thunderstorms

Hi farmers. Today and for the past several days, we've had beautiful weather. We tried cutting wheat today with much sun and heat, but this evening, the weather has taken a stormy turn. Much lighting, some rain and a little hail. I wonder why God would let us raise such a beautiful wheat crop only to pumel it with hail. I'll never understand that. Well our harvest crew is assembled. We have Rich Palmer, Alberto Rodriguez, Konner Kippenberger, Phil Blahut, Matt Stanford and Mike Sigg and of course Dad and I

busy

Hi farmers. We've been busy here on the farm these past two days. Yesterday and today we have been working on the wheat trucks to be sure they are ready for hauling the wheat to the elevator. Its a pretty big job checking the tires, changing the oil, etc. Today, we received our header that we leased from our good friend Phil Blahut. It was sure good to finally meet him after talking to him these past couple months. Phil lives in Saint Louis, farms near Sharon, Kansas and has agreed to help us come harvest time with his combine and header. Phil is also going to let us borrow 3 of his harvest team members as well. We are looking forward to meeting them very soon. Long time friend and elevator operator Bert Godwin estimates we are going to be cutting by May 30. We're fast going to get there! Talk to you soon.

WARNING! Sunday Sermon

Today is a brilliantly sunny day here on the farm. The weather is about as beautiful as possible. Hearts are stirring with the knowledge that wheat harvest is close. Each day brings about a more yellow tint to the wheat in the fields as they blanket the countryside in all directions. From any direction here, we can see at least five miles and even more. It looks like we're camped out in a sea of green from horizon to horizon, but that sea is rapidly turning a golden hue. We're just a couple of weeks, maybe three at the most, away from Wheat Harvest 2008. The Bible says that "eternity" is in the souls of men. This eternity has been divided into seasons. This is our season of harvest that comes only after a planting season. What we have sown and cared for, others will reap the harvest. This food that is growing here in the Oklahoma prairie will feed thousands of people for this next year. It is our hope and prayer that all of the people who eat of our bounty will not only benefit from it nutritionally, but spiritually as well. It is said that "bread is the staff of life". This "bread of life" is made from the wheat we grow. We intend to make that a double meaning for people both physically and spiritually. By grace are we saved through faith in Jesus alone. This makes salvation a gift of mercy and grace, salvation of our bodies through physical nourishment and salvation of our hearts through the bounty of grace. I can't wait to take part in this bountiful gift of a wheat crop this year. My prayer is that the Lord will benefit his people in the harvesting and eating of this year's crop in a two fold manner, physically as they gain nourishment and spiritually as we endeavor to be a blessing to those with whom we come in contact.

A "Day" in the Life

Well...hello Farmers. We got a shower over night and it sure cooled things off. Rye pulling came to a halt this morning due to the rain. When it rains the rye bends down because of the extra weight and we can't FIND IT! The big Mexican Crew got finished up yesterday with their work on the rye. They worked a total of 394 hours. WOW...that's a lot of RYE PULLIN'. This is a picture of Juan Martinez...he's the crew boss. Today, we worked on momma's garden irrigation project. I'll show it to you sometime...you might be impressed. The cows are looking much better since the spring grass has started growing. They keep looking "LONGINGLY" over the fence at the fresh green wheat. BUT...they know that if they ignore the fence we'll have steaks to eat. No...seriously...they only have to go to "Jail". We have a "Jail" setup in the river lot complete with only dry hay to eat. On a bright note, the wheat, especially the Jagger variety, has sure started to turn that golden yellow hue. Won't be long now. r

chances of rain

Well hello farmers. Today we are waiting on rain. Oh, we're still able to pull rye (of course :)) however we have quite a bit of clouds. Parker has even been helping a little in his own little way with the rye pulling. He likes to look for it, but he's not quite big enough to pull it up. We're raising a good little farmer.

pulling Rye

Left: Rye heads growing up above the wheat heads.

Well here at the farm we've been busy pulling rye. Had some passing car stop and ask what in the world we were doing. We said "pulling rye" He asked "What's that?" I explained it sort of looks like wheat but grows up above the wheat and kind of waves at you in the breeze like its sort of mocking us and just waiting to be pulled up by its roots. We'll that's what we've been busy with anyway. It takes a long time to keep it out of the fields but its sure worth the effort because the elevator will dock us $1.00 per bushel of wheat if they find any rye seeds in the wheat up to 3% and and will dock us $3.00 per bushel for anything over 3%. (at least so I've heard on the grapevine gossip tap) Makes that "clearfield" technology that you can spray your wheat and it removes everything else growing there sort of like roundup pretty attractive right about now. We've had my brother-in-law, future sister-in-law, a crew of 10 mexican field hands, 5 school kids, our full time farm hand, two part time hands, and two young women from town helping at the same time plus my humble self! Sure makes for fun conversation. We have a system. Pull it up, behead it and stuff it in a homemade rye bag. Then transfer it to a trash bag once you get to the side of the field and finally, feed it to the cows. Our good friend Phil Blahut suggested making rye bread with it. Today, I'ld rather starve. When its all finished though, a good sandwich made with rye bread sounds pretty good! r

fence rows

Well today was a beautiful day here in paradise. Not much wind and everything is so green! Well, almost, because we sure need a rain. Even a heavy dew would help matters tremendously. We have been pulling rye. That blasted stuff. Special thanks to Konnor Kippenberger and David Barnett for helping me today. They really worked hard. Well it was so nice this afternoon that I decided to catch up on our spraying. I sprayed the fence rows where the johnson grass was starting to grow then sprayed the water way here at the home place. I sure hope it helps kill the cheat that tries to take over and stop the water flow. This evening Eldon Shantz came over and swathed down some of that rye that is so thick we can't pull it up by hand. Thanks Eldon. A friend shared with me this week that he had been reading the 139th Psalm. I have read it to today and I challenge you to read it as well.