We decorate graves

Sunday we went to the cemetery to decorate graves. (We have no veterans since the civil war and they are not buried in Oregon anyway.)
I used to go with my Mother every year and I have just continued the tradition with my family. We had a hard time finding flowers this year due to the cool weather and my wife actually resorted to buying flowers.
We didn't have quite enough.
We have my two sets of grandparents, Mom, and my great Aunt and Uncle. We short-changed Uncle Milton as he was often really grumpy.
The daughter spent a few moments at Mom's grave. She loves her grandmother and is sad she can't hold onto the memories of her. She was only four when her Grandmother died but she had already developed a close bond with her.
Later we met my brother and family and dad at the Mongoloid BBQ in Salem. You go down a line where you pile raw food in a bowl and then give it to a fellow who cooks it on a giant Wok. You add spices and oils to get the right flavor and when it is cooked those flavors are infused into your meal.
This was the daughter's first trip. Her cousins had been building it up for months. I helped her get a pretty decent mix the first trip. The second trip she chose mostly noodles and it was kind of gross.
I am amazed at the amount of food people consume. A nice elderly lady in front of me was pushing two bowls and she took all the cilantro. Just flat piled it on. I figured the cilantro was a spice and not a main dish...
I just take one dish as I like to make multiple trips for experimenting. I loaded up on dead sheep and spinach and not so many greasy noodles. I was quite happy with my meal.
Since all the meals are cooked on this huge circular wok I told the daughter to watch her meal closely. I think it is kind of funny when you get pineapple and you didn't put any in your dish.
Later, we went to the Daughter's school program. She has decided she wants to go to public school next year. She is doing so much better and is pretty happy at the small Christian school I really hate to see her go back. But, we let her make the choice to go the private school and I feel like I am going back on my word to take this choice away from her and... if we force her to go to the other school will she hate it and then lose the benefits of the education which worked mostly because she was excited and it was her choice to attend the school?
The next year (6th grade) she is going to attend the school where her mother teaches so I suppose one year is not that bid a deal.
I really dislike my old school.

Why I don't play the lottery

I have kind of bad luck. Not the sort of bad luck where things continually fail, but rather go sideways.
Now I guess there is no such thing as "sideways" luck but if there were I would be the poster boy.
Saturday I spent the most of the day grinding feed.

My feed grinding operation was a kind of a clever plan. I have a handful of dedicated customers.  Strange thing is that people keep calling me out of the blue saying they saw my ad on craigslist six months ago.
The thing is...I don't get any big customers. My one customer that buys a ton at a time for his pigs somehow got 1000lbs of chicken feed instead of pig feed and i ended up selling him the next ton at half price. I gave his daughter a toy minneapolis-moline tractor also. She said she liked tractors.
But, I digress.
My sideways luck soon kicks in. If would have been bad luck to sell him the wrong feed and have his pigs die. It would have been good luck if he would have ordered six ton. Sideways luck means he things I am a great guy and will buy more-but pennies from heaven it is not.
We sold all our hay for a reduced price. The people are taking the bottom bales and two year old stuff. They paid for half of it already. Bad luck would be if the check bounced, good luck would be if they paid for it all, sideways will mean that something will go wrong with the last payment.
I got a good set up for grinding feed at last. The M670 loader blew a cylinder on the loader, the M-5 has a bad knock, and the Jet Star won't lift high enough. But, I found my $25 auction special loader and hooked the hydraulics up to the old GMC truck with remote outlets I got for free and I even had an electronic flow control that was miss-labeled and I got for $50 on ebay.

 I was able to dump the truck into the auger and then regulate the auger speed with the hydraulic flow control.

The bed was low enough that I could dump boxes of oat and wheat screenings into the truck load of barley and have it nicely mixed going into the hammer mill.
So then the people showed up for more hay. I had to move all the feed trucks out of the barn. Then it rained.
I finally got going again and things were working great.
Then...
The fan on the 1939 model Z moline flew apart busting the fan pedestal and putting the fan into the radiator.
I went and got the U and finished my box of feed and then i quit. It was 7:30. I went to bed early...
Where I am I going to find a radiator for a 1939 MM Z? I don't have time to repair an antique tractor I only use for raking hay and grinding feed. I don't have $600 for a new radiator. I can't afford a $6,000 feed mill. Why am I even grinding feed? Any other farmer in the neighbor hood would have spend $20,000 and would have lots of customers and probably a sustainablity label and would have been featured as farmer of the year somewhere, cause they are just to wonderfully innovative. Value added and all that!
But, once again I digress...
The point of the post was why I don't play the lottery. It is not that I will become addicted. Part of the reason is I don't want to give up my hard earned money to be wasted. Mostly it is because I know I will never win big. This is what would happen. I would win just enough to be in the papers and have people bug me, but I would never win enough so that I wouldn't care. It would go sideways...

Parts prices from New Holland are practically a sexual assault

The blower liner on our garage sale New Holland 900 failed. We made a not so quick dash into our local NH dealer for a new liner. It was something like $95. We could have got it mail order for $65 if someone would have noticed it was out last winter.
I don't object to that price. It is a little high but I kind of expected it.
Today we pulled the blower band  (part 21)to get to the liner and discovered that the blower band it getting thin. I though perhaps it would be $150 or perhaps $200. It is not complicated but is specially formed.
I called my friendly NH dealer. $365!!! Needless to say it was not in stock.
I understand that there is no competition any longer but... Do the companies ever think that screwing their customers with high parts prices may not sell more equipment or parts?
I needed some wear plates for the side of the feed roll area. They were like $250. I could get them flame cut from better steel for less money. And I will...
The blower liner I will have to have but I am waiting till next season. I expect to first weld up little holes with baling wire before actually breaking down and buying the part.
It really irritates me as that same blower is used on about five NH silage chopper models and might even be the same one as on the current pull type model.
When I went to buy a disk mower I called and asked for prices on commonly used parts. I bought a Hesston because the parts were less money. Not sure if that is still true as AGCO is the same kind of rotten multinational corporate entity that Fiat New Holland is. Who actually knows who currently owns NH as Ag companies are traded like baseball cards on the international corporate market.
I guess you take your pick as to if you want an Italian screwing you or a Frenchman, it still makes it hard to set down for a while. 
It gives me more sympathy for that maid...

You have to check out the new Ministry of Truth twitter-er

I got this off of the Classic Liberal- and I know, every time I go there or post something such as this I am one step closer to room 101.

Click here to see the first twitter post by the person in charge of internet accuracy or something like that. All I understand about government is $4 diesel, $500 fertilizer, unthinkable deficit, and that we have always been at war with Eurasia or was it Eastasia?

Whatever, I am sure it will go down the memory hole soon...

Here is a corn planting photo for those of you who only want to read about farming.

Today it rained

Yesterday,
I planted some of my Teff.

We chopped silage.

Things went wrong...
The chopper is a NH 900 I found on craigslist for $1,000. It was covered in the last crop it chopped. It had not seen a field in 15 years. It is actually in pretty good shape. It much better in every way than our old 890 and 892 choppers.
Somehow, the blower liner was not checked. Even though we swapped the cross auger and worked on the fan! I understand what went wrong but talking about it makes me grumpy. You can't stop a project for six months and switch people in charge of project and not have some things skipped.
So... my brother took off for NH dealer to get a new one. On the way back his pickup died. Had to send truck driver to go get him. Got my cousin (whose truck we are borrowing) to drive. He is a very nice cousin.
I have other people's corn planted but not our own.
The ground was ready to work yesterday for the first time. The rain may slow it down.
I need to plant a number of small fields. 10 acres of Timothy, 10 acres of alfalfa, 10 acres of buckwheat, 5 acres of soybeans, 20 or 30 acres of corn, 30 acres of fescue for seed. It all adds up.
Just heard the seed cleaner place lost 17,000lbs of uncleaned fescue seed. May not be a lot by many people's standards but it is a lot to us.
I never did get a truck that I can haul silage with.
I didn't grind my pig feed correctly and my one and only customer who buys more than a barrel at a time is complaining. (nicely)
It is raining and the silage chopper won't fit in the shed. Not that it matters as it is five miles away in a field...At least we don't have cyclones, flooding, or very much nuclear radiation. All is not bad.
Have a nice day...

Bicyclists oppressed by small town police force-which is not all that bad an idea...

Have been trying to plant, chop silage, work ground, and pick my nose all that the same time. Was successful in only one of those ventures...
Here is a link to a funny story.  Every year hordes of bicyclists stream though our fair city on the way to the coast. It is some kind of fundraiser but no one here really cares. We are just annoyed by lanes full of bicycles.
In this area the main reason you ride though Ballston on a bicycle is that you have had so many DUII's that they won't let you near an automobile for the next 30 years. Or if you are that weird old hippie dude that rides around and picks up pop cans.
The bicyclists have had many pranks played upon them.  Including changing all the signs telling them where to go, giving them wrong directions and sending them to the coast by way of Perrydale and Salt Creek, spraying them with silage (and pretending it was an accident) and I'm sure there are more.
I am not sure why it is so annoying as most of the bicyclists are happy and wave at everyone. I guess it is just the issue that I am working and they are not. Or perhaps it is the problem that I have to move wide farm equipment down the same highway at only a slightly faster speed than they are going.
Anyway...
I guess the local police force decided to write some tickets. I have been hard on the local cops but I do find some humor in this incident and I support the point they were trying to make.
Of course, after I think about it I realize it was kind of stupid. So, the bicyclists are blowing through the stop signs and holding up traffic. It is not the same thing as the crazy activist cyclists in Portland. This is an organized event. Why don't the organizers or sponsors or who ever is in charge take responsibility and realize that blocking traffic really pisses the locals off-and try to do something about it.
Just one quick example that pops into my head-Perhaps there should be check points in towns and traffic control. It would bunch up the cyclists but perhaps it would allow for local police to block intersections and run large groups of cyclists through at once.
Frankly, I really don't have a clue what would help. Especially since I've only been thinking about it from that angle for the past ten minutes. Somehow, even though I get amusement from the ticketing I think it is the wrong thing to do. AND I think the $300 ticket is pretty outrageous.
Despite my opinion that ticketing all the bicyclists was not the best idea, and that bicyclists generally annoy me, my irritation is more with the ride organizers than the local police or individual cyclists. But,  I'm sure that nothing will be learned from all of this. I'm sure the ride organizers will not take any responsibility. The cyclists will not ask for changes in the ride to be more compatible with traffic, an df of course our small town will just be written off as a bunch of bicycle haters (mostly true) and no one will want to taste wine here anymore. (Perhaps that would be a good thing!)

The world is going to end today and I'm going to plant corn...

Not much to say... The world may end early if I continue to not get my rows straight. I have trouble on steep hills with multiple slopes. I am not saying it is too steep to plant corn, but I would not want to be the one to chop it!
It has been no-till for several years. I'm no-tilling corn across no-tilled wheat rows. No-tilling the field does not mean it will be smooth.
Since I know most people come here for my political commentary I have to post this link. The headline is "Sexual Pirates Prowled IMF for Women," (I guess the pirates did the prowling because the women didn't have time?) and there are so many jokes to be made about the story and the headline...
After miss-reading the headline twice I clicked on the link. (It was late)
I supposes it is not so much of a stretch to go from raping small countries to raping the maid. I suppose the fellow actually couldn't control himself seeing someone who could be from a "third world" country. "Oh I've had her before," he says to himself.
Anyway, there was a comment about alpha-male economists which I think was pretty funny. Yeah, right... Check out all the economist puns in the comments.
A bad agency with bad behaviors. I would say, "uncivilized" behavior... I doubt that is acceptable anymore.
I think the guy was set up. Someone didn't want him to be head of the IMF or president of France. I'm not saying he didn't do it, or is not a cad or an abuser of women. I'm just saying catching him within hours, and taking him off an airplane and making a public spectacle was not done because anyone in the Fed or NYC really cares about the rights of women...
So, I'm going to spend the last day of the rest of my life planting corn... so hell really is what we make it?! Perhaps the monitor alarm will stick on again! or I may have forgotten to turn off the fertilzer last night an dthere is 300 gallons of green goo all over his shed floor. Oh! MY! Now I'm starting to really freak myself out-I gotta go...

Another 15 minutes of hate for Eastasia, We have always been at war with Eastasia...

I came in to the house and checked my mail after a long day of burning up $4 diesel and I looked at my last post and I saw only two comments. Then I checked the NewsMax article in with Rick Santorum proves he 1. Is an idiot, and 2. Is essentially un-American, and I read the comments.
Now, it could be that my view point is in the minority. I'm afraid it is. Perhaps my opinion is slanted by reading all sorts of WWII stories in which the Americans are always the heroes and Vietnam stories where the bad guys are always breaking people's legs and trying to drown them.
But...
Here you have NewsMax readers who all hate Obama and most of them think he is a Marxist and then they get all woodies when Donald Trump gives him the jitters and he knocks of Bin Laden? AND then uses it to justify torturing terrorists to get the info.
Let's put this all in perspective.
The 911 fiasco was a decade ago!
 It appears that the very dangerous and evil villain has been living in a kind of a dump of a house in Pakistan for a couple years. He can't leave, he is stuck there with three wives and a pile of kids and seems to just sit around in his underwear and watch porn.
The US Navy comes in with three helicopters to shoot up the house, kill several people, one of which appears to have been armed with a water pistol and in the process crash a top secret billion dollar stealth helicopter, which even as we speak, enemies who have armies and rockets and submarines and are not just crazy nuts with box cutters, are reverse engineering. I mean for crying out loud, recent terrorist attempts-the wiener bomb, the shoe bomber, a kid recruited by FBI agents to blow up a Christmas tree (and then they didn't change the tape recorder batteries), a moron who stuffs his car full of propane bottles and it doesn't go off, an idiot rushing the cockpit on an airplane yelling Allah Akbar?
And we are supposed to be happy?!
It is a freaking joke?
Anyone remember Jimmy Carter and the failed hostage raid?
They didn't even come back with a body. Well, at least not that they will show us.
What did we get for it? We shot the guy in his underwear!
If we could have just waited a couple more years we could have just knocked him off at a freaking old folks home. Kicked his walker out from under him. That would have showed those pesky Islamists who hate us "because of our freedom," and not because 1. Their religions tells them to, 2. We keep torturing them and sometimes get the wrong guy, 3. We keep blowing up their houses and sometimes get the wrong one, 4. They hate everybody including themselves.
The thing is, I would not really care that much if we invaded their country and just flat stole their oil. They hate us anyway. So what?
Is this incompatible with the fact that I really don't think we should torture them. That is just mean. Kind of beneath us...
But, I digress...
Click here to go back to NewsMax and read all the crazy comments. None of these people even think for a second that we have EVER got the wrong guy. That the USA is ever wrong. That they could ever be considered terrorists and lose their civil rights. But... they all support gun rights because they like to tell themselves that they would overthrow the government if it got too oppressive. They are idiots.
I don't want to overthrow the government.
I know darn well that I would not stand a change if a SWAT team came to take away my guns, I wouldn't even try.
I want to be proud of my country, I don't want my armed forces used as Keystone Kops, I don't want to be in a decade long pointless war, and I don't think we should let people who hate us into our country. I don't think we should treat other people badly but if they assault our citizens we should bomb the crap out of them and get it over with.
If we can't get it over with we should get the heck out.
It would have been a lot cheaper just to rebuild the World Trade Center. We could have built like five or ten of them just to piss off the bad guys. They could have never hijacked that many airliners again.
Just my opinion...I feel better now. Thanks... Tell me I'm wrong! Call me a liberal, I don't care...

Sometimes I can't believe what I read...

Does this new bright shining star in the GOP actually realize what he is saying?
Click here for McCain not understanding torture!
I am sorry. I guess I was raised with different ideals.
The USA does not torture people. We are the city on the hill! We may firebomb and nuke entire cities but we don't put bamboo shoots under people's fingernails. There is a difference!
I guess it is official. There is no more United States of America!
We have become the evil empire...
When the USA is in a conflict that requires "enhanced interrogation techniques," we are doing something very seriously wrong. If a US soldier can't say to the captured enemy, "look buddy, tell us what's going on and you'll get a ticket to the USA, where you can open a mini-mart, plus, here's a Snickers as a measure of good face" and have the guy spill the beans, then we need some self examination!
We have always been at war with East Asia...
PS-I was on my way to plant corn but this just pisses me off! McCain my be the manchurian candidate, he may be crazy, I wouldn't vote for him BUT... The guy was tortured and saw his buddies tortured and I think he knows a heck of a lot more about it that Rick Santorim or what ever his name is. Does anyone on NewsMax have any perspective at all?
AND I like to think of myself as a conservative...

Ironic corn planting?

The farmer thought it was funny to no-till GMO corn into non-GMO sugarbeets which had just been sprayed with round-up. Now that the lawsuit against GMO sugar beets appears to be dead the seed company no longer wants the non-GMO seed and is paying the farmer to kill the crop-with round-up...
Not sure if I am doing this correctly. Only planting 1 1/2" deep but right into good moisture. The Keeton Seed firmers are putting the seed right at the bottom of the furrow. I need better closing wheels. I'm looking at the Shaffert single disk that attaches to the our single closing wheel.

In other excitement Muddyvalley brought me a pile of records which I have yet to go through, so books, and a glass swan for Sadie. I also gave her the Amelia Earhart book.
Quite an interesting collection I must say.
Perhaps i will have more time for describing the treasures tomorrow.
I have found the planter works better below 4 mph in this no-till situation. Not really high production I must say...

I actually check my facebook page and find humor...

For some reason am following stonybrook farm on Facebook. There was a post about Michael Pollan being on "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!"
Now, I have always wanted to meet someone who actually thought "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!" was funny. To be honest, I would much rather listen to "Thistle and Shamrock," than be stuck with "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!"
However, they are raving about Michael Pollan and NPR and humor. I never have understood liberal humor and I guess I never will. I really wanted to comment but I would just say something sarcastic and mean and they wouldn't get it.
I suppose it is all George Bush's fault somehow...
I would like to than Mr. Pollan and Food Inc. once again for helping me build a business selling chicken feed. I'm going to have to start marketing my crappy hay as sustainable and low chemical input. Or perhaps natural.
There is always a way to make a dollar. Mr. Pollan is a clever man. A little bit of truth, some shocking secrets revealed, and there ain't no looking back. You are on a lecture tour. Every journalist's dream!
Anyone every think about the gullibility of people who think the world is going to end this week and then consider Mr. Pollan and Mr. Moore? I'm just saying it all goes both ways...
Have a nice day, I'm off to plant some GMO corn and slather it with Lorsban AND MoCap!

The corn planting discussion everyone really wants to read!

My two sweet corn planting customers called me up today and thanked me for getting their corn planted. It made me feel good. It rained quite a bit last night.
I'm a little worried about the population. Our goal was 24,000 seeds but the monitor kept giving me 20,000 readings and I have too much seed left. If I divide out the seeds per bag vs the acres I come up with like 18,000 seeds. But, if I go by the spacing and use the little New Idea corn planter population slide rule I come up with the 24,000 goal. Depends on if the seeds are 8" apart or 9" apart. I did find one that was 10" and I think there were skips. The farmer dug up a lot of seeds and said 8 1/2" and no skips and no doubles. I did set the air up past 2 1/2lbs but I've never had to mess with the air before and don't really understand how it works.

I planted 1" deep in the wet clods but it covered really well. I have the turbo-till no-till coulters off a great plains drill for the fertilizer and the standard narrow wave White no-till coulters for the corn row. I did not install my row cleaners as they are really ridge-till disks and a little aggressive.
The press wheel is just the single wide wheel but I do have twisted drag chains and keeton seed firmers. The no-till openers really worked the clods up and make a much better seed bed. I had really good seed to soil contact with no voids. I think it will work.

It was a beautiful farm. Rolling hills a pond, and a oak wood lot. They have Charlois (sp?) cattle. You don't see those much any more. I wish I had a farm like it. Of course the wood lot would be full of antique machinery...

I started the next at 4 or 5 p.m. The field was well tilled and I planted at 1 1/2" We changed the fertilizer rate but actually did it wrong and got half the amount. Then I calculated it wrong in my head from the level on the tank so we just went with what we had and I got done sometime well after dark.
The fertilizer in the row worked fairly well. I just have a quarter turn valve to control the pressure and it is kind of touchy. I just put 3 gallons per acre in the row with the seed. I used old Blumhardt fittings to make up my spray boom and a shureflow pump I bought on ebay. I did get a little wild with a magnet and a couple relays so the pump and the calc-an-acre turn off when I raise the planter.

The best modification I made to the planter is the addition of a water tank to wash my hands after getting a hole in my glove and having sticky liquid fertilizer all over my hands.

Waiting for the end of the world-I get long winded and ramble and am probably full of crap...

I know my faithful readers are waiting with baited breath to hear if I finished planting corn and really want a discussion of seeds per acre, planting depth, fertilizer, clever innovations I made to the White planter and such.
But... After watching the glow of an over-fueled exhaust system with six inches of flame coming out of the exhaust on the 1967 M670 Super late last night I want to forget about it for a while. It didn't get the point where you get off the tractor and snuggle up to the engine for some heat but almost. I really shouldn't have been running so close to six mph but I really wanted to get the field done. I just opened it wide open and went, the fertilizer, seed, and lorsban did not come out right but I did 60 acres for my neighbors.
I like to listen to fiddle music on KBOO on Saturday mornings and sometimes keep listening through the Greatful Dead hour just cause FM radio is pretty much a wasteland. My wife and daughter bought me a Sandisk Sansa mp3 player (see my Amazon wish list) which has FM radio and sometimes I put the little ear buds under my ear protection when running an open tractor.
Anyway, they played the Greatful Dead version of  "Tangled up in Blue," and it got me thinking about Bob Dylan.
The first real concert I ever attended was Bob Dylan at the Salem Armory. I was too young to drive. It was pretty empty. Just a few again hippies smoking dope. Everyone was disappointed he played his Christian songs. It was pretty quite after that song about God giving names to all the animals.
The first record album I bought was Blood on the Tracks. It is actually my favorite Dylan album. The second was "Blond on Blond."
So I'm sitting in my old rocking chair listening to Dylan and wondering about two things. 1. The end of the world next week, 2. Should I plug in my Scott 299 Amplifier even though my house has 120 volts at the socket and my ebay special Variac fried in a cloud of acrid smoke.
I suppose if the world is going to end Thursday it really doesn't matter if the Scott fries. If I had the money I'd get it re-capped. I wonder if I could do it myself? I should just sell it on ebay, I could use $150...
But, I digress...
The end of the world is upon us. Muddyvalley just sent me another reminder.
What I find amusing is their willingness to search the scriptures for some hidden code when so much of the Bible is about how to deal with random bad stuff and make sense of it (see the whole book of Job). There are other important themes such as spreading the word of God through love and the example of Christ's death on the cross as a payment for sin-which is important even if you regard the Christianity as a mythology. Ever notice there is no whole sale forgiveness of "sin" in our culture anymore. No redemption.
The idea of individual communication directly with God, individual responsibility for your actions and your salvation should still be empowering in today's society. It essentially gave women the right to vote and this idea of individual self worth which we all value is not so much of a value in other cultures that don't trace their cultural heritage through Christianity and the Greeks and all that dull old stuff that happened years ago. (Although history is being written to blame Christianity for oppression rather than understanding that Christianity was co-opted by the establishment who suppressed the true meaning and forbade individuals from reading the Bible.)
Then there is not killing people, stealing, screwing the neighbor's wife (not a temptation in my neighborhood) and all sorts of other things that make for a stable and cohesive society.
I think there is even something about not being a self-centered arrogant theocratic moron, perhaps like thousands of other people over the past 6,000 years I choose not to read those sections.
Anyway, "Blood on the Tracks, ended and I put on the Bob Dylan and The Band, Before the Flood" tour album. The Band just finished up with "I shall be released" and launched into "That Endless Highway," I'm looking forward to "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."
Perhaps I should avoid apocalyptic music this week. I'll end up full of Southern Pride, (even though I've only spent parts of three summers in Florida so I don't have much of a heritage.) Perhaps I'll move on to Tom Petty and "Southern Accents."
But I digress, dadgummit ADDHDTT or perhaps it is the MoCapp/Lorsban I've been inhaling. Wonder if there is black market for the organophosphate buzz. (Dizziness accompanied by queasiness followed by sore throat for two weeks...) At least I don't have a sore throat this morning. What is a respirator?
Dadburnit-the music ended and I forgot what I was talking about...
Oh yeah the end of the world (side two)
I looked up more about the end of the world and there is an idiot in what used to be Britain before it became Landing Strip 1, who is trying to build an ark. They can't even get their theology right. The first time was water, the great flood, and then there was the rainbow which symbolized the promise that there would never be another great flood. No, the next time is FIRE... So, he should be building his ark out of asbestos.
I have more to say but I've got to get rid of this Bob Dylan. Wish I had another album by "The Band."
I leave you with...

I planted corn

Yesterday, I planted 11.4 acres. It is a start. It was not on our farm, it was for my neighbor. Many things went wrong.
1. I got to the field to plant NON GMO corn and opened the lid on row 5. There was corn in the disk. Not a lot but it was fat big kernels. Not sweet corn. I have no idea where it came from. I took that disk off myself. There was no corn in it.
2. Rows 1 and 5 kept plugging up. Upon further inspection I discovered there were chunks of moldy corn stuck to the inside of the seed tubes. We had all the disks out and I specifically instructed someone to clean every seed tube. I would say that did not happen.
3. The keys sheared on all the insecticide boxes.
4. MoCap stinks and makes me sick.
5. The #$%^&*( monitor alarm will not shut off!!!!!!
It took me from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. to do four acres.
Then the farmer's wife brought us supper from Ashe's Cafe. That was truly a nice gesture. All that Mocap on my fingers should also rid me of internal parasites.
After supper I did another 7 acres. Then it got too dark and the ground was too wet to see the maker trail. This is pretty wet conventionally tilled ground. Lots of wet clods. The extra no-till coulters on the White 5100 are really doing a nice job.

There was a little bit of a hill in the field. I think the six row pulls harder in wet ground.

Rained out

I attempted to plow 10 acres. I was unsuccessful. It absolutely poured. You would think I could plant a measly 10 acres of alfalfa.
Some Ethiopians want be to plant Teff for them. I got advice from the fellow who sells me Teff seed. He said get the money up front. I said I wanted $500 an acre up front to put the pow in the ground. Already the problems have started. They don't have enough seed. They mix sand with the seed as the seed is really small. I've been planting Teff for the past five years and I can set my drill down to 3 lbs per acre. The problem is that is has so much down pressure it buries the tiny seeds too deep.
My plan is to plant the Teff with the Alfalfa. Teff is an annual that frost kills really easy. It requires a lot of water but so does the alfalfa. Hopefully I will get a Teff hay crop. The Teff will winter kill and I will have really good roots to keep the alfalfa field from washing down to Portland.

Whether the Ethiopians want to eat the seed or cows want to eat the hay I probably still planting the stuff. It would have been nice to get $500 an acre however...

Lingering Guilt

Here is a photo of the stacker we sold last year for $10,000. Don't buy it. I can't believe the guy did not come and look at it before buying it. I see he is asking just a little more than he paid for it. Wonder if the A/C still works. I finally got it working before we sold it.
I have never been so glad to see something leave our farm in my life. I hated that stacker. It tried to kill me once...

If it is too good to be true...

I just had a terrible understanding.
Yesterday morning I was trying to remember some planting acres so I can send out my final planting bills. I was just a little uptight as at this point the bank balance does not come close to meeting the amount Case-Credit demands for the drill payment.
I was distracted by the sound of my daughter reading out loud.
I walked out into the living room and there is my daughter on the couch reading about Socks the cat to her cousins. They had a sleep-over at our house and were just getting around. The oldest cousin was on the couch petting the dog and listening to my daughter read. The youngest was in the easy chair trying to perfect his swing with the Wii controller, but with the Wii and TV turned off.
It was some what of an idyllic scene. I thought to myself, this is too good to last!
Yesterday afternoon I observed the kids.
The two oldest cousins begged to for a job and so my brother put them to work sorting old and bent irrigation pipe. They were happy.
My daughter and the youngest cousin were in her play-house fort (it's armament consists of a bungie powered catapult) playing some elaborate pretend game. Every one was happy.
So, everyone gets along, loves Jesus, gives each other hugs instead of fighting, encourages each other to do the right thing...How long is THAT going to last.
No wonder we are going broke, two years worth of seed unsold, I can't make my drill payment. This happy life must end!
Someone is going to die, we are going to lose the farm, get a splinter, happiness is a fleeting thing, life is a bitter struggle, pain and suffering abound! If it is too good to be true it is!
Sometimes I have to go out and yell at the kids, "Stop being so happy, there are children dying in Somalia, Floods in the Midwest, famine and pestilence abound, the sun is going to explode, lightning could strike-we could all get hit by a bus and die!"
Sometimes my daughter responds with, "Lay off it dad or I'll break your other rib..."
Then I retreat to the back room and listen to The Legendary Stardust Cowboy and all is right with the world...

It doesn't matter if you have the right of way, if the bus hits you...dead...

I am always fascinated by cultural views and rules and the stupidity of the college/university sort of people.
I found this article in the BBC news in which a police officer was giving a talk on how to avoid sexual assault and he gave politically incorrect, but accurate advice.
In protest, the bobble-headed proles are having a "slut-walk" to protest sexual violence.
I am sure the policeman who gave the talk is just shaking his head. (he probably got fired or lost pay or was demoted for his honesty.) It could be that he has had some real world experience.

I like to read the surviving in Argentina blog (see sidebar). A lot of these survival type blogs are rather obsessed with hardware. Guns and knives and k-rations. But, being safe is about being self-aware.  Having an exit plan, knowing where you are, not drawing attention to yourself.
There are simple facts of life that no amount of protests or laws will change.
If you walk out in front of bus you will die...
Likewise, if you run around dressed in provocative clothing, it does not make sense that you would NOT increase the risk of being assaulted. I'm sure there are lots of statistics and opinions and "facts' to prove me wrong but why take the risk? Why increase your risk of sexual assault?

Girl the dress you are wearing/
Is a bit too short you know/
Please don't miss understand me/
I'm not an astronaut you know/

On an even more politically incorrect note.. There is the story of the gay kid who tried to pick up a couple crazy "cowboy" types in a bar in Wyoming. He ended up strung up on a fence post.
The lesson the clever folks took from that incident was that of gay oppression. The real story is not to be an idiot! (Or not to confuse porn with real-life.)
It is a good lesson for anybody. Don't trust crazy drunk people with your life. Assaults like this happen to women but we don't call it a hate crime. Be self-aware!
It all comes back to walking out in front of the bus...

In side note, I see from the BBC that some kids in the US got in trouble for turning on the webcam in the room where the one kid's gay roomie was having wonderful gay love. The gay roomie then jumped off a bridge.
The linked story is about how the prosecution is turning one defendant against the other, not in the cause of justice, but rather to win the case. It is all a game and it is BS.
I read the story on WebProNews a while back. The gay bridge jumper knew the webcam was in the room and it may be that he already knew they had taped him before. There was something of a conflict between the too roomies.
So the two defendants taped the gay kid and streamed it live. It was really kind of funny. I have heard of college kids playing pranks on each other before. Some of those pranks are mean and illegal.
Was it a hate crime?
Did it make the kid jump?
This is Rutgers University and it is the year 2011. I can't see how being filmed having gay love in your dorm room would lead to jumping off a bridge. Would having your non gay love live streamed on the internet lead to suicide? I suppose only if you made really strange faces...
I'm not sure if it is invasion of privacy if the guy saw that the webcam was on... That is just stupidity...
Anyway... I think it is all BS, hyped up to deny the real lack of mental health support in the real world.

I've developed a theory. I tried it out on my self-proclaimed liberal friend and actually got him to think for a second.
It is my opinion that the whole white liberal guilt thing has become so much ingrained in certain classes in our society that it is much like a religion. I've seen this with some relatives who went away to colleges that are bastions of liberal thought. They come back thinking rap music is about liberation (instead of getting laid) and they look down on us country folks and think every farm worker is Tom Joad.
But, what if you are male upper middle class, earnest and sincere kid who cares about social justice and you are white? Do you kill yourself? Of course many become involved in stupid social causes but what about the kid who wants to be a minority, who wants to be oppressed? There is nothing to do but to be gay...
Suddenly you are part of an oppressed minority and you can flaunt your specialness in the face of everyone else. Kind of like the second season of Glee...
If you don't believe me go hang out at the theater department at U of O...
On the other hand, I don't really care if you are gay. I'll admit that aggressive gay males make me really nervous. I have no problem with being friends with someone who is gay because he is gay because that is how he is.
That is because he is a normal human being who lives his life and is not obsessed about his sexuality.
I'm sure this post will not get me praise for being honest and opened minded. Rather I will be moved up on the list for the re-education camp. Or perhaps room 101.
However, I think if more people were just honest we would have less discrimination rather than more...
Have a nice day...

A very useful website

This is a link to a website that helps you find your phone.
http://www.icantfindmyphone.com/
What I need is a website that finds my phone charger!
Or that finds my coffee cup!
And sometimes I lose my pickup...
How about a website where I can find $10,000

-I know where my head is at but I can't find my body?-

The two things that democrats and republicans have in common, Sates Ban Farm Photos!

They want to take away your basic freedoms...AND they are morons!!!!
Florida and Iowa have passed the bills which make it a felony-meaning they take your guns away and no longer let you vote-because you are such a horrible rotten and untrustworthy person-to take photos of farm operations without consent of the owner.
The Florida bill is sponsored by Senator Jim Norman (R). I would like to take this opportunity to add this to the Google search engine. I am a conservative farmer and Republican Senator Jim Norman is an Idiot! Click here to be amazed at what the idiots in your legislatures come up with.
I am in favor of strict anti-trespassing laws but this is insane.
And I quote from the bill, written by Senator Jim Norman (R) Florida who is an idiot...

Section 1. (1) A person who enters onto a farm or other
    property where legitimate agriculture operations are being
   conducted without the written consent of the owner, or an
   authorized representative of the owner, commits a felony of the
   first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083,
   or s. 775.084, Florida Statutes.

I think as a landowner you should be able to shoot the person, but it should not be a felony to either be the trespasser or to shoot the trespasser. (so I'm a little kooky-I am not a state senator)
It is insane to be able to convict someone of a felony if they stand outside your fence and take a photo.

I may go over to NewAgTalk and troll this one. I bet there are more than a few tight-underweared farmers in support of this one!
I thank MuddyValley for sending me a link to this story and I would like to point out that should he post of photo of me stuck to the axles in his hay field I am going to sue his sharp-shooting bottom all the way to Monroe! I read the legislation story and it applies to any fields that I farm. So that includes his soggy hay field!

Anyway, I've got work to do. Here is a link to the story from Food Safety News.com

I see it became law in Iowa, I wonder if there is an exception for banjo music wafting on a summer breeze. That could be considered trespassing.

Here is a link to a protest of some sorts from Oregon Live news site. But then you could be in bed with Peta which would be kind of like.... um, That was a bad word... and I better leave that one alone.

Note: While I am opposed to the propaganda videos such as Farm Inc. (although I would like to thank the producers for putting me in the chicken feed business) the response is just plain wrong. The landowners must be able to prosecute you for trespassing if you go on someone's land without permission but a felony on the first offense is way out of line. Likewise taking photos, especially from off the property. What happened to Republicans wanting government out of our lives? Oh right, they don't want their form of government out of your lives because they know what is best for you. I don't like it when the democrats say that, and I like it even less when (what should be) my party (it isn't) says that...

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

In honor of the death of the bogeyman and before another appears I would like to present you with these quotes... If I need to tell you who I'm quoting you need to become more literate.

(note: In the interest of clarity, I am not talking about James Brown who is the Boogieman, not the bogeyman-clear difference!)

"He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past."

"War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength."

"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. "

"The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history."

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever."

"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them."

"But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought."

"To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle."

"Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know what no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me."

"Until they became conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."

And the other shoe hits the floor!

Well, it looks like Trump is a serious threat, they really did play the OBL card. And for a while I thought it was all made up. Still no body, and yes the US does have a secret assassination team. This so called war has really brought out the best in our country. What a box of toys the Prez gets to play with.
This stuff was just in the conspiracy world until late Monday when the information was slowly fed to selected outlets.
Here is the people story. (PEOPLE MAGAZINE!?)
Here is another random story off of a search.
Note: Most of the stories based on the story broke by this author.
So, the existence of an elite assassination team was confirmed, revealed and the bogeyman card used in order to take the pressure off of what? Trump? NATO's attempted assassination in Libya? The economy?
Or is it just 2 minutes of hate? (if so it worked!)
OBL has been living there, next to a military college for a while now. So, I guess it was a good idea to take him out just as soon as they found him?
Here is a link to a fellow in Pakistan who they say tweeted the raid. I suppose this could just be random. The exploded helicopter is interesting. Why lie about it being shot down? Just part of the Jessicalynching of the whole thing?
Everybody I know is in favor. I couldn't find a single skeptic yesterday. Even with the people that lean towards the strange twin towers conspiracy theories.
It all makes me nervous.
I think I'll delete these sorts of posts and go back to talking about farming.

"Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me
There lie they, and here lie we
Under the spreading chestnut tree"

Today is the first day of the rest of your life...

That statement has always frightened me.
I'm taking a break. Actually, I think the five cups of coffee I had this morning did not agree with me. I think I shall sit a spell.
I got a text this morning from my employee. His son is sick and he won't be to work today.
I don't object to that. If your kid is sick or needs a ride to school or what ever you should be able to take time off.
Wednesday (I think) he had a bad toothache. I didn't protest when he went home. I'm not sure if it was early or not. Probably 5 p.m. Thursday, he had a dentist appointment. Friday, he had important things to do but would come in if I really needed him. Saturday I didn't hear anything.
Now here's the deal...
We have a white board with a list of things to do.
I have been working late on the 2-155 because of an unexpected failure.
The corn planter is in pieces but I have 150 acres of corn to plant this week. Plus, about 100 acres of farming to do here, plus the silage chopper to put back together.
And two trucks to get ready, and two balers, and feed to grind, and those are just the "fast track" things.
Today my brother told me his trucking boss cut the end of his finger off so I'm thinking the brother is not going to be around.
I think a person ought to work hard and get caught up so if problems arise you can take off work with no worries.
We are short on funding due to some hold ups in payments so I'm not really in a position to threaten anyone and I really don't see the point in giving a lecture to a 46-year-old adult. You know what there is to do. Giving a lecture to a long term employee seems to be so condescending, especially when that said employee claims to be your personal friend.
I find it all very sad and depressing. My wife has opinions and she is right. It all makes me really uptight. I'm going to get the kids to help me after school today on some of the electrical trouble shooting. For some reason all the warning lights are stuck on in the 2-155. Finding a short circuit is going to perhaps require removal of the fuel tank which now is half full of fuel. Pain and suffering...
I will leave you with this video.
Sometimes this is how I feel about Mondays. Please note I am not going to climb any clock towers, this is just an expression of frustration and I have NO homicidal tendencies.

Did Trump Scare Someone into playing the Bin Laden Card?

I thought this one would be saved until the election. I wonder what major event prompted them to kill the easter bunny, frosty the snow man, hypothetical scary construct, Bin Laden?
I didn't think Trump was that much of a threat? Perhaps the birth certificate really is a fake. Judging from scripted world of post 911 there has to be a reason. Especially since the bogey man was living in a huge mansion within a stones throw of a major Pakistan military training installation.
I have been told I'm cynical but think about it...
No body,
No live video tape,
Body buried in accordance with "Islamic traditions?"
Um right, that would be to declare him an infidel and parade his head around on a pike!
There are few reasons not to provide absolute photographic proof or a video of him confessing.
1. They tortured him to the point that it would be obvious
2. His guards shot him before the Seals got him
3. He never existed.
The first photos released were fakes, see speculation here.
It doesn't matter if he is dead or not, just as it didn't matter if he was alive. His existence was a symbolic construct, he achieved  martyr status when he was alive. He is a mythic hero to the crazy people and that is not going to change.
I mean...
I am sure that TSA will now be disbanded and the military will come home.
THis is wonderful news! I am so happy. Our president is a hero!