had a school Christmas program this year, but we have a middle school cheerleader and a 5th grade basketball player. We make every effort to be present for every home game. That’s a grandpa and grandma duty we are happy to perform!
