Friday, May 16, 2014

Sunday Field Inspections

On Sunday afternoon my husband and I hopped into our old farm pickup.  With the windows down on a warmer than normal afternoon, we were on what I like to call a 
"mini-date"!  We took about 3o minutes to ourselves and inspected the crops!

We found a few things like........



LARGE CRACKS in the ground.... dry weather.. need moisture!



Check out the height of the wheat.
By now it should be taller, but with no rain, it's not growing as tall.


Not many roots on this particular clump of wheat.


Time to inspect the wheat heads!



After this wheat crop inspection, we headed over to a field that will be planted to soybeans. We needed to check for moisture.   
It may not be pretty, but we feel that no till farming is the best practice.
That's why it looks the way it does, we do not work the ground between the crop rotations.



My husband tells me " here, take this screwdriver, we will check the moisture."


Yep, you can imagine the look I gave him.  
When I said that I would remember that I need a screwdriver for this, 
he said "or any sharp object will do". 

 Farmers are so resourceful aren' t they!

So we proceeded to dig to see how far down the moisture is.


We were somewhat happy with our findings on this field.
See the darker soil.... moisture.  
Yippee!


It did rain the night before.  At our farm, we got 1/2 inch of rain.  We will not complain, we are grateful for any rain that comes our way these days! Our crops depend on moisture!

The wind picked up quite abit by the time we reached the corn field.  
I did not get a photo of the corn field.  But we do have some small stalks coming up!

I could see the farmer's demeanor change quickly as he looked from the pickup at this field! Here's the issue! In the center of the field, the dirt was blowing alot!
There is where Milton had leveled the ground previously since it would not drain properly. With the wind blowing so hard, it could cause the corn to break off.

He needed a closer look at the center of the field! So, when we got home, he hopped on his trusty dirt bike, and did what any good ol' boy would do!
He drove to the field and did kitty's so it wouldn't blow so much!

(Since the weather was changing and we were in for storms, 
I assume he didn't want to get the cultivator and tractor out.)

Perhaps he was just playing as boys sometimes do, or maybe he was blowing off steam, or maybe he was truly helping the corn that was growing I don't know. 
 I will let the farmer be the farmer and I will be the farmer's wife!  

Appreciating the "mini-dates", the hours he puts in to provide 
for our family, and love him as best I can!

Thanks for stopping by!
Julie










4 comments:

  1. My husband and I had the very same 'mini-date' a few days ago, and it was nice. After the busy time of Spring planting, it was good to spend time together, and this is as good of a way as any!

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  2. Always nice to have a few minutes alone with the farmer in his "natural" habitat.

    Thank you for joining this weeks Country Fair Blog Party! Always love having good friends join in on the fun!
    Laurie - Country Link

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  3. Prayers for rain, Julie. My parents are in south central Nebraska and are very dry too. We were facing drought conditions a year ago. Late last May the skies opened up and it went to raining. I hope you can catch some good rains soon.

    We have been getting moisture right along, but it's been a cold spring. We get a nice spring like day every once in a while, but nothing consistent. Yesterday morning was the first morn this week it was over 35* when we got up.

    We have very little farm ground, but farm enough for cow hay and calf silage. The Rancher hopes to get to town tomorrow for fertilizer and start planting corn in the afternoon.

    I hope you have a good week!

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Thanks for stopping by!