What to plant and where?

The frustration continues...
But first, the teacher conference: Our daughter is doing very well at school. She is good at math and writing and is a nice person. Now of course everyone thinks their child is above average but... I suspect that the bar for learning is not as high as it should be...
We have what used to be called a normal happy child.
S. has a friend who she plays soccer with. Her friend comes home from school with her. Monday I tried to find the friend's dad as Monday was the first real day of sun. I was going to take S. and L. out of school and go to the beach for the day. I couldn't find her dad to get a note and it just got to complicated so I went and planted. Which was the responsible thing to do.
Saw her dad the other day he was out at the shop. Said your daughter is at my house. He said he didn't know that much about what she did, "he wasn't that involved," with his family.
Kind of through me off.
I assume that it is because he works all the time so can't spend as much time with daughter as he would like. I would hate to hear it was because he didn't like his family, but I think many parents have that attitude. He thought the trip to the coast would have been a good idea...
But, I digress...
Planting this barley has become an exercise in frustration. I had it all figured out, started spreading fertilizer. Then the landlord showed up. The point of his farm is to attract ducks and geese so he can shoot them. I thought he wanted two fields of corn to attract ducks to a wider area. Instead he wants one 40 acre field since we are growing only half the amount we grew last year. He would really prefer the corn where I was going to plant the barley but he is pretty good to work with. I did some figuring and we decided to switch fields. We put down 200lbs of 38-0-0-7 on heavy triticale straw. I don't think we will lose much N. The weather is pretty cool. I was worried about planting barley though all that stubble. Too much shade and possible slug and mouse problems.
So, we are planting our barley on the old corn ground. This pretty wet ground. I check the soil temp and it is 50 degrees. Should be ok. We disked part of the field and harrowed it. It was too wet and we ended up with little hard golf balls. I had lots of problems getting seed and fertilizer and talking to the fellow who brought us our clover seed.
We decided to plant clover with some of the barley.
The question is: Do we wait for a weed sprout, round-up the sprout, and plant through it? Or do I just get it done now...
I opted for the get it done now... I have no idea how we are going to control the weeds in a barley/clover mix. This is old corn ground that was disked a month ago. Had a sprout, then we disked Monday and harrowed yesterday.
So I load up the drill. I put too much clover seed in so I'll have to suck it out with will take more time. I didn't block off every other opener on the main box so the clover would have some bare rows, as there was still a lot of barley in the main box. Then, I get started. Planted two rounds and got out to check seed depth. I suddenly realize...Ok, I'm planting clover into golf-ball size clods. True, it is a no-till drill but this is not really no-till. I put the front coulters way down to bring up loose soil and set the presswheels to plant shallow. It looks like it's bringing up some loose soil to back around the clover seed. I think we will hit it with a cement roller as soon as it is planted.
I hope I don't end up re-learning the motto: "Do it right or don't do it at all."
I was watching my White 2-135. Using it for disking and spreading fertilizer. It is blowing smoke out the engine breather like crazy. Engine must have a broken ring. Not the time of year for an overhaul. Have found another engine, just have to go get it, is in a tractor 75 miles away. Have an engine for my Minneapolis-Moline g1355, in South Dakota. Need to get that as well.
Here are some photos:
I bent a no-till coulter. Hit a huge rock. How many people have a gaint press at their shop. Dad built this 40 years ago. I it is for straightening rake wheels. Nobody straightens rake wheels anymore... Use the press a lot though... Of to work I go. Spreading fertilizer in the triticale stubble. Will strip-till corn through this later. Was going to plant barley, that is why it is being fertilized.

Friday Morning

We are going to a teacher conference. Wife signed us up for 8 a.m. That way I wouldn't have to drive back from some far off field to make it. That was a good idea. Of course I am planting at home today.
We are planting barley. I have no idea if this is a good idea. Yields have been lower on barley than other spring grains, unless we end up planting late. Then it does better than oats as the oat yields drop off rapidly on our ground after the second week in April.
I've been trying to get back home to plant for a week. Of course the day I get home my brother gets called to drive truck. I was trying to figure out where to plant and what fertilizer rate to use, then the seed guy brought out enough clover for 50 acres instead of 15. Big diff. there.
So, should I plant clover and barley together? If so, should I plug off every other opener on the barley so I have wider rows? Should I plant the barley with the Great Plains and come back with the Moline drill and plant the clover at an angle?
What about the fertilizer. I know we are a little low on phosphate but I don't know how much. I don't know where the fertilizer reports are and I never understand how my brother labels the fields.
So, my plan is: Spread 200lbs of 32-0-0-7 with the dry spreader, then run 8 gal of 10-34 in the drill. Will no-till 35 acres, have another 25 in small plots that have been worked. This would be where I would also plant clover.
I may try and get a weed sprout on the worked ground before I plant the barley. Have not decided yet.
The no-till ground is a problem. It was triticale and I'm worried about the tall stubble and the weeds, and that perhaps some triticale will grow and show up in the oats.
I hate decision making.
I'm going to go listen to my Dale Carnegie course, "how to stop worrying and start living." Perhaps that will help.
I really can't ask anyone for advice on barley as I'm the only person I know in this area who has been growing barley. I've had good and bad yields and the only differences seem to be what happens with the weather...

People who are gone...More about Mr. R

I spent the day driving in circles as usual. I have been thinking about the death of Mr. R. I know he had an amazing story and I can't remember it. I know I wrote it down as well. I can't find my journal from that time.
Mom died several years ago. With her went a number of really good stories. I was supposed to remember all sorts of stuff. I didn't. When she died my mind kind of went blank...
There are a couple other people whose stories I miss as well. I think I have the information in my head and when I try to write it down it is gone.
Then is my other issue. I hate to bug people. I think I'm a bit insecure. There are a couple old pluggers who fascinate me. But when you start to write stuff down they clam up.
We had a relative who made his own electric guitars and invented all sorts of stuff. He was the bane of church potlucks. Sometimes brought his own giant plate. He was a confirmed bachelor farmer, dress funny-wore converse high tops and had the most amazing comb-over I have ever seen. Then suddenly he was dead. Turns out he had a secret wife... Who would of thought.
So I did some more searching for Mr. R.
It is kind of silly. I have the family phone number memorized. I didn't realize this but someone called me from salem wanting hay. I thought I had the number but the only number that came to my mind was 501-581-xxxx. So I look it up on Google and here it is Mrs. R. She lives at a different address I think, but that number was still in my head. I could call her up and ask her this stuff. She probably doesn't remember me but she would most likely be happy to talk.
I can't do that. Not sure why. But I can't.
I did find that his obit has even been referenced by Wired Magazine in Feb of 2007.
Found the answers to his cryptogram. Which provided me a clue to his story.
One of the answers was "A beginning - august, nineteenfortythree"
In August 1943 is the 10th mountain division went into combat. They made a landing in the Aleutian islands to secure them from the Japanese. They found the island deserted. From there it appears they went on to Italy, without their special snow/maintian ski sorts of equipment and suffered heavy casualties. Basically infantry heavy fighting. Not especially what they were trained for.
I think something happened to him during the landing. I thought he told me he perhaps broke his leg with prevented him from going on into combat. This turned out to be a huge second chance for him.
Now my problem is of course, since I can't remember anything, I don't know for sure that he was a ski-trouper, I don't know if I read this in a WWII book somewhere and attributed it to him and I don't know if his family would be annoyed with me for discussing it on the internet.
I'm going to remove his name from previous post so it is not searchable. I feel like I am telling someone else's story and getting it wrong.
I resolve to write people's stories down. They should not be lost...

I said you couldn't plant wheat into mud and I was wrong!

I bought a gas sucking pickup. A 1990 Ford F250 4wd with a 454 cu engine. It is the nicest pickup I've ever had. Drives very well, very heavy duty. I hauled 200 gallons of 10-34 (2200lbs), with no problems. I can haul two bags of feed which is again around 2000lbs, no problem. But, the best mileage I have attained is 10 mpg. Hubs not locked and nothing in the back. The worst was 8 mpg, hauling feed and a full tank (100gal) of diesel in the back. I need the truck, I just shouldn't drive it so much.
But I digress.
I was on my way into Amity to fill up the gas tanks and I went by the field I planted in March. I planted spring wheat into what was almost mud. It is up and growing and looks pretty good. The way the light shines in the photo the wheat looks a little yellow. But, up close it looks good. Who knows...
First photo is from March.
Second is of nearly the same spot taken yesterday.
Third is the wide view of the field.

Mr. Richings

I was searching for the word "cynical," on google. Not sure exactly why, seemed more important than farming at the time. Anyway I came across this website. Where I found the obituary for Mr. Richings. Ted Richings, to be more informal. I guess as a 40-something I don't have to refer to him as Mr. Richings any more. Still it just doesn't sound right to me.
I have mixed feelings about the cynical blog. It is funny at times, but I'm a bit bored with the whole anti-christian humor thing. We are a bit of a silly lot I suppose and well, our foolishness is pretty funny when you are in college and you are astounded by the foolishness that surrounds you, (and you haven't figured out yet that you are a moron...) but now I kind of understand what got my parents/grand parents through life and I have a lot of respect for the old true beleivers.
I had a professor at Chemeketa Community College who I keep remembering as having life figured out. She noted that we all had a personal bias. Knowing and admitting the bias was more important than denying it. Makes sense if you think about it.
But that has nothing to do with my post today.
Mr. Richings was someone I instantly liked. He was tall and self confident and friendly. He shook my hand and talked to me like an equal. He talked to me a little about WWII and I wish I would have written it down. I can't remember if he was one of the special US soldiers trained for ski patrol in the Alps. It seems like he was. Another friend of mine's dad was in the mule skinner corps.
The story in my head is that he trained in Colorado Vail for the ski patrol, then didn't actually use the training. (I should look this up somehow) I could have my info wrong. He was an interesting fellow anyway.
Anyway his daughter was a good friend and she gave me his old ACME cowboy boots. I think he told me he found them in Death Valley while he was hitching his ride home after ending his WW II service.
More later, employee at the door-bye!
Ok, I'm back. It is evening and instead of making a new post I'll add to this one.
I don't like to get to personal about other people's lives as they might not want to be identified online.
I've been thinking about Mr. R all day while planting.
One of the members of his family was my good friend. I didn't know Mr. R all that well. Just talked to him a couple times. This whole deal got me thinking about the past and people who you remember.
C. was my friend from Community College. The place I actually learned stuff...
I remember C. as tall and beautiful and self -possessed. She was funny and sarcastic and cynical. I liked her a lot. She was way out of my league, I think. We were friends for a number of years and then kind of lost touch. I think I offended her somehow. Sad thing is I really don't have a clue.

Good friends become more important to me as I get older. It seems like I have a lot of friends but only a few that have been with me from high school or college. Those are the one that seem to stay my friends whether I talk to them or not, or if we really have anything in common or not.
Whatever...

Peta Kills Animals dot com

I found this website but have to go to work so I'm not going to say much. It is pretty funny. Seems as though PETA is, well, oh dear- MIGHT BE IN IT FOR THE MONEY?! well and the power. It is fun to change the world and of course make money at the same time.
I did a search for "who funds petakillsanimals.com and found this on wikapedia.
I understand that wikipedia may not be the most reliable source for all this but frankly I think it is funny that they are funded by PhillipMorris.
And-many of the things that should be counted against their parent group, http://www.consumerfreedom.com/ are just fine with me.
I mean, really...where is the money going to come from to combat activist hysteria. I'm pretty sure there is not a organization called, "The center for sensible thought and moderation in all things," the concept wouldn't work. What are you going to tell people in a direct marketing campaign. "Well we do need a lot of money but please give in moderation." or "Now we are not taking away from your food budget with this money?"
Anyway, I've got to go to work. Thought this was funny.
It is a beautiful day. We have 100 acres to farm and I am off 15 miles away planting in little 10 acre fields. The other tractor is spreading fertilizer on hay ground which could have been done three weeks ago during the previous weather break. But, my wonderful employee was not feeling well and I was off planting-100 acre fields that week... I need to be a better manager.
Possibly I should start that by getting to work early and not setting on the loo posting to a blog read by five people...
Actually I was out checking fields at 7:30 a.m. for what that is worth...
And I can't actually plant this morning do to a slight miscalculation in setting the drill last night. I had 12 acres left and enough oats to plant at 140lbs per acre. So I put the drill in third gear which is 20% more than second. I was planting at 110lbs so thought a 20% increase would be about right. But, when I started the monitor read only 1.2 million seeds, which was basically what I was planting before. So I messed around with the settings. Got it up to 1.5 million. I kept looking at the little TV camera that shows the seed level guage and it always showed full. I DID NOT look in the box. Well, the little plastic indicator got bumped because when the bin empty alarm went off the indicator showed half a tank of seed. So, I planted 210lbs per acre. The farmer has to drive 30miles to get more seed. Didn't seem to bother him much. He just laughed at me. Said you will never be able to forget this one. Heh! Heh! and showed me his hotrod collection. Pretty cool.
Now I'm going to work...

I bought a funny stainless steel clamp

Went the big auto swap meet at the expo center today. Went with my friend Mel. Mel is pretty much a car enthusiast from way back. Knows just about all there is to know about the automobile.
The swap meet is huge. Takes up the three big buildings and both parking lots with cars and parts and vendors.
I was looking for some 1007 light bulbs for my Z. Found some 1323 NOS light bulbs that work fine. Cost me $5 each. Then i bought a coffee tin full of funny stainless steel clamps for $3. I'm sure they will be useful. I think I will use them to attach my calc-an-acre to the cab of my White tractors.
It was a beautiful day today. Nearly 70 degrees. Hard to believe it was 34 this morning. Dad burned global warming no doubt...