Day in the LIfe
LCP Update and Work, Work, Work
Today was a rat race from the word go. Quick stop at the church office for some committee work then off to the bank. The bank was a mistake. I forgot that Monday was a holiday and it was crazy in there. Took longer than I wanted or had time for, you know you have to visit, but it was a good visit and I got my business done.
Then a quick run to get planter parts so I can start on the planter rebuild just as soon as I get everything else done…..haha!
The rest of the day was occupied with either shed “issues” or with phone calls. The shed issues are really nothing that doesnt go along with any building project. But they are all things that have to be done.
So this evening just before closing I went back to C N C gun shop here in Benton to discuss the issues I had with the Ruger LCP. Danny was pretty insistent that I was the only one with an issue and as we discussed it became apparent that he was right.
First problem was that we were not shooting with the laser on because it was so bright in the sun. We were using the iron sights. Apparently they are just for show….and tonight with the laser on I was hitting soda cans at 25 ft (~7 yards) pretty easy. Matter of fact I was grouping them about the size of a tennis ball. Much better than just barely hitting paper at the same distance on Sunday with the iron sights.
Second problem was that we were shooing at about 12 yards with the open sights. Danny pointed out that the gun was designed for 7-12 yards with the laser as the sighting device. Again with the laser on and at 7 yards it was no problem to hit a soda can.
Last problem was the tightness of the gun. Tightness as in slide action and trigger pull. The double action trigger pull is horrid compared to other double actions I have shot. Again most all DA pistols I have shot have been pretty well “worn in” or “shot in”. As Danny said the gun just needs rounds run through it to loosen it up. That I can take care of!
So we will run a few boxes through it and see how she does…….with the laser of course.
But its still not even close to Glock………. or a good DA S & W revolver.
My New Goal in Life: Own an Elected Official
Yesterday I was listening to NPR or more correctly our local public radio station, WSIU, and heard a story about who in Illinois had contributed the most money to Illinois Politicians. The top contributor was a Chicago Law firm followed by a couple of businesses in Illinois. The amount they contributed was staggering. The amount they contributed would have employed several hundred people at wages well above minimum wage.
If your so inclined, get on the net and do a search of campaign contributors in Illinois for your county. It will surprise you who in your county contributes money and to whom. In my little search I found that some people contribute and equal amount of money to “both sides”. As an example I saw one fellow locally who contributed to the local Democrat House member and to a Republican House member in another district. The shocking thing is the amount of money that goes outside of the area to other states where these folks do business as well. Even in a bad economy some people have a ton of money to use to buy a politician.
Make no mistake about what these folks are doing with their money: They are buying access and influence to elected people. When you donate a million dollars you just purchased a Senator, House Member, Judge or Governor. You might even get to own a President.
OK there is nothing new here is there?
Nope, nothing new at all.
So why are you bringing this up now?
I always thought the way to change America, Illinois and Franklin Co. was for good men and women to run for office and get elected. Folks with morals, conviction, Godly values and dedication to the working men and women of this nation.
That is a grand falsehood.
I have been living in the “Land of Make Believe” with Mr Rogers.
In reality all you need is enough money to buy one or more elected officials.
Its like going to the mall and looking in the window of the pet store. There are all the cute puppies playing and pooping and you pick out the one with the spots you like and pay at the counter and he is yours. If the dog acts up, you jerk his chain and get him back in line.
So with an elected official, you go to the State House, Senate, Governors Mansion and you look in the window and you pick the dirtiest, lying, cheating, immoral, valueless and brainless scumbag you can find who will sell his soul for money and you buy him. Then you jerk his chain, his wife/mistress/boyfriends chain or kids chain when they act up and he gets right back in line and does your work for you.
Simple isnt it.
All it takes is money.
So my new goal in life is to make enough money to buy my own elected official…..
And from the looks of the contributors list here locally the old saying holds true………you do get what you pay for!
Dont go cheap……….even if that money could be used to feed the homeless or employ hundreds of folks…………
Thanks NPR……..you enlightened me today.
History of the barn
I had a few people want to know more about the barn fire I had pictures of on here two weeks ago.
The barn was not ours, but the neighbors across the road. They set it on fire, it was not an accident. The 100 year plus old barn was in bad dis-repair and they tore it down with a track-hoe before they set it on fire. There were a lot of old oak beams that had the peg and hole construction in them that they burned up. That to me was the shame in the fire.
I posted the pictures of the fire on Facebook and David McCollum, who owns a local real-estate agency, provided a history on the old barn and the farm. I have added some notes of the conversation on Facebook below to fill in a few details and also to note a few details that I have been told as well.
Most of the history of the barn and its owner are from David McCollum. Edits or additions to the narrative in italics are by me.
The barn is/was located on what was the old Robert R. Ward farm. He was the President of the bank at that time (late 1920’s) in the Wood Building on the square in Benton. He and his family lived in the big brick house on North McLeansboro St. (later the Eovaldi house) but also owned that farm where this fire was today. When the crash came in 1929, he went to this farm on his noon hour and jumped from the silo. (It is also told by some in the area that he hung himself from the silo on his noon hour.)
My dad (George McCollum) told me that Robert’s Ward’s wife, Terzie, was a cousin of J.C. Penney. After she sold the big house on N. McLeanboro St. to the Eovaldis in the early 1950′s, she moved to a one story brick home in the 300 block of West Church St (north side of street) and lived there until her death in the early 1970′s. That house is where Dr Knapp lives.
Robert and Terzie had 6 children, 3 sons (1 was Russell “Bud” Ward), and 3 daughters, Martha “Sis” Ward Johnson (wife of Judge Webb Johnson), Sue Ward McCollum, and Mary Ward Doerr, who was my kindergarten teacher at Lincoln School. Sue was married to my Dad’s cousin Charles McCollum and they spent many years in Puerto Rico where he was a plant manager for Levi Strauss Co. Sue’s full name was Susan Esther Ward and that’s where the street next to the Eovaldi house got its name. (Susan Esther Street).
Ward also owned the Franklin Mining Company located due south and east of the farm? I believe that is true about the mine company. (Also of note is that coal mining maps show that the only part of the east side of Benton that is not undermined from the old Franklin Mining Co is the block where the Eovaldi house is located, where Robert Ward lived as noted above.) He also owned a dairy company that was located at the farm where the barn was.
If you know any more history on the barn, farm, mine, dairy or house please leave a response in the comments section. I have to approve comments before they show up……so don’t worry if it doesn’t show up right away.
RWVA Project Appleseed IBC
Just returned from the Illinois Project Appleseed IBC. IBC stands for Instructor Boot Camp. The IBC is a training event to help mentor IIT’s (instructors in training) or Orange Hats to become qualified instructors or Red Hats. There are five stages of IIT from IIT0 to IIT4. I am currently an IIT2, so I have two more IIT progressions before I go for my Red Hat!
The weekend consist of reviewing and teaching the history and events of April 19, 1775 as well as polishing up on the marksmanship skills necessary to teach the shooting portion of an Appleseed weekend. To become an IIT you first have to have attended at least two Appleseed weekend shoots and shoot Rifleman, a minimum score of 210 on the AQT (Army Qualification Test) that has a maximum score of 250. Shooting Rifleman is not an easy task as a lot of experienced shooters think it might be. It took me three Appleseeds and a lot of practice in between them to master the skills necessary to score above a 210.
Instruction was done by Dond, Master Shoot Boss and State Coordinator for Illinois. Dond has a very unique way of approaching a COF (course of fire) for an Appleseed weekend that results in very high scores for the shooters by the end of the day. Small group sessions were done by Red Hats or instructors and shoot bosses to help polish up the things that were taught by Dond.
I had the privilege to be in small groups with Red Hats Wurstmacher, Castle Mountain, Shooter 30-06 and Tornado. These are not there real names but their “forum” names that they go by at the shoots. All of these folks are very passionate about the history and shooting that goes into a Appleseed weekend.
Castle Mountain reviews some of the history and teaches how to deliver the important points during a breakout session
Shooter 30-06 goes over the retreat of the British Regulars from Concord or the “Third Strike” using his “battle road map” during small group time.
Woodl practices explaining the AQT and how each stage of the AQT is to be shot during a breakout session.
It was a great time, made a lot of new friends and learned a lot to help me be a better IIT and one day a Red Hat!
1st Major Announcement…Shed Day 5 and A Barn Fire
I guess we can let the cat out of the bag now and make the first of two major announcments that I alluded to earlier in January of some changes here on the farm.
Not only is this a shed we are building, but it will also be a warehouse for Pioneer Seed. Robertson Farms is now officially a Pioneer seed dealer. We will be servicing farmers mostly in the western part of Franklin Co. It is a natural fit for us. We have enjoyed a long and productive relationship with Pioneer as a seed customer and seed grower, mainly because I have felt that their agronomy and sales staff have always had my success at heart when offering me products and services. So when the opportunity presented itself last fall we began the process to become dealers for Pioneer. We have a lot to learn but are eager and ready for the challenge!
The end of day 5 on the new shed…………….now we are ready for metal! The nice sunny days have allowed for quick progress, but the bottom has fallen out of the ground around the site. We had to pull their forklifts and tellehandler out today. The telehandler was setting on the frame with the last truss suspended in the air………fun!
Meanwhile, while the last truss was going up, we spotted smoke accross the field and found that our neighbors old barn was on fire. By the time we got over there the major part of the black smoke was gone but the flames were still going as high as the silo tops!
The old barn has been a land mark on Rt 14 east of Benton and the silos are also the site where the original farm owner killed himself back in the 40′s or 50′s…………more on that later………
Happening now on the farm.
Busy under-describes the amount of activity going on right now.
Finished up hauling my January contracted corn this week. Glad to have that done……..it seems like it took for ever and I guess it did with all the meetings I have had and time away from the place.
Pioneer came and got their seed beans so we spent part of two days loading semis. The big plus is we got it done before the rains set in!
Progress on the new building has come to a halt with the rain and winds so no new updates or pictures of progress on that front.
Waiting on the last of the planter parts to get here so we can start the rebuild on it.
Waiting on the last of the NH3 parts so we can start the rebuild on the anhydrous tool bar.
We did get the planter monitors back from AgExpress………… that’s good news!
The next few days will be spend trying to catch up on all the paperwork that has piled up between meetings and hauling grain.
All in all, I would rather shovel grain than push papers………..
New Year: Updates and Changes Coming
Well, it’s 2012, or something like, that and January is going to start off with a bang so to speak. A very busy month ahead for Robertson Farms. First up is the Farm Futures Management Summit followed by the KARTA meeting shortly there- after. Throw in a IEMA meeting, K9SIL meeting and some other training meetings and the bigger part of the month is gone.
In between those meetings I hope we see the start of the new machine shed as well as getting the new (to us) NH3 bar home so we can put the VRT controller on it. There is a planter to rebuild as well as the backhoe and dozer to work on. So we need to hit the ground running and not look back.
Plus if the weather allows we need to pull a few soil samples, grain to haul and some scraping to do.
Fun and busy!
If that wasn’t enough……..there’s more! First thing in the spare time is a revamp of the website. I have been wanting to a major revamp but have not had the time with all the other stuff going on this fall. The revamp will coincide with two new business ventures we are going to be entering into here on the farm. Can’t say much about them right now but I think some folks will be surprised at what we have planned. These will bring new opportunities for us in agriculture as well as begin to pave the way for the next generation of Robertson’s to enter the the operation.
Hopefully we will be making some announcements in the next 30 days or so……………..
Don’t be alarmed if I miss a day posting this month with all that’s happening.
It looks to be an exciting and busy winter!!!
Phishing vs. Fishing: China, North Korea or Russia?
The last few days my comment box has been full. Like overflowing with junk from the usual spammers but also from what I suspect is an internet phishing attack from China, North Korea or Russia. I keep getting the same comments in the same very bad English from different commenter’s but also multiple comments from the same “person” on multiple posts.
One might ask how I know or would suspect a phishing attack for one of these counties and I would say that I don’t have anything concrete but I offer up two things that make me say so.
First is comments are left on pictures I post. I don’t allow posting of comments to any pictures I post on the blog so when a comment shows up in the in box attached to a picture I know that is not the usual ”male enhancement pill” spam or the latest of what the Kardashians (spelling? who cares?) are up to or where I can see hot pictures of someone famous etc. So when “John Smithy” posts a comment to a picture and says “I find post good and helped me back often” I know its not the usual junk.
Second, I have a friend who does IT security for a big business. He and I have compared notes in the past: When I get lots of picture comments from “John Smithy” and “Jenny Smithy” and the lot he has said that they get a lot of “hits” on their security systems from “foreign” countries, specifically Asian counties, during those same times. While he wouldn’t tell me who, he didn’t say I was wrong when I mentioned that I think they come from China, N Korea and Russia.
I also suspect some come from the Middle East……..
The hits, like the comments, often have links to site that most likely will down load phishing apps to your computer. Phishing apps are looking for passwords, bank numbers and all kinds of your information besides infecting you computer and maybe passing it one to someone else or making your computer into a host for their activities.
It is also not a coincidence that this latest attack over the weekend seemed to peak as news of the death of the North Korean dictator came out………..again it seems that a lot of spam attacks happen very closely to news events in those countries I listed.
But then again what do I know………just a farm boy.
Acres of Acres that don’t add up.
I have been working on a whole bunch of small stuff in the office, mainly fertility recommendations but also some “what if” crop planning. A few years ago I wrote a simple spreadsheet to do some what if type comparisons. Then the thing grew to a not so simple monster of a spreadsheet. I guess the correct term would be a worksheet or work book with something like 15 or 20 different linked spreadsheets in the workbook. You change your corn acres and all the sheets update: seed needs, fertility, chemicals, insurance, fuel and so forth as well as what your insurance coverages are and what your marketing price targets should be.
In running the spreadsheet the last couple of days I have had to put in acres of corn, beans and wheat as well as landlord split acres. I never realized how many sets of “acres” I have for the same acreage.
There are FSA Acres, Rented Acres, Share Acres, Spray Acres, Harvest Acres and GPS Acres to name a few.
None of them are the same.
If you farm you know……..its 40 acres you pay rent on that only has 38 acres in it by planting and spraying but is 37.2 by GPS around the boundary but shows 41 on the yield monitor and the FSA office has it down as 40.5 acres for the farm program.
So you rent 40 acres but insure 40.5 because that’s the official government measurement, you plant and spray 38 acres of inputs but combine 41 acres of crops and figure your coffee shop yields off the 37.2 acres of the GPS unit…………
All those acres add up…………
Confessions of a Brass Hawk
I read a story four or five years ago on a message board or magazine somewhere, I can’t remember where, about a guy who picked up every piece of spent brass (the fired brass cartridge casing) he would find. The story was several pages long and it was funny as it could be, mainly because minus a detail or two, it sounded like me to a great extent.
He talked about picking up brass that his buddies left at the range, at the side of the road, at the bend in the road, that shooting spot in the middle of nowhere or wherever he saw it lying and no one claimed it. The story also included a funny bit about finding a guy living in a house trailer in the middle of nowhere that had several oil drum barrels of spent .308 or .30-06 and how he tried to trade him out of it and ended up with one drum full. He then later went back to try to trade or buy the rest of it and to his amazement the man, trailer and everything was gone from the property except the mail box.
I can’t recall a lot of the details of the story other than those, but I remember it was titled “Confessions of a Brass Hound” or “Hoarder” or “Hunter” or something like that. It was funny.
I think everyone who shoots, picks up brass. We can’t help it. We either know someone who reloads and would want it or we reload and want it. Even the calibers we don’t shoot we will pick up because we “might get a gun that would shoot it” in the future and we would already be a leg-up on components, saving us big bucks! (Insert smiley face here)
About the time I read the article, I was working down in the southeastern part of the state in some “backroad” places and would be driving down some rock roads and find places where folks had be shooting into a creek bank or off a bridge or whatever, and I would stop and there would be brass everywhere. I would get out and pickup .38, .45, 9mm, .357, .223, .22-550 and even the occasional .270 or .30-06. I got to where I even made a loop over to the roads or bridges where I knew there was a good chance to find more brass since my last visit there if I was in the neighborhood. Some days I would have a plastic grocery sack full of brass.
Needless to say it began to accumulate that summer. I didn’t have a -06 or .270 or .45 so when I got “enough” I would sell it or trade it at the local gun shops for some components or .22 rim fire. Everyone wanted brass. It was worth a pretty penny and worth even more if I ran it through my tumbler before I tried to peddle it. The other calibers I would keep because I either reloaded those or thought “I might get one” in the near future. Again it accumulated and those calibers that I “never did get” I would sell or trade off when the notion hit me.
Fast forward to this past week.
A buddy of mine got a .308 the other day and wanted to know if I had any brass. I think he already knew the answer. I had some “just in case”. He wanted me to price it to him and after much consideration I did. He said he would have to think about it.
Then he said no he would pass.
I couldn’t imagine that I had priced it too high, so on one of the days when I was out an about I stopped by a gun shop and was asking about reloading and brass and the guy behind the counter said he was interested in buying brass so I told him I had some .308. What he said next shocked me.
“Not interested”.
What?
I guess I must have turned white or something and he followed up quickly that “.308 shooters are not reloading these days” and that “they don’t want reloads or reloading components”.
.308 shooters in this area are not interested in shooting reloads or reloading?
I guess I just find that hard to believe but apparently it is true. At least here “locally” the brass market for big calibers is dead. I can’t imagine that they are not picking up their brass. I can’t imagine that the economy is such that shooters are not considering reloading or stocking up on components. Pistol brass is still a commodity. .223 brass is a commodity. But big caliber brass is dead.
I think if I get the chance I will make a loop one of these days back down to those back roads and bridges and see what people are shooting, if anything, by what brass is laying around. And I will keep picking up brass because someone will want it or I will need it “just in case” despite what .308 shooters are doing here locally.
Inventory and Receipts…..
Between things that have to get done I have been trying to get some things done here in the office and in the house that I have neglected or that got pushed to the back burner because of everything else that has gone on this year.
One of those projects that I got started over the weekend and am hoping to finish up today is installing the new kitchen counter and sink that has been laying in the family room for the better part of 10 months. So at an hour here and a hour there I am down to installing the sink and plumbing it up.
Which means a parts run this morning…………
So off to two (2) local businesses to get the stuff I need. Why not one (1)? Because no one in this economy will stock any inventory. Its not just hardware stores its farm equipment stores and tire shops and everyone with inventory. They are all happy to order, at an additional cost, but no one has any inventory. So it takes two stops to get what a fellow needs to do an odd job.
But I am wandering off topic………
I could get started on this inventory and parts thing esp. with equipment dealers who charge a premium for ordering stuff but I won’t. I have learned to save gas on the farm side and just go online and order it that way. Its here in 24 hrs delivered to the door by the Brown Truck of Joy (UPS) and I don’t have to leave the place, drive anywhere and find out they don’t have it…….plus its always flat rate shipping that is cheaper than the gas to drive to the parts store anyway……….
But again I wander off topic……..a blog for another time.
I got home from my parts run and put the receipts down on my desk so that I could record them in the checkbook. You know a receipt, that strip of while thermal paper that comes running out of the cash register or computer printer once you complete your transaction and pay for your items. A receipt. A receipt is an evidence of purchase. A receipt is an acknowledgement that a transaction has taken place.
Well, I guess we are so stupid as a nation anymore that this morning when I put the receipt down on the desk, I noticed on top of the of the white thermal paper, in bold face type the following: THIS IS YOUR RECEIPT.
What? I mean what have people been thinking the paper they get was? THIS IS YOUR RECEIPT. KEEP THIS FOR YOUR RECORDS.
Is being able to identify what a receipt is at this particular business so difficult that they have to print THIS IS YOUR RECEIPT on the tickets? Is this some legal junk to keep them from being liable for returns or has there been a problem legally where they have to state to the customer that they have got their receipt?
If any of this is the case I don’t want to shop there anymore. Why? Because that much stupid could rub off. Both in the business that has to tell its customers what a receipt is and in the customers that shop there.
Its no wonder our country and economy is in so much trouble……………
Pieper Bayard 1908: Shooting a piece of history.
Over the Thanksgiving break, Matthew and I got to shoot a handgun that is about 90 – 100 years old or so. It is a 1908 Pieper Bayard Pocket Pistol in .25 cal. I guess more accurately, it is in 6.35 mm, as stamped on the slide or what we know as the.25 ACP. This pistol is one of the more interesting guns I have handled from the standpoint of design and working of the action.
From what I could find out, this gun was manufactured in Belgium by the Pieper Company founded by Henri Pieper. Pieper was considered a pioneer of mass production of “sporting arms” in the late 1800′s. It is, or was, one of the smallest pistols ever built for the caliber size ( assuming this meant .380 and .32) and suffered from heavy recoil (noted several times in readings). The .25 was manufactured starting in 1912 with the .380 and .32 manufactured before that.
Here is some good summary reading on this firearm (mostly the .32) by Ed Buffaloe. There is other good reading on the Bayard if you have the time, just Google Pieper Bayard and all kinds of things come up!!
I can tell you from Matthew’s and my point of view, it wasn’t all that pleasant to shoot in .25 either. It has a very small grip and is hard for both Matthew and I to get our hands around (notice how small it is in Matthews hand below and in the top picture! (yea that’s my baby boys hand!)!) without either getting a finger in front of the barrel or getting pinched in the slide.
That isn’t to detract from the gun, or an indication I didn’t like shooting the gun, I just prefer something to hold onto when I present the gun at the target! As a short range or belly gun, the Bayard would fulfill its role quite well during the time it was built. I just prefer to shoot my targets at greater than arms length!!!
The pistol is small and heavy (as already noted) with the frame milled from one chunk of steal and the slide from another. The barrel is actualy part of the frame right above the trigger and not in the slide as most modern American handguns are. It is a simple blow back design.
To dissemble the piece, remove the magazine and insure that the gun is unloaded by visual inspection of the chamber. Then you push, then pull back and up on the front sight. This allows the recoil spring and follower to be removed.
Once the spring and follower are out you pull the slide all the way to the rear and then simply lift up off the frame. At this point you have field stripped the gun.
This particular one had been repaired as noted by the brazing done to the recoil spring housing. ( I have no idea if that is the correct term or not……..I am just a farm boy who likes to shoot, not an armorer!)
This particular gun belongs to a relative and suffered from stove piping. I got to shoot it and bring it home to clean it up and see if I could fix it. A good deep cleaning and inspection revealed that the ramp was scared a had some burrs on it as well as the extractor having carbon buildup. After a bit of polishing with the Dremel tool on the ramp, oiling and reassembly, the gun worked almost flawlessly. I say almost as we did have one more stove pipe but were able to run multiple magazines of 50 gr Aguila .25 auto through it without stoppage.
So we got to fire a piece of history as well as learn some history over Thanksgiving break. Plus we got to get that history back up and running for its owner…….pretty cool.
Persistence
Persistence: To continue steadfastly or firmly in some state, purpose, course of action or the like, especially in spite of opposition remonstrance, etc..
I am trying to persist.
Its not easy it seems anymore.
Took the weekend off and went to Evansville to the Appleseed shoot at Red Brush range and had a very enjoyable time despite the 40 mph winds that played havoc with our targets both days. 20+ Americans persisted over the weekend on the line to improve our shooting skills and learn our heritage. It wasn’t easy or fun a time or two when the wind kept messing us up, but we persisted and shooters improved and learned and never quit. And we had fun despite the wind.
On the way over in the New Haven bottoms we saw lots of combines, auger wagons and trucks trying to get the harvest out in that area. They were persisting. It didn’t look like it was fun in places with the soil conditions but they were making a dent in it before it rained. Having said that, the crops looked good from the road. That however doesn’t mean much this year as a lot of fields that looked good from the road haven’t been good at all.
I got started with fall tillage yesterday but got rained out. I will persist at getting it done when the ground dries out again.
I have been trying to get back in the swing some how to keep this blog more updated and relevant but I cant seem to get it done. That being said I will persist at getting back on track………..
Headed down to see what I can do to help with the radio problems at the Region HQ for the Earthquake Exercise today. A lot of people have persisted in getting this program set up for RACES/ARES to help and we continue to persist at making sure it will work if and when we need it to work.
The “to do list” gets longer every day but we persist at working on what we can when we can and getting it done.
So in honor of persistence, this blog will be labeled as “to be continued“……..
Missed it, too busy here
I was going to start the week off and get back to daily blogging but when I saw the forecast for next week I went back to work. Rain most of next week the way things look right now, so I worked some ground and spread P and K and had Browns spray some fields that I knew I most likely would not get to before it rained.
I had planned on doing some blogs on some shooting videos but that will wait until next week.
Oh, next week……is the SLE 2011 or State Level Exercise for IEMA and I have to play radio man. I am not ready, and dont look to have a lot of time to get ready this weekend either…..
So for a video on shooting how about this one…….
Or this one……
Corn, Beans, Buildings, ATV’s and Copper Wire
We got about half an inch of rain yesterday. Now it’s cool and damp, which isnt going to allow the corn to dry much. But better weather is promised for the weekend and next week. I am ready to get the corn done and get on to soybeans.
The soybeans are just days away from cutting and this rain will help them a bit by knocking off the remaining leaves. Pioneer scouted their seed production and made an estimate yield of 35 bu/ac. I sure hope they make that and would be tickled to death if they do, but think their estimate is way high. We will see. They have a track record for being pretty close on their guess every year.
While waiting for the corn to dry and the beans to get ready, I have moved some dirt to get the site of our new shed ready. Still have work to do, but the rain interrupted that activity as well.
While moving the dirt that had been stockpiled at the other farm I found a hidden cache of copper wire , wire cutters and flashlight. I had just about ran over it with the dozer when I saw the black from the wire jacket under a pile of weeds. Luckily it had not come from our barns but wherever they got it, it was big stuff. After the LEO’s left I felt compelled to have Mr. Glock ride with me the rest of the day on the dozer, in case someone showed up to collect their stash.
And last but not least was the excitement on Monday when my ATV caught fire. Was out in a corn field sampling and some leaves got up against the motor and caught fire. I always watch the exhaust but this time it was clean and it was on the motor. I got back to the truck in time to get my water jug and threw water on it to put it out. No damage was done and I didn’t catch the field on fire……..
That’s about all the news that’s news around here right now……..
