Ed Comes to visit, wonder if he like Garbonzo beans?

Ed Winkle came to see me yesterday. He arrived pretty close to coffee time so he got to partake in a 50 year old tradition out here. Couple farmers stopped by and we had a good discussion about no-till, Moline tractors, and lime. The lovely and gracious Mrs. Winkle went to check out the local antique shops. Then they were headed for the Oregon Coast. Sounds like quite a trip.

It is so amazing that you can meet and learn so much about someone via the internet. The weblog provides an amazing communication medium. I suppose you can pretty much pretend to be anything you want but I think most people posting about our regular lives are pretty honest.

I didn't give him the farm tour. I wanted to discuss strip-tilling and how we do it different here than there, due to the heavy clay soils and the compaction from late harvesting. I was going to show him my turbo-till coulters and fertilizer injectors on the White planter, I wanted some corn advice, but we sat around the coffee table and had a good chat. That was a good thing to do I think. What is the term when you bring your work with you, busman's holiday? don't know.

Then I went back to baling. I finished up the alfalfa. Finally made some really bright green alfalfa. Used the old Freeman 200. Decided to bale some wheat straw with it but didn't make it quite to the neighbor's place. Bill wanted me to move bales where he was baling with the 3-tie hesston. So I took the stacker over. Brother sold a load of straw in the field so I put up a truck load of squeeze blocks last night.

Then Jose called me. I have been growing an acre or so of Garbonzo's for Jose' our former employee every year for the past five or four or whatever. It never really works. You see we are not very good farmers. I know that, its not that I'm really insecure, its just that I'm not a real farmer.

So, this year thought I had it figured out. We worked the ground, got a sprout, harrowed the sprout out, and I did twin row Garbonzo's (chick peas) for Jose with the GreatPlains drill and it sort of worked. (Two rows 7.5" and two rows skipped.)

Jose actually got a Garbonzo bean harvest and he wanted to bring me some. I was baling and stacking in the field behind Jose's house and so he brought me a bag of Garbozo beans boiled in bacon fat and two tortias with macroni (sp?) and cheese on top. It was dark, 10:30 or 11 p.m. and so I could toss the tortias under the stacker when Jose wasn't looking. I hate to tell him sometimes this stuff makes me sick..

There is a little more to the story but we will skip that. Bill stopped baling and came over and we had quite a chat. The moisture went 12 percent to 16 while we talked so it must have been at least an hour.

I am really worried he did not understand the directions to the field. He drove around to the wrong side of the field and the only way to get to me was either across an irrigation pipe or through a clover field. I'm a little worried I may have to do Jose damage control in the morning.

I went back to stacking. Had one more stack to make an 8-pack for the truck. Stupid stacker is computerized. All I have to do is point it at the bale. Lost tier 4 and 5 right away. Had to restack them. The second stack I just took it easy. Moisture came up and the bales would slide right on the table. Last week it was 100 degrees. One rain in August and it is fall. I hauled the stack home and went to bed.

Did have a nice time with Ed Winkle. He is a much better farmer than I am. Of course so are Bruce and Garth. But, I'm a nice guy (At least Jose thinks so) and that has to count for something.