Saturday, October 31, 2009

Amelia Earhart the movie (187)

We went to see the new movie last evening about Amelia Earhart. Sweet Pea said the ratings have not been that good on the movie but we went anyway. Man, I don't know who rates movies and who decides what to make movies about. But I tell you instead of 1.5 stars in our paper this movie needs 5 or maybe 6. We are giving it two thumbs up and that converts to 6 stars. I watched the other night the real biography of Miss Earhart a four part deal so that I would know the facts before hollywood added its take on it. They followed the facts well and that impressed me and the movie was done well. I got into it could not help admiring this couragous young woman and surely felt sad at the last when she was lost in the pacific. Not to ruin the movie for you we all know she lost her life in real time trying to fly around the world...Almost made it but there was blame there in the end that maybe should not have happened that would have allowed her to succeed...

I guess Hollywood spent quite a lot of time here at Purdue University gathering info about her and Purdues envolvement with her life. They did a good job portraying this and Purdue was well mentioned and well represented..Go see the movie Hilary Swank did a great job and the resemblance was pretty darn true to life's real pictures of Amelia..Richard Gere was good also as here promotor and lover...

When I go to movies and watch the many previews we just set there and share our heads thinking why on God's green earth would anyone in Hollywood waste their money on some of these movies? And then my head keeps shaking when I think, OK they do it for money but why would anyone spend good dollars seeing this junk? And then a really good movie hits the scene and it gets a low rating...go figure....see the movie

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Persimmons and wet corn....(186)

Well this harvest is somewhat "frustrating" for me at least. My soybeans are done and that is good as these rains keep coming which is not good for soybean harvest conditions...But now the corn is next and that is not going so good. I have all of my corn contracted .to the Tate and Lyle corn sweetener plant here in Lafayette. And they like to have the moisture content on the corn coming in at 18% or lower. A week ago I took samples in from two of my driest fields. It tested 19% and 21%. I told them well I guess I will work on my house for a week and see what happens. I did that and guess what happened the moisture did not go down. I took samples in today and it was the same, so here I set waiting for better drying weather. But I had other harvest that needed done and that was picking persimmons and today I got the last of them, about 4 to 5 gallons. Last week I picked 3 gallons of persimmons and squeezed them, run them through the colendar and I got 1 gallon of pulp to make goody stuff like persimmon pudding with. Last year sweet pea did some for thanksgiving and it was DYNOMITE...Really good stuff so I know what I am doing here, I am gather goodness to be had at some later date. I can not wait, I kid you not Persimmon Pudding is just borderline "too good". But I figure, hey you don't have to eat all of it at Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can spread this stuff out, have some at Easter time, First day of spring, 4th of July whatever as good as that stuff is whatever day you pick will be a good one...So tomorrow I will get the pulp from them and should get about a gallon and a half of the sweet goodness and into the freezer it will go.

The persimmon picking today was kind of a war between me and the little beetles that seem to be everywhere these days. They kind of look a little like lady bugs maybe, but they are basically pains in the ass, as far as I am concerned. They were on a lot of the persimmons, did not notice them 10 days ago or so when I picked the first of the crop...But today I had to blow them off a lot of the persimmons before dropping them into the bucket...I will need to check them good tomorrow before squeesing them...Sweet pea will not tolerate beetles in the pulp. I just killed two of them crawing up the inside of my sweet shirt. I crunched them with my fingers, they should have stayed outside.

I mowed my lawn today also for the "last" time this year. I think the two favorite times to mow your lawn are the first and last time each year. In between well it's fun but not as much fun as the first and last times. I noticed the trees are telling us that winter is just around the corner here in Indiana. The cypress needles are turning brownish in color. I should take picture as it is pretty. Some of the trees have lost the leaves some are just beginning to fall, but it all says, "get ready", winter is coming. I don't like winter, I guess it reminds me that we are all mortal maybe, I don't know but I don't like winter at all. I guess the only good thing about winter is spring coming next, that I like, I like it a lot.

OK amigo's that does it for tonight....semper fi.....

PS... just got an email from Shirley Claiborne in Florida. She tells me my lemon tree is loaded.
My God will this harvest season ever end? Well maybe the neighbors will use them up before I get there...I hope so the thing I really like about that lemon tree is when it blooms in Feb and March..the fragrance is pure heaven.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

New Challenges for College Kids (185)

Just came across this video to the right of an advertisement for a College in Chicago. Maybe a whole lot of "tonge in cheek" going on here but we all need a laugh now and then and this one made me laugh. So click on, watch it, laugh and then move on and get on with life as we know it here in 2009. My blog is not much today, am tired and fussy, worked hard today, need a bath and then a nice warm bed....Good Night Amigo's

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Subaru of Indiana Auto Plant and then Pa Pa's (184)

Yesterday was a good one..I toured the Subaru Auto Plant here in Lafayette for the third time in 20 years it has been in operation. I was totally impressed with this tour given by our guide named Tom. It was great and in this day and age of depressed everything this plant and Subaru in general is a shining light of what we can do if we just decide to 'get it on'.......

Maybe I paid better attention this time but my heavens they are doing it right there. I have to say that if I were in the market for an automobile I would have to consider this companies products at or very near the top of the list...And if Subaru is too hard to say they also make the Toyota Camry there also. About 800 Camry's a day as a matter of fact and about 850 Subaru's also. 3000 men and women are enjoying employment there at this time. I am proud to say I live almost within the shadows of this plant, well I am 2 miles south, but I can if I climb up my TV tower I can see the smoke stacks on the plant. But without smoke, they do a terrific job of holding down emissions and re-cycling at this plant. Nothing goes to a land fill, it is an absolutely clean, lean impressive place here in Lafayette Indiana.

A couple stats I remember hearing on the tour that impressed me were the average auto purchased in the US gets traded by the original owner in 2.5 years...The average Subaru owner keeps his car 7.4 years and 95% of the Subaru's sold are still running on the road 10 years later.
The work force is non union making 22 bucks an hour to start and moving to 25 after 3 months. Health care is provided with 0 deductible. Is it any wonder they have a 3.1% turnover in employees each year? I suspect you take out the retirees and it don't leave a whole lot leaving there for a better job if any. So I proved it again the slow learner mode of this writer, it took 3 tours over 20 years but I finally got it....Subaru is one fine auto and auto manufacturer and one I will definatly someday consider heavily and most likely own and see if I can help add to that stat of owning it for over 7.4 years.

If you are contemplating a new car, I would recommend strongly that you take this plant tour and look at the cars in the entry way to the plant. They do tours about everyday Mon-Friday and although most are scheduled groups if you were to call and talk to Tom Elger 765-449-6250 and explain your looking before you buy I know he would let you tag along on one of these tours.
But you can go on line and see some of the things on the tour by clicking on plant tour and taking a look...here that is,

www.subaru-sia.com


Now after that excellent part of my day I called sweet pea and said, "hey lets go pa pa hunting, as it's got to be about the end of the season for it"...She called a friend she works with Sharon who along with her hubby "Lar" own a 40 acre heaven on the middle fork of the wildcat creek.
Friend Sharon allowed us to tromp her woods near the creek and shake a few of the Pa pa trees that grow there in the flood plain of said creek. We had a great time, got a few burrs on our clothes but that comes with the territory I guess. But we each had a 5 gallon bucket and when we finally tired of this we had them half full and they started to be a little heavy to carry for too long a period. So we called it quits for this year but the picture to the right shows what 129 Indiana Pa Pa's look like as they ly there for a couple days ripening just a bit. Then when they are soft to touch we will eat a few but most of them will be wrapped in newspaper and put into the freezer for winter off season treats. And treats they are we thaw them cut them in half at the belt line and with spoon in hand proceed to scoop out the wonderful custard like insides. Working the large seeds around inside your mouth as you enjoy the fruit then very professionally spitting the seed back onto the spoon to be deposited in the trash can or saved to be planted next spring if your the Johnny Pa Pa seed type like someone I know.

Right under my pa pa picture is a link to a private citizens assesment of the new health care bill being shoved down our throats...I tell you what boys and girls if you have not taken the time to watch this video your missing something worthwhile...nuff said...

Thursday, October 8, 2009

2009 Harvest is underway and Healthcare be commin (183

Well its always good to get harvest started. The soybeans are always ready first and then the corn. But this year it is all going to be late. Normally I would have been harvesting beans a month ago but the crop went in late due to wet weather. And speaking of wet weather that is what we have today and tomorrow. As the fall proceeds forward it seems that the good days get fewer and the not so good for harvest days, become more plentiful. I am thankful that facing this that I am a small hobby level farmer these days. I feel for the guys with a lot of crops to harvest before winter this year. My harvester is 24 years old this fall, but still a good machine. I rebuilt the sicle or knive on the grain head of the harvester day before yesterday. It had a few years on it since I had done that...It will probably be the last time I will ever have to do that, I think it will last at least 3 years and my guess is that by that time I will be ready to fully retire as far as farming goes. But not totally sure, the way the country is headed it may become a necessity to have this additional income. Our economy is not a pretty sight, I don't see how it will ever recover. I hope it does, but we have this love affair with imported lower cost goods that are made outside the USA. By getting all these items real cheap it leaves us enough money to purchase cell phones, which by the way are no doubt made in china or japan, for everyone even the kids. Some are like little computers and my heavens you can play lots of games and send text messages even while driving to your friends. Or setting in class at school or college maybe...Whatever these low cost imported goods allow us other luxuries also not made in the USA. I wonder what percent of jobs needed for us to support ourselves have to leave the country before we figure it out? Maybe all of them, I guess I am not the sole slow learner.

And when most everything we consume comes from other countries that is a lot of jobs that have been moved to those countries. It was profitable for the companies to move there because they could then sell us the stuff at much lower cost which we all just dearly love....Everytime Walmart slashes everyday prices lower you can bet another job left the country. So where will our people get jobs if we are not making the goods that we consume? We really need to start paying attention to what we are doing. A friend in my Bible study told me resently that his wife purchased a can of peaches made in China. Is that a good thing when we grow peaches in Georgia and Michigan?

So maybe for now I will hang on to my day job of hobby farmer. Takes about two or three days to get a harvester ship shape and then you never know if it will run well all through harvesting or if you will be repairing many many more things as time goes on...I guess that is a little stress that a farmer must endure and maybe makes him not a stranger to prayer, even to "keep it running Lord".

So back to harvesting, I have 15 of my 75 acres of beans complete so I guess that would put me at 20%, at least a respectible first day considering not starting until 3 PM because of wetness from a slight rain the day before...The warm sunshine and slight breeze dried out the damp pods and allowed them to pop open and release the beans as they passed through the harvester ending up in my grain tank and then my truck and thus a once a year paycheck for the farmers.

My harvesting will keep me manually busy for the next few weeks but mentally I will be concerned for our country and where it is headed. This administration seems content to busy itself with getting us all health insurance at who knows what horrendous cost to us all...How that will address the real issue of getting people back to work I have not got a clue. And with leadership of change for changes sake and for no good reason, we are in some deep doo doo...and I fear with this particular "occupant" of the white house and the equally unqualified leadership in congress our ship of state is sailing into the perfect storm....buckle down the hatches...