Planting Begins

4/30
ETA: I fixed the goofed up dates… what happens when I’m trying to catch-up…. which is constantly!

The plan was “I’m going to start planting on Monday (4/25).”  But Saturday… and it seemed all was ready for the planter and the monitors and the tractor so…. out he went!  Yeah!!

Monday & Tuesday (April 25 & 26) were full of issues with this and that but… he said on Tuesday, “God is good.”  So we plant as we are able.  Wednesday he pushed hard but the rain became enough in the early evening that we were done.  And have been out since then.  The rain continued to increase and we had nearly 2″ just on Saturday (4/30)!!  I think some cats & dogs rained down as well!  At this point, maybe this Weds or Thursday he’ll get back to planting.

 

The first field he did was here along the lane so I rode along for a bit.  (He hates selfies but look how accommodating he is getting!)  And of course, new additions to the planter and a new monitor to figure out and at the end, he laments why he does a field along the highway first! (where others then see if he misses spots!)

Before he started last Saturday, I helped him set the monitors to sync with the GPS to go with the planter & tractor measurements.  Mostly I sit in the cab, punch in numbers, and coach his measuring.

The dog just continues being a dog.  She loves to roll in this dirt!!!

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Corn Planting

This has been a cool & wet spring!  Planting has been more than challenging!

through dirty tractor windows….

 

Corn was planted on
April 23 – only 5 acres
April 25
April 26
note 8 days off…
May 6 until 12:30 a.m.!
May 7 from 1 p.m. – 1 a.m.!
May 9 7 a.m. – 4 p.m.  Finished!

I rode along on 4/23 when he started.

And the rain came at 4:30!!  A half-hour after he finished corn on 5/9.  Whew!  But ugh on more rain.

Here are some of the monitors, Mom.

So we are stuck here.  No soybeans have gone in yet.

Somewhere…. over the hillsides….

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Here We Go… spring rush!

P was gone for work on Monday and then Tuesday was to check all the equipment for a good day to run on Wednesday.

He went back to a less expensive fertilizer because of the low market prices and applied that all day Weds, Thursday, and Friday.  Just a bit he is putting in other areas to empty the tank and it is already here for today.

He would like to spray his cover crops but the wind is supposed to get to be too much today so we’ll see.  Yesterday was 70′ bright blue skies!  The dog & I sat outside and I brushed her.  Too bad she’d prefer the shade and I want to sit in the sunshine!  She wins…. she is hard to move and has much more fur than me!

When I got a photo of the tractor back home, I found a sleepy dog on the porch.

Earlier while I was out brushing her, I also checked on the lilac bushes.  We trimmed them after blooms last year, as I learned online to produce more blooms this year, and it looks like it is working!  This area of bushes is packed with little buds of blooms growing!!

We tried winter garlic for the first time with planting in November 2015.  So far … all right.  One of 3 varieties is doing well.  Another has fair population, and the 3rd is all but absent!  Thankfully we marked our rows when we planted.

Friday night supper was homemade pizza.  Not totally healthy but better than take-out!

I make 3 small pizzas when I do this so we have one fresh and now I have 2 in the freezer for that night where all I can imagine doing is heating a frozen pizza!

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