Shutters and Wheel Barrows and Baseball

Well I gotta tell you, I may have not been cut out to have been a detective. As we arrived home from Branson I told sweet pea that someone had been at my house as the wheel barrow was turned in the other direction of where I had left it. What I failed to notice is my white shutters had been removed and new dark brown ones had been installed to match my new shingles that were added last year. I had purchased these last fall and was going to get to this job just any day now. Matter of fact I had taken one white shutter down even, you know to kind of "nail down the job" so to speak. Well I guess I procrastinated long enough and of course with a sore knee in the works won enough sympathy to move my daughter Suzette to ask her wonderful husband Cris Post to do this work while I was gone...Said it took him 2.5 hours...It would have taken me longer that that by at least a day. Gosh but I am a lucky guy.

Now I also noticed last night that my grandson Nathan Russell is still a great catcher and hitter of the baseball...Yes he is and is growing up so strong and fast here in Indiana. And I also noticed that Tabby Russell can pitch a soft ball quite well and she still likes to walk beside me with her arm around me and set by me. She has such a big heart, at our Christmas dinner as I thanked God for Linda's 28 years with us and asked the blessing and a special blessing on Lucas who was soon to depart for Iraq, I got the crocadile tears and my throat closed and I could not finish. Tabby came over and hugged me and said, "are you ok grandpa".....Ok I got the same tears just telling about it so I gotta get outside and start painting, the sun will dry them and the white circle vents will look real nice when they are also dark brown...have a great day...

Good Corn and other important stuff....

Took a trip to Branson this week end..Great place to visit...Good entertainment and plenty of it...Can not wait to go back and stay longer.

Noticed the corn and beans as farmers do on the way to Missouri and back..By the way its Missouri with an A sound on the end. Best act I saw was a Johnny Cash impersonator that was even better than Johnnie Cash. He really had it down. He had the voice the looks, the head movements, oh what the heck I will put his pic right under the dead sweet corn....Had a great time, and went to church and three rows up I recognize the back of a head as a Marine I went through boot camp with and saw at our reunion 2 years ago..After church sure enough it was Chuck and Lois Paulson and attending a family reunion there in Branson...They and Sweet Pea and I did lunch and enjoyed reminising as Marines love to do...He from South Dakota and I from Indiana and the odds of my bumping into them is mind boggling.

OK the corn crop pics at the right top one shows just how fantastic our corn is doing here in North Central Indiana....Best corn I saw all the way to Branson and back, right here at home there is no better corn out there...Now the other picture of the dead sweet corn needs some explaining...well my fault I should have told my chemical people not to spray my 8 rows of sweet corn..Completely forgot and round up just does not work well on sweet corn as you see...I will be in line buying that stuff as soon as it is available with the rest of you...And for those who are waiting with baited breath we are probably only a month away now from "sex in the corn field"....stay tuned.....

Pretty Birds and Red Water Lilly's

Stopped in to St. Anthony's Nursing home a few days back to see a friend. Have been there now three times but I am always drawn to the bird farm I would call it that they have for the residents to enjoy. Gosh I think it is a terrific idea having these birds...They have maybe 12 to 15 birds mostly pairs of different species with a wide range of colors. I love to watch them, it is rather large the cage they have them in and they can fly around a bit in there. There are lots of clever looking and very functional houses for them and there are babies so love is in the air there in that cage. The cage is kept almost spotless of droppings and feed is always present. Who ever take care of them is doing a terrific job of it...Why sometime I may just stop in to visit the birds as they are starting to recognize me I believe.

And the slow coming but worth it RED water lillies are in bloom in the pond. They are beautiful and there are lots of them this year. They are the last to bloom after the pick and the white ones. The two yellow ones I planted just this spring have yet to send up any leaves so maybe I was bilked again....I think this will be the third year in a row I laid out good money for yellow water lillies...When will I ever learn to keep the reciepts...Well sure the stores rely and profit from people who just trust each year that "this time I just know they will do fine"....

Well short post today I can report the corn is past knee high, and by the 4th of July I am sure it will be beyond waist high, and a couple weeks later the tassle's will emerge and then we will talk sex in the corn field...several are waiting on that so hope I don't dissapoint.....

Have a great week end out there be back on Monday night or tuesday with more happenings from Hoosier Land....

Wesley Putnam

Today I want to introduce you to one of my favorite people. His name is Wes Putnam, he is an evangelist and probably the very best evangelist that I have met. He is good because he tells Bible Happenings in story form and he does it so well. He is sincere and he is humorous and he is the real McCoy. Linda and I liked him a lot and we support his ministry financially. I will continue to do that because what this man says "rings true" to me. It is interesting how God brings people into your life. You see one of our Dayton Churches Daughters went off to Bible College. Her name was Holly Null and she met the son of this evangelist who also was attending the college...Her name is now Holly Putnam and who should she talk into coming to our church to preach years ago none other than her father in law this great evangelist. So thus it happens, We helped in a small way with Holly's tuition to college through our church's college fund, and the pay back came, as she turned out to be such a great mother and Christian lady, and the icing on the cake then was Wes Putnam visiting our church periodically and bringing us his God given talent of telling the true stories of the Bible in such a way that we of this age can completely relate to what was happening then and what is similarly happening in our own age.

I have to ask you to stay with me here for a half hour, if you don't have that come back when you do have as you need to watch the video that I have of him telling the story of Elijah as seen through the eyes of a Brooklyn Cop....

But first visit his web site http://www.wesleyputnam.org/ and see his picture and read a little of his ministry. Now my blog does not highlight web sites so you will need to cut and paste these web addresses into your brouser.. come on now you can do that just highlight all of it. Hit control C and then go to your web brouser and hit control V and you will have it after you hit enter.

Then click on this site www.youtube.com/wpministries and watch this good humorous video as it does not only tell the story of the world then, but I think you will see the similarities of today. After you are on the site it is a 3 part series to get the whole message in so after part one you need to move down and click part 2 and then part 3 and it takes maybe 20 minutes to watch it all...But I think you will enjoy and profit from a visit from my freind Wesley Putnam....

And while you enjoy I will be attempting to replant a few soy beans that have just been too wet to emerge well...So today maybe I am planting soy seeds and seeds of faith that will both benefit us all....see ya.

Linda and Larry Lillies

Well this should about wrap up my flower post in case you think I have gone to seed on flowers of late. But I had to do this one because I do enjoy two different type Lillies we have each year...They must be "taken in" each fall when it starts to frost and freeze and then brought out into the warm sunshine each spring and watered and allowed to wake up and "get going"...

And get going both of them do for sure. Let me start with the Larry Lilly's...Now I know that is not what the really are but I don't know what they really are called if you do send me and email and I will add this info...But they are fun..we take the pots in each fall and kind of cover them up and "put them to bed" you might say...They sleep all winter like a bear and then taken out in the spring and watered and soon they have spikes coming up...After maybe 3 weeks then lots of pretty pink flowers jump out in maybe even one night to greet you...Why are they Larry Lilly's well cause my brother Larry Lahrman has tons of them and he pots them up and gives them to his friends who may if like me just call them Larry Lilly's. Nice thing about them is the bulbs multiply as I guess maybe all bulbs do and then after maybe a couple years in the fall you can let them dry out and go to sleep and then dig them up and then make two pots of bulbs and share one with a friend...I do that now and then a couple freinds in Naples now have them...The Weithman's for one and last winter after I had long forgotten about giving some to them, Buzz said to me hey our Larry Lilly's are going to bloom soon I think...He even calls them that also.

UPDATE on Larry Lillies....a freind Mrs. Burkhalter was here last evening to pick up their brickyard tickets and she said I see you have some Rain Lillies...she said my Larry lillies bloom just ahead of the rain...no wonder they blooming their heads off this spring...its been raining...well that is the latest....

Ok now the Linda Lilly's are pretty special of course to me as my now passed 14 months ago wife used to have them for years around here. She had them even at our old homestead before we moved here. She planted them around her flower beds each spring, fairly large bulbs and then after the season at frost time she dug them up and dried them out and put them somewhere that they would not freeze and could also sleep all winter. Actually our garage does not freeze and that is a great place for them. Also we have a few in pots that we just slide the pot into the garage and bcak out next May. In the winter of 05 she was diagnosed of course with stage 4 lung and liver cancer and just did not have the spirit to plant them in the spring..I asked her how to do it and planted them for her. She enjoyed them all summer long and I then asked her about digging them up and storing them for winter...Which I did and then she passed in April before time to plant them...That last year the name changed from Calla Lilly's when I planted them to just "Linda Lilly's. And again this spring and I have begun to get so many that I also have several freinds in Florida and here in Indiana who now have Linda Lilly's blooming as do I....Why I even have Sweet Pea growing both Linda and Larry Lilly's....She understands as she was in my greiving class and knows as I do, that silly little things like this help a lot. Thanks for listening....

Fathers Day Bash

Well sort of as the pics to the right will show, the rope swing was enjoyed by some as you see my Granddaughter and I in the first pic, releasing the ropes and preparing to go under....Second pic shows three more grand children enjoying the swing. Was a fun fathers day for this Father and Grandfather for sure..Sweet Pea was a special guest along with 4 of my 5 children and at least a dozen grand kids. The food was fabulous, gifts and cards real nice and the weather held until the storm came through in the late evening. Sure hope equally good happenings at your places all across the good ole USA...Short post today as it is late, maybe more tomorrow....

Sweet Pea's and Summer Fun

Tomorrow is Father's Day and last week we tried out our new rope swing on the end of the dock...It was a lot of fun, we engineered it last fall, when the water level was low, but it took a warming of the water before we could really call it a success. I think it will be well used tomorrow as my children and grandchildren show up here for a cook out and some "summer fun". Grandpa will be in the mix, as will the pretty lady's on the dock. They both will be lining up for a turn on the ropes. With 10 adults but only 9 brave enough for a go at it, and maybe 15 grand kids the line will be reminise of Disney World at times...Pic at right shows Sophie Post hitting the water early and Caulin Post with feet on a lower knot in the rope going for a longer "ride" and then a release that will hard to tell which end goes in first. A couple Susie's watch the action.

Also enter the sweet pea's. They are in full bloom and came from Washington State near Seattle. The roadside at the foot of a mountain was totally covered with these lovely's and low and behold there was dried pea pods hanging on the vines....We harvested and we planted and now I have a peice of Seattle. I am growing to love sweet peas, there is just something about them that trips my trigger....And they like the roses keep right on making their presents known until the first frost of fall.

Gorgeous day in Hoosierland today and forcast for tomorrow also. Rain continues to fall and plague farmers who still have that last field yet to plant to soybeans. I am done but I am but a hobby farmer with the small acerage that I am now content to farm. But I think for the most part the crops in this area at least are tolerating and thriving on the rains although some warm dry days would be beneficial to get roots deeper into the soil to seek out the fertility and have a better footing if and when the dry season hits... it always does at some point and usually July or August. If it comes in July less corn, if it comes in August less soybeans. We will see and hey, I am not saying it has to come but it most always does at some point before the crops are totally made or mature...

Have a happy fathers day out there tomorrow...Will probably be back Monday....

Linda's Perennial Flowers

My wife will soon be gone for 14 months now but she surely is not forgotten. Everywhere I walk around the outside of the house her efforts are there and remind me of her. She told me her goal a few years back was to have all her flower beds in perennial flowers so it would be care free except for pulling weeds out of them.
That also is perennial in nature also, it never quit's, I can still hear her as she pulled them out and threw them into the lawn saying, "I don't know where all of these weeds come from". I would tell her sometimes that my dad had told me that Satan plants them at night. Not sure she bought that but I sure did, anything my dad told me at 8 years of age was the truth....

But today to the right you see her roses, they are always so pretty and they are already blooming like crazy and will bloom now until frost comes. I trim them back each bloom to keep them somewhat short and strong and it does not discourage them as they keep coming back prettier than ever. And "old habits" are hard to break, as I would cut them and bring them in for her to put in vases, but now I do that part too...

So short one today, got stuff to do outside getting my plates renewed today for car and truck, and while in town a pretty lady is allowing me to take her to lunch at Arni's. I suspect a couple Arni's juniors will bite the dust right before out eyes. Was encouraged yesterday that I saw a last years IN GOD WE TRUST license plate with an 09 sticker on it...That is good and will surely be my choice to keep that plate visible for all to see for another year. There is a plain blan looking totally blue new Indiana plate that I am sure the ACLU just loves...It don't say anything about God or Faith...they will be so happy....

And while we are on that, see now you got me going, I saw on TV that one of the Carolina's have a new optional plate that has FAITH on it and a Cross over the faith.
Good for them.. Of course the ACLU are promising a quick and strong law suit...I love those guys they keep my blood pumping so well....and I pray for them....

And final update on the Indiana In GOD WE TRUST license plate...Yes I was able to get 09 stickers for this beautiful plate and not only that the lady told me I could probably keep it for about 5 years....Whooppeee....And may the ACLU spend a fortune appealing the case against this plate that seems to really wad up thier under shorts....

till next time...

Rapid Corn Growth Has Started

With corn at over 6 dollars a bushel this has to be of course the prettiest field of corn this farmer has ever laid eyes on. You know two years back $2.50 corn was pretty much the norm for the last few years. Then the US finally woke up to the fact that our dollars and huge dollars at that have been purchasing fuel from none other than a lot of people who want us dead. So quickly we have Ethanol in the form of E85 which takes a lot of corn. Corn quickly rose to over 3 dollars and everyone was happy. Then 4 dollars then last winter 5 dollars and now 6 dollars and it is moveing towards 7 dollars. It is truly nutsville in these markets for all the grains and I have not got any answers except for the fact that the secretary of Agriculture should have released the CRP acres to allow corn to be grown and stopped the taxpayers subsidy to grow nothing... Yes to me this was a no brainer but that is government they can not easily handle no brainers.

But anyway forget the price is this not a picture of beauty to the right? And it is happening in a corn field near you right now. The corn seen in the pic at the right is now in its 6th leaf stage. Which means the growing point of the plant is about at the surface of the soil. In other words it could be mowed off or hailed on and beat up pretty badly at this point and still survive and continue to grow. Another couple more leaves coming out in the next few days and the growing point will then be maybe 3 or 4 inches above the surface of the soil and then hail would cause major damage to the crop. Corn has entered into its annual stage of very rapid growth. Believe this in a month from now this corn will be 7 feet tall and have a tassle sticking out the top and an ear emerging with silks beconing the pollen to fall and bingo we have sex in the corn field boys and girls.
Well I won't get into that miracle right now you kids are just not ready for that but I will later when I have pictures...Maybe by then you will be able to handle it all.

We are totally blessed here on moisture and proper heat to move this crop right along so far. To the north and to the south of west central Indiana where I live too much rain has taken a toll and way to many acres are flooded or maybe even did not get planted because of wetness that stayed to long. I feel for those guys for sure especially in a year that price offers such promise. But that is farming and we all have been there and it is what causes a farmer to dream stressful dreams about farming disasters and if he is smart it drives him to invest part of his profits into crop insurance for such years that he knows come now and then....

OK on my way to C'ville this am to learn all I can about wind turbines. so must be off... Have a great day where ever you are.....

I see by the comment on this post that interest is increasing to a frenzie peak on my upcoming article about sex in the corn field....I will take care to tell the truth and the whole truth and promise to not throw in stuff just to get an X rating for this blog....That may be good for readership numbers but never fear we will keep it clean...ha

Water Lilly's take center stage

To me this is the prettiest time of all the year for my pond. The moss is minor, the water is warming, the grandkids can't wait to try out the new rope swing out that we built last fall, and my lilly's are coming to center stage.. Right now the whites and the pinks are pretty much "showing off". In a week the dark red ones which seem to take longer but their beauty worth the wait...Kind of like sweet pea's which are also just today starting to bloom next to my house. Nothing is more exciting to me, than a "sweet pea", but today were on water lilly's and will stay there.

Also this year I purchased a couple yellow's and I can not wait to get them started as they are my absolute favorite color Lilly as I recall seeing that color a lot in the natural ponds of Yellowstone National Park. Also making its debute today is the yellow rose along the house that my wife Linda planted a few years back. It blooms from now all summer long until it frost and provides so many gorgeous yellow roses.

And that ain't all that's blooming around here either. I have blue gills and bass making whoopy in the pond the last couple weeks also. Along the sandy beach area they have with their tails carved out several nice "bowls" that the females lay their eggs in and then the males swim along and try to "bomb" these nest with sperm.
Gosh it all looks like fun, but I am glad God made us humans different and allowed a little more "up front and personal" with the lover stuff....But be it sex in the city or in the pond it's exciting stuff and life does go on....The Lilly's and the Fish expecially the "newly hatched" do have a great connection. The babies will hide among the Lilly Pads in an around them as the larger fish try and enjoy them for a meal...The dum ones, get eaten, the average get eaten by bigger fish after they get filled out a bit and just more than a hungry bass can pass up, and the smart ones get to make the nest and lay eggs some day or swim along and bomb the handy work that their little darlings provided. But eventually someday they will bite on our hooks and end up providing a really nice fish fry.....

Seems like these "studly" fish are kind of "swingers", as they sometimes bomb one nest, probably made by their "little woman", and then try and hit a secondary target on the way out kind of like the B-29's over Japan during the war. Well that's maybe where the Air Force picked up that trait, who knows....Well gosh one thing about it you have to admit my mind does indeed "wonder".....But its all Good, if God made it and he did, its good.....

Have a great day my friends....

The Kousa Dogwoods/and good to eat

I have three of these trees seen to the right, they are in full bloom now as is about everything around here but these deserve a little press as they are not only beautiful but they are good to eat. These beautiful 4 pedal blooms surround a small green bud that will be a pretty good fruit next fall. I don't think any other fruit that I know of takes so long to develope..All summer these get very slowly larger and larger until maybe early September maybe late August they get to about your thumb nail size and turn a nice orange and look and taste pretty good. I found that they were edible visiting www.ediblelandscaping.com. It declared them good to eat and granted I did only eat one or two a day for a while till I kept waking up each morning and then my trust developed and I went for them...Usually while mowing my lawn the temptation is just to great and I park my mower under one of these trees and enjoy a few.

Why would I eat them? Well I am just one to believe that each food that God created for us probably has some unique charactoristic that only that food possesses. Maybe that is the tree of life in some way who knows or maybe it is the Morel mushrooms that midwesterns that have any sense at all, crave and desire so much. So much that they are even willing to pay 40 to 50 dollars a pound for. We find what we can and a friend and I did find 15 one Sunday afternoon and by that evening they were soaked in salt water, dipped in egg and then cracker crumbs, and then fried in butter...Oh my, "heaven comes to town", when all that happens...And thus while the season is with us a few of us including yours truly do purchase a few of these. Sorry I do not have any pictures of the morels mushrooms. Once they are before me I do not think of cameras, I think of the finished fried product that with a glass of fine merlot, and maybe even the company of a beautiful lady, well yes, Heaven does come to visit....




http://www.fast-growing-trees.com/Kousa-Dogwood.htm

Cornus Kousa Chinese Dogwood
This species from China and Japan is much like our native dogwood, but the floral bracts are pointed and produce several weeks later in the season. Tree develops interesting bark as it grows and the showy fruits are edible. Leaves have good fall color. Kousa has few pest problems. It is highly resistant to dogwood borer and dogwood anthracnose that has been plaguing flowering dogwoods in recent years. Zones 6-8

Computers are just too smart

We all know that statement is true and for it to be true comes realization that there are people walking among us that have made it so...Well I am glad but to be that smart must be just pretty darn cool...Don't like to think about it a lot, as it can get depressing that one was not in the really good brain line when we were being downloaded....

I came to this computers too smart realization as I looked through some of my old stories from February and I noticed that when ever I clicked on a particular story and it came up on the blog that the google ads at the top were automatically the same as the content of the story. A story about Naples Beaches brought ads for Naples real estate instantly...A story about Marines brings ads selling Marine related stuff. A story I wrote last week about my church pastor brought ads for Bible colleges and Large churches.

It just all kind of blows me away that computers have come this far and that again "jealousy is setting in", that some got downloaded with those brains that figured this stuff all out...well I am happy for them, hey I bet they don't really understand much about how residue continues to disappear in a corn field and I bet they really don't even care...So there then I don't really care how all this stuff works either, glad it does but I really don't care...

Have a great day out there, if you have a brain "use it", if you don't smile and tell someone you love them....if they love you back it will be a good day....

And lets just see what the posting of this story brings in google ads at the top..
Gosh no doubt it will be about computers this brain is thinking...

Summer Finally, I love it.....

Gosh thank God, finally we are rid of cold and damp and summer weather has arrived.
OH, how I love it, and the crops love it as well. The corn as you see in the top photo taken last night is getting good color and will soon send it's roots deep enough to tap into the ample supply of nitrogen that I placed there beneath the rows last fall...It should be quite a year if ample rain falls when needed as by error of my fertilizer dealer I applied 250 pounds per acre and not the 160 that I was shooting for....But should I get the ideal growing season it could provide me with possible the best yeilds yet seen on my acres...Always something to hope and pray for.

The Soybeans in the lower photo are equally off to a flying start...Emerging well up through the corn stalk mulch that was last years corn crop flatened by my John Deere no till drill...I love the system, the savings on eliminating "recreation farming" I call it of tillage that truly is not needed... it is ugly and that right there keeps a lot of farmers from doing it...We all spent so many years watching our fathers till the soil each year plowing it under and looking so clean and nice and we then did it ourselves likewise...Most have reduced the tillage trips, but not many of us have kicked the tillage completely, but once you do and you know you can and it will work, it is a great feeling to know that you are not only saving so much diesel fuel but the time and wear and tear on equipment also. And then the real bonus of knowing that you are building soil in a partnership with earthworms...Yeal they are willing partners working night and day coming to the surface and eating thier little tummies full of last years crop residue lying there...Then they decide to go down their little runways deep into the soil for a nice drink of water and then they wiggle around a bit and take a big poop...yeal the best part of their day, and then they head on up for yet another nice big dinner of crop residue....The runways they make in the soil also provide huge benefit by allowing rain fall to penetrate the soil down these holes and not run off to a low location and make a pond that maybe then destroys crops....It is all so cool, and is just something that no tillers enjoy thinking and talking about.... Not a lot going on in Indiana this time of year and hey it does not take a lot to entertain an Indiana corn and soy farmer...

Have a great day and be nice to earthworms, if you see one crossing the street though, go ahead and run over him as the ants just love'em...