Lovin the Harvest (261)

The harvest is going well and the harvest is good. Without a doubt the finest year in farming I have seen in my farming years. The yields in corn and beans are among the top I have produced...Bean yields are equal to the best ever about 15 years or so back. That is a nice change, and corn maybe is not the best but it is close. I had a National Corn Growers Contest entry, that checked in at 191 bushels per acre. Naturally you put that on your best ground but I think my overall average was around 170 bpa, not bad at all. The moisture on the corn is the lowest I have ever seen, especially for early harvest in September. It has run between 14 and 15% for the most part. If corn is over 15% the processor or grain terminal charges the farmer a fee for drying the corn to 15% moisture. So with this phenomenal drying of the corn in the field there was not drying charges. The other extreme was last year when corn just did not dry down good in the field and my harvest moisture was 20 to 24%...lots of drying charges last year.

Of course the reason farmers love the harvest is it is "pay day" for them...the rest of the year we spend money on seed, fertilizer, equipment, chemicals and the like, but harvest hopefully and prayerfully, there is enough to cover all these expenses and some left over for profit, to provide for ones living....this year that looks good as grain prices are above average also, I guess caused by concern for lower yields in many parts of the corn and soybean belt of the nation...

GOD kind of blessed North central Indiana where I live with a very early planting season, timely rains all year long...But as close as 60 miles to the south the farmers experience the driest August on record...not good, we were a little dry but we did squeak out a couple one inch rains that month and helped a lot...maybe two more inches would have been even better but lets not go there, a lot of farmers experienced a less favorable year...I feel for them as I have been there many times..

I am broke down right now in the middle of soybean harvest, parts are ordered and all will be good again someday soon but for now, I have time to make this post, about the harvest in general...One thing, you will see at the right here is the first pie of my season..Chestnuts are ripe and falling from my tree, down the road Mrs. Schrock has apples falling from her tree...Pillsbury pie crust were in my freezer and I love Apple/Chestnut pie...It is about gone already, it is as good as it looks...Just take a Apple pie recipe and take out 1/3rd of the apple and replace with fresh sliced chestnuts...Chestnuts/free...Apples/free, pie crust maybe 3 bucks, taste of the pie/PRICELESS

Oh, click on the title above to see all you need to know about chestnuts maybe.

Cheerleader Watchin (260)

I got better things to watch than the "anointed one" Obama, yep I got Cheerleaders to tell you about, a lot more exciting to watch than the current occupant of the white house...

Yep seen here is granddaughter Tabby Russell who is a member of the 7th grade cheerleaders at Wainwright Middle School...and also seen here to the right is another granddaughter Paige Russell who is a member of the 8th grade cheerleaders...Got these pictures at a recent Football game last week...And low and behold I spot a grandson out on the field playing center and blocking out would be terrorist trying to get to his quarterback...His name is Caulin Post old number 77 seen in the picture...Not pictured here is another granddaughter Ashley Russell who is multitasking as the cheerleader coach at Wainwright and my hair dresser also....
The girls are great cheerleaders as was Ashley when she also was in school...must get in their blood as here is Ashley now back teaching others to RAH RAH RAH as best they can...
Paige and Tabby have both had a lot of classes on tumbling doing all those flip flop things that cheer leaders are so good at...I suspect these two girls will advance into cheerleaders at the high school level as well...Caulin Post takes his football equally serious and works hard at the game...understands it far better than the writer here who just last night watched a whole 5 minutes of Monday Night Football before moving on to a boring but more interesting movie....
And lastly I want to talk a bit about a new car a friend bought recently...A Volkswagen EOS Retractable Hardtop Convertible...It is, I feel a kind of a "classic" as the German Engineers held nothing back in designing the workings of this top, it is a marvel to watch as it goes down and folds away or comes out and goes into place when the top is needed...Also a Sunroof makes this vehicle actually as advertised "three cars in one"....A Coupe, A Sunroof and a Convertible...when painted red with a beige leather interior like the one Susan purchased last week, it makes a good choice. I think this car will be not only a lot of fun to ride in but will have also a high resale value in years ahead...So Click on the title above about the cheerleaders and you will go immediately to another picture of a EOS automobile...
And lastly, good news, my remodel job on the house is FINALLY complete. I have moved back into the master bed room and the master bath...absolutely love living in the whole house again, it feels so good and soon I hope my crops will be ready to harvest and I can bore you with crop reports or huge problems that I was able to solve, with either cash, or brains, or brawn....

Oh gosh, I almost forgot, the mother of all those cheerleading gals above, my daughter Shirley, well she was a great Wainwright Cheerleader in her day also....

Obama Watchin (259)

Ever feel like your in an airplane and maybe the pilot is very inexperienced? Maybe not even have a license, maybe just learned enough to get us in the air? You take quick turns from side to side, up and down...I get this feeling watching this President. Now for a little fun click on the title above Obama Watchin and give a listen.

Probably a wrong feeling, but never the less one I have these days. Like yesterdays coverage of him offering over generous tax breaks to small business owners to expand their plants...100% tax write offs for a couple years...Maybe even a good idea here but such an about face on his part and the timing tells me, he is really not inexperienced at all, but a master at politics. It is interesting to watch as politicians on both sides scramble with elections coming up to stay in power.

At times I wish we could change all of them in the house all at one time, but I know there are a few like Mike Pence for instance and many others that are worth keeping in office. I guess the choices in each congressional district across our land will just be comparing who is running and listening to what the stand for. And then picking the best one...I hope the majority that win in this election has the country's well being foremost in mind and politics way down the list...

I do like Obama's offer yesterday of making tax cuts permanent for the lower 97% of the taxing base and only allowing taxes to raise back to Clinton era levels on the top 2 to 3%...I could live with that for sure and I think the wealthy of the nation have been protected and have not paid taxes in proportion to the way they have been blessed being in this nation...

So even though I know that this President is a con artist to the inth degree, I do like some of his ideas...Hillary Clinton yesterday stated the debt load of our nation is a national security threat...she is correct and I am glad she said it..Her boss is probably not glad she said it, but that is OK it is the truth and a little truth now and then from a politician is refreshing...

OK I have a front door to paint today, and one of these days I need to think about getting started on harvesting this years crops...Hearing reports of corn in this area planted early like mine as low as 17% moisture..Hard to believe, but it has been a near perfect year and now near perfect drying conditions. So my fellow Americans, let the farmers go forth, keeping one eye on the crops and the other on the President. What will he pull out of the hat today?

8-28 Rally in DC (258)

While in DC a week ago, luck, fate, whatever, but we had Saturday off from our reunion commitment and were thrilled to be able to take part in the Rally that happened on the DC Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The picture here of the subway and of the happy couple at the Rally kind of portray the excitement of the day. First off the Metro ride in from Franconia/Springfield station was fun..normally a jam packed subway would not be fun, and too allow it to get over crowed to the point ours was would normally tax ones patience and hospitality for sure. I think it was the big story of the day in that long lines were at all the metro stations and when our train made the 5 stops before we got to the Lincoln memorial it just got more crowed and more fun as the trip progressed.

We were accompanied by our friends Jon and Courtney Dermott from Joplin Missouri who also attended the Marine reunion. They had told me a month before that they would be attending this on Saturday, but I did not realize just what it was all about...When Susan found out about it she said she for sure wanted to attend, and I love the idea of restoring our nation to what it used to be as much as the next person so we were on...

So back to the subway ride in, after the second station the train was full with every standing room taken. But three stops to go before the Lincoln memorial..doors open maybe 15-20 people were standing there...the crowd willingly just tightened it up, without anyone saying a word and in they came...Doors shut were off, total full for sure now I thought...next station, same situation, doors open 10 to 15 people in front of each door..The crowd shifted tighter and in they came...and the last stop the same thing...Absolutely no one complained one time, everyone on these trains were going to the rally and we all knew the more that showed up the better chance we had of accomplishing what this rally was all about...

We got off the metro at the Foggy Bottoms station which is 3/4 mile from the memorial mall..Not to mention in all the excitement we lost Courtney for 15 minutes...she had walked a little ahead of us without knowing it and then all of sudden Jon missed her and the hunt was on...we figured we had walked ahead of her so Jon went back looking and Susan and I waited...Just as he came back empty handed and maybe quite worried here she came back in the other direction...all that kind of stuff just makes good memories after it is said and done, but we were glad to see her and proceed to the excitement ahead. We were an hour late because of the huge subway crowds but quickly caught up with the excitement of the day...Susan remarked at one point how there was no litter anywhere to be seen at all. She asked a few people where they were from and they were from a lot of different states all around. I read a guest editorial today in the Journal Courier, from a Karen Hatke about this rally...it was well written, and dead on with content..If you have not read it click on the title above, and it will take you to her editorial .It was an exciting event, not neccesarily by who was there to speak, or by what was said, but I think the key thing is who was there to support this rally, like Us. the Dermott's, Karen Hatke, Tom and Susie Null from Dayton In. and all the rest of the 500,000 people who came to show their concern for our nation, and where it is headed. That want to pay more attention to future elections and how we vote. And pay more attention to the way congress spends money in the future, and what they spend it on for sure. I think we truly have reached a turning point for our nation...I think enough people have "gotten it" so to speak, I think that day, WE DID INDEED GET OUR COUNTRY BACK......

I guess we will know that for sure in the next two or three elections that lie ahead...