Life on the Farm

[M2A]

Good luck with your Granny crop Stoker. Their harvest date is not until the 1st week of November here which makes them a tad late sell in the market, not many customers after October. I did make a deal with a fella a few years ago and planted one in a hole, just as a pet tree. A rabbit got up on the snow above the tree guard and ate the bark off one winter. Left all the Gala around it alone. lol  Maybe got 15 apples off that tree. I should give it another go.

Been dry and windy most of the week, looks like a rainy spell for the next few days. Good chance to get some work done in the shop.
Mike       

[bjrogg]

Sorry I haven’t been able to post much this week. I ended up catching whatever my brother and nephew had. Worked through it, but I just was to whipped at the end of the day to think about anything. I’m starting to feel a little better, but just a little.

I did finish up planting our soybeans and I even planted a small food plot for the wildlife. Be interesting to see how it affects things.

Last Sunday my neighbor and his son stopped over and tilled my garden. Then I switched 12 rows of the planter back to corn so I could plant my sweet corn. Usually my neighbor does with his four row planter but he was still planting soybeans. I planted 24 rows in really good conditions so I hopefully get a good crop to eat and put up in the freezer.

Our corn came up nice. Your right about the corn that comes up later Mike.  If a corn plant comes up just a day later than the plants right next to it. It will never catch up and really is almost a weed. Dr. B says it doesn’t matter what you do to it it won’t catch up. You can even pee on it. He’s tried it.

My sugar beets have a few spaces I would have like to see filled in, but they are going to have to be good enough. They aren’t quite as sensitive to neighbor as corn. Also the open spaces make it harder to control weeds.

We are getting ready to plant our edible beans now. I got the pre emergence herbicides this morning. Have the planter switched over to edible beans. Washed it up and cleaned up the Quadris system. I don’t use it for the rest of my planting.

When I was picking up my herbicide I pasted one of the smaller windmills they were working on. They had the hub and blades on the ground.

Strawberries are really blossomed out nice.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Strawberries

[chamookman]

Hope You get feelin' better ! Bob

[bjrogg]

Hope You get feelin' better ! Bob

Thanks Bob. I’m feeling a lot better today. My head still feels like a volleyball and my ears and sinuses are still a mess, but I’m definitely going in the right direction.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Feeling a lot better. Still sinus pressure and ear fluid but much better.

Saturday we moved everything for planting navy beans to my brothers place. It takes a lot of stuff. Tractor and field cultivator, sprayer, tender, fertilizer truck, tractor and planter, seed wagon, tractor and roller, and loader tractor.

It’s a 14 mile one way trip so it took most of the day just moving stuff, but it’s all there and ready now.

Saturday night went to my wife’s 40 year class reunion. Kinda small turn out. Probably past most of their bed times.lol

Sunday we got together with kids and grandkids for a nice campfire.

Monday and Tuesday we hit the planting navy beans hard. Monday I planted 162 acres. Tuesday I planted another 114 acres and moved everything back to Dad’s. My nephew put the pre emerge herbicides on the black bean ground. It was hot and dry and the weeds are really growing.

The soybeans I planted last week are coming up.

The beet fields really need to be sprayed. Can’t believe how fast these weeds are growing.

Today we got the sugar beets sprayed

[Buckskinner]

Glad you're feeling better!

Yeah, weeds are a pita...  Not as common anymore, but I spent many of days on a cultivator as a kid trying not to wipe out the corn rows.

Is that volunteer corn to the sides of the picture?

[bjrogg]

Yes I spent many many hours cultivating sugar beets, edible beans and corn. I spent  a lot of hours with a hoe in my hand to.

I think what you are seeing is rye cover crop and volunteer wheat. The sugar beets we don’t spray rye to kill before we plant. We just till field once leaving residue for wind protection. One of the really nice things about RR sugar beets. Before we had to spray several times while weeds were very small to kill them. Wind blew off sugar beets every year. It was very difficult to use cover crops. Even cultivating was difficult with cover crop residue. Made for more “iron worm” as we use to call it.

Definitely a case where new and old ways work well together
Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Started planting black beans yesterday. Got 112 acres planted. We have another 107 acres of our blacks to plant and then about 90 acres for my son. Should be able to finish them up in about two days if everything goes well.

My brother got his port for chemotherapy put in day before yesterday. He has appointment with chemotherapy doctor today. I hope everything goes well.

I took two pictures yesterday. One of the residue from rye cover crop incorporated into the soil. The second after planting. It’s a lot of residue and the planter has been designed to brush it in between the rows so it can still get good seed placement in the soil.

Bjrogg

[Pappy]

Looking good BJ, our soybeans are up about 4 or 5 inches but could use some rain,was supposed to rain yesterday but none came, getting a little dry around here again.
 Pappy

[bjrogg]

You guys are a little bit ahead of us here. Soybeans don’t like getting out of bed when it’s still cold out. They will sit there with the ground shoved up but not come out of ground till it warms up .

Scratching seed by the woods. Looks like something is watching me.

Bjrogg




 

[chamookman]

Classic Coon Tree BJ, He's hopin' You are planting Corn  ! Matt and I are gonna try and get a Mess of Bluegill today, for a Fish Fry. Prayers sent for Your Brother - Bob .

[bjrogg]

Classic Coon Tree BJ, He's hopin' You are planting Corn  ! Matt and I are gonna try and get a Mess of Bluegill today, for a Fish Fry. Prayers sent for Your Brother - Bob .

Thanks for the prayers Bob.

It certainly is a classic coon tree. The raccoon is going to be disappointed to find out I planted black beans there. I don’t think they really like black beans.

Good luck fishing. The water’s still pretty cold and those fish will be tasty and firm. Tell Matt I said Hi.

We did finish up planting my sons black beans yesterday. Like Pappy we are a little on the dry side. The little crops are doing fine yet but the wheat and hay could use some rain. A nice shower would perk everything up. It’s supposed to rain this week but it’s been supposed to rain half the days of May and we haven’t had more than a dust settler so we will see what happens. I planted the beans pretty deep.

Today we will be enjoying our grandsons 8th birthday and getting together for a party. So far he’s our youngest grandson and they are all growing up to fast. Gotta enjoy them while you can.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

We had a really nice time at our grandsons birthday party. Was cloudy and cool. Played some ball. Nothing like a ball game to make you realize you don’t have the moves you use to have. Was fun though.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

The kids have a lot of animals and they are well taken care of. They have rabbits, big goats, little goats, mom goats and dad goats. Horses and steers. Laying hens and chickens.

Here’s some of them

Bjrogg