kansasfarmer's blog

Thought quite a bit of the day about blogging about harvest, then read about Richard Cobbald's fire and his remarks about the fire service and decided to blog about that, but after going outside to put my pickup in the shed and seeing the nearly full moon, I was back to harvest.

Our planting dragged on forever this spring, so will our fall harvest.  We only got 80 acres of soybeans planted in the ideal window and I have combined 55 acres of that this weekend, they are just barely ripe, but given the forecast once again of heavy rains from tomorrow noon on through Tuesday night, I pushed them through.  The mostly cloudy day did not lend itself to good combining, and the tall sappy beans were like running barbed wire through the combine.  The yield is excellent, nice to say that for a change on this forum, perhaps in excess of 50 bpa, which is outstanding in our part of the world.  Sadly, once I get through these first 80 acres the yield will drop considerably, but it still looks like we should have above average yields over all, now if we can just do something about the price.  About half my corn is shelled, again the yields are good, even the wet ground where water drowned out a good portion of the stand yielded about 90 bpa, or about 2.25 of your UK tons, about an average yield for dryland corn here. 

4 months ago the world was wringing its hands over the "global food crisis" now here we are with grains dropping like a rock.  Lower corn should be good news for our corn dependant US cattle trade, but the effects of the bank meltdown are spanking the beef markets harder than grains, and cattle prices are tumbling.  A quick glimpse at the video auction on TV Friday at noon showed many of the lots no-saling.  Word from the Drovers Journal update was that bankers are now requiring more equity in cattle, driving down the prices for feeders and for lighter stockers going onto what should be some excellent wheat pasture given all the rain.  Since cattle are my bread and butter, the situation has me concerned.  I will not sell the calves I am about to wean until March or early April, I can only pray this thing recovers but my gut tells me that it probably will just get worse.

Speaking of weaning calves, fall harvest and bawling calves go together, that is another job that I should start next week, it would be nice to have dry weather for that, as we do not house our cattle as you do in Britain.  500 acres of my rented pasture runs from April 20 to October 20, I will need to get cattle off of it next Monday.  Hard to believe it will soon be time to hook up the silage wagon and start feeding again, where does time go?

The title of this blog is "harvest moon".  The moon tonight is brilliant, a term used I think more over there than here, but it applies especially tonight.  It always amazes me to think that same harvest moon shines on my good friends in the UK, and how so many miles apart it illuminates so many of our common problems.  Economic crisis and election rhetoric aside, good prices or bad, it is still alot of fun to cut 50 bushel beans on a dry Sunday afternoon, without the 4WD kicked in....sounds like we will be looking out from the shed at the rain for the next couple of days, so I can blog about the fire service then. 

The sound of it makes me sick to my stomach, but I am trying to get use to it.  Yup, GW Bush has handed him this election.  McCain is GOP just like Bush, and everybody hates Bush, so the majority will vote for Obama. Up until this whole banking/market/bailout crisis, I thought McCain had a chance.  After watching the debate tonight, I know it is over. 

 The good news, if there is any, is that Hillary didn't get it, Thank GOD!!  Also, since I think things are just going to get worse, in 4 years everyone will hate Obama, by then we will be on the way to recovery anyway, if we actually do recover, and maybe we can get a real leader in the office.  Until then, it is President Obama, may the deity of your choice (if any) grant him wisdom...see,  I already have this PC stuff down pat.

I got a nice start on harvest, several weeks late but the corn yields are good.  I have harvested the earliest and latest planted corn now, as well as the best land and the poorest.  Corn made 130 on the poor ground, I binned it off of the best land but I guess it at about 150.  Remarkably uniform across both soil types, varieties and planting dates.  It shows that if we could have temps that stay below 95F and rain all summer, Kansas could be Iowa. 

It is raining tonight, as long as it doesn't rain too much it is welcome, as we could use an inch of rain.  I have managed to get 65 acres of triticale drilled for grazing(thanks mostly to my dad) and it definitely could use the rain, the forecast highs in the 70s mean it will grow nicely with a good drink.  Baled up the last cutting of alfalfa for the summer yesterday just a little too wet because of the forecast rain, it was beautiful hay cut with a nice weather forecast that never really materialized, hopefully it was dry enough to keep.

After a summer filled with rain we put the Sudan grass up for silage, on top of the corn silage.  It was the best thing to do I think what I tried to hay I could never get dried even after laying for 13 days, the pit is now the fullest it has been since the days my grandfather filled it.  The day after I got done filling I stood atop it one morning just because it felt good to have that much feed under my feet, a cowman can never have too much feed.

I blew a hydraulic line on the combines 4WD unit yesterday afternoon, dumping all the oil instantly and bringing me to an abrupt halt. One of my best friends broke down with his 9500 yesterday as well, we did a joint parts run today since it was raining we didn't hurry home and had a good day except for all the fretting we did over our financial crisis.  We talked quite a bit with the John Deere dealer  who told us that it was company policy that within 5 years they want all dealers to do $100 million a year in business,or be part of a group that does that many dollars in sales.  Once again, John Deere seems intent on driving out the mom and pop dealers that have served our nation so well, for no good reason I can see.

As I am certain you know, our markets once again were a wreck Monday, with no one quoting an actual cash price on grain.  Cattle were down the $3 limit straight through as well, with only hogs gaining any ground at all.  For us this is approaching crisis level, the bulletin board at the JD dealership was plastered with farmland auction bills for the coming month(not due to financial distress, this is just the time of year much land sells), it will be very telling to see how farmland prices fair with all of this upheavel, I saw one prediction on the internet this morning of a 25% fall in farmland values in 2009.  I figure todays markets took $15000 off my income if they do not recover. I had hoped the $700 billion bailout would at least slow the slide, however from what we see now the rest of the world is joining us in the troubles, perhaps from what I read it is time to sell out and head for Australia, we are use to bad weather, fire and drouth, so should feel right at home.

I can't speak for all of America, but in my tiny corner of it there is seething anger against our government.  I keep dwelling on this because I think it is important it is understood in the UK just how angry we are, they don't begin to understand it in DC.  This anger most certainly will propel Obama into the Whitehouse a month from now, barring divine intervention.  Obama is the last thing we need right now, but he is what we are going to get.  It is reported on some internet sites now that an army division has been deployed in the US to deal with civil unrest, I do not know how accurate this is, but if it is true, it gives an idea that the government sees just how angry the people are, and the potential for huge problems beyond the economy in the not so distant future.  I have heard the terms "civil war" and "revolution" more in the last few days than any other time in my life, I am not suggesting we are on the brink of anything so severe, I am suggesting that people are much more serious in their anger than at anytime in my life, this anger runs deep, and will certainly be felt at the election booth.  I think many of us in the middle class feel we have just seen our country sold out from underneath us.

Field Queen that is.  Probably very few in the UK are familiar with Field Queen, although I might be wrong about that.  Field Queen made one of the first self propelled silage cutters in America.  I don't know when they quit making them, quite a few were made carrying the Hesston name after they bought Field Queen. 

Part of farming here on the border between the cornbelt and the Great Plains with all our tempermental weather is I think without a doubt we run much older equipment on average than you do in the UK.  I bought my Field Queen Standard several years ago from a neighbor, it had cut a jillion tons of silage when I bought it.  I bought it cheap, to replace a pull type Gehl that had merely cut a billion tons of silage and was actually alot newer than the Queen.  I can't say the Queen was a reliable cutter, but we managed to cut most of the silage I wanted.  This year however right out of the chute the Queen was problematic, as in she would only cut six loads of silage then quit.  It has Murphy switches on it, that shut it down if it has low oil pressure or gets too hot, and a really bad feature of Field Queen is they for the most part relied on a throw away Cat engine, either a 3160 or a 3208.  Finally, after several days of attempted diagnosis, much swearing, and 41 loads of silage cut, I blew a head gasket.  After some deliberation and prayer, along with phone calls to the Maize corporation in Maize Kansas(the company that makes parts for Field Queens,we are sort of a cult) it was decided by me that it was time for the Queen to simply die, and perhaps donate a few of her vital parts so that other Field Queens might live a more productive life.  I was very sad, because I was not getting my silo filled, and buying a different cutter was not on my list of 2008 or 2009 priorities. 

Then, just when all appeared to be lost, a phone call from Roger at the Maize corporation.  The widow of a fellow Field Queen owner wanted to sell his cutter, and it was only 30 miles from me, what luck.  He had looked at it and told me it appeared respectable.  It was about 10 years newer than mine, and quite advanced compared to the old Standard.  Without hesitation I loaded my friend Bobby into the pickup(Bobby did alot of my chores while I was in the UK, and is the chief silage truck driver and coon killer on my spread).  We raced to the farm, and were pleasantly surprised to find a very usable cutter.  I was uncomfortable negotiating with a recent widow, especially considering her husband had died just a month ago of cancer, but we managed to agree on a price without much difficulty, and Mrs. KF was surprised to find me roaring into the yard tonight, with the announcement I decided to give her her Christmas present early this year......what a lucky woman, a new hoe for her birthday, and a vintage silage cutter as a 3 month early Christmas present, that I have already agreed to run and care for for her.  She is so lucky she found me.  God save the Queen!!

Well, I don't know if you will believe this or not.  A few of the more advanced thinkers in the community today became alarmed when the 75mm naval mortar round grandpa brought back from WW1 in '18 began leaking a strange substance.  They called the ATF to make an inquiry as to the probability of it exploding.  This alarmed the ATF, and in a short time a nice contigent of law enforcement descended on their home.  The owners knew exactly what it was, over the last 90 years it has served as everything from a doorstop to a toy for the tots. 

 The Sheriff called me at 9:30 pm to ask if they could detonate it in one of my fields, as the explosives team from McConnell AFB felt it was unstable and didn't want to transport it very far, I didn't really want to do it, but it was just way too cool of a deal to pass up.  5 pounds of C4 and the round made a really nice boom, and a cute little crater(the 7 inches of rain left the ground perfect for that).  Now who says I live a boring life???  It might have been more impressive during the day though.

7 inches of rain in a little over 2 days was not what we needed.  Thankfully, after the 1951 flood my grandfather and his neighbors said "enough" and formed a watershed district.  With tax money they built 40 dams on our river system(creeks really) and even in 1998 when we had 14 inches the flooding was held to the lowest fields, unlike '51 when my grandfather walked from his house to my great grandparents(one mile) in water that was waist deep. 

I may have suffered a little flood damage in the low spots, the real issue is that the corn is starting to sprout on the ear, and the cool wet weather simply has stopped my soybeans from maturing.  At this point, there are no freezing temps in the forecast, but an article in one of my weekly farm papers advised that we have had frosts as early as September 13th. 

Our forecast now is for 10 dry but rather cool days, no more 80s that I could see, and lows in the high 40s.  Tomorrow is the full moon, as odd as this sounds, an elderly neighbor years ago told me that when the full moon comes in dry, you probably won't get over an inch of rain in the next 30 days.  This holds true about 75% of the time based on my observations the last 10 years....but, I have also learned that in years where it is either extremely dry or extremely wet, it doesn't seem to matter how the moon comes in, so I guess we will wait and see.

One thing is certain, 7 inches of rain makes alot of mud.  With cool temps, it will be some time before the ground will carry any equipment for any reason, even just spraying pastures.  I hope the drouth started today, if you are going to have a dry snap, this is the time of year to have it, a little hot weather wouldn't hurt either, but it seems very unlikely we will get 90s again now.

9-11 is a national day of remembering for us.  New York City, Washington DC and Pennsylvania are far far away from my Kansas farm and I knew no one injured or killed in any of the attacks, but they were Americans(and people of other nationalities as  well) killed in a sneak attack that was carried out to kill as many people as possible, the attack left all of us bleeding inside. 

2001 was pre internet for me, almost every morning I watched the news, but not that morning.  Had I been watching in the central time zone I would have known about it much earlier than I did, and probably seen live the second plane hit the twin towers.  Almost every morning I listened to the radio while working, but that morning I did manual chores with no machinery, and did not hear anything.  About 11 am, well into the entire ordeal, I climbed into my pickup and headed down the road, every station had a newscast on it, I didn't pay alot of attention, kept hitting buttons looking for music until I heard these words come over my radio......"where the twin towers used to stand".  I will always remember that phrase exactly as it was said.  I turned around in the road and headed for home, rushed inside and turned on the TV.  I stayed glued to the television for at least 3 hours.  I managed to plant some alfalfa later that day, then stayed up late into the night, way past midnight watching television.  We were fearful of further attacks, and fearful the death toll was going to be in the 10000s, it was widely reported at first that 50000 body bags had been ordered. 

 While we knew no one killed, the grounding of airplanes left plenty of people I did know stranded.  Our nation went into a period that was surreal, watching the frantic search for survivors play out many miles away, a sky that was completely devoid of any airplane for days, save an occasional fighter jet.  Fear of new attacks turned to anger, and even to hatred of those involved. 

Most Americans today believe that another attack will come, and will be much worse.  We do not know what we can do individually to stop it, and simply live our lives.  For me anyway, I am surprised another attack has not already taken place on our soil, and no matter what anyone thinks of Bush, I attribute the fact we have not been attacked again to his dogged war on terror.

I used the miracle of the internet phone service Skype Saturday afternoon to call Mike in Notts to see how harvest was going.  Sounds like he is having the same luck everyone else is, great wheat standing in a wet field sprouting in the head.

The old men can't remember a August/September period like the one we are having ever.  The cool damp weather is not so bad, other than it has brought the end of haying season to a complete and total stop.  It is actually enjoyable save one thing, we all know our soybeans have virtually stopped maturing.  This will mean if we dodge a frost soybean harvest will probably start 2 weeks or more late.  As a rule, Octobers here are bright and sunny with good harvest conditions, November can be a wet mess, of course who could bet on anything this year.  I have my fingers crossed that a month from now I won't be on this site singing the same song you are, that my beans are shattering on the ground from too much rain.

We really do put up with alot for a little money, don't we?  I guess I farm for the glamour mainly, the prestige second, and maybe the money is a distant 3rd. 

On our Labor Day holiday with the memory of Katrina still fresh, our nation looks south today as our countrymen along the gulf deal with hurricane Gustav.  Luckily the futures exchanges are closed today because they would be going wild trading oil.  The big fear if you are not directly in the path of the storm is what it will do to the oil platforms and refineries in the area.  I got a load of diesel Saturday morning to top our farm tanks, I got the last diesel our dealer had, apparently I was not the only person concerned about a price spike.

All government from federal to local is working hard to prevent a repeat of Katrina, and to the credit of Gulf residents, about 2 million of them have evacuated.  The Louisiana National Guard was out on the streets last night in force with dire warnings to would be looters.  All we can do now is watch and wait.

This far inland, we often see hurricanes as our salvation in a dry year, because once in a while we will get a crop saving rain from the remnant of a hurricane.  This is supposed to be the case this year, and in spite of the fact that we have had enough rain this summer for 3 summers, we are now in need of a rain for the soybeans, and hopefully Gustav will provide that.  As my grandmother use to say, "it is an ill wind that blows no one good".  So, while those in the south are getting battered, I may actually see Gustav as a Godsend for my crops.

Tonight all eyes were on Denver, to one of the most amazing specticals we have seen in the political history of this nation.  An estimated 85000 people crowded into a football stadium to hear Barack Hussein Obama accept the nomination of the Democrat party for President of the United States of America.  While not a supporter, I watched along with my wife and listened carefully to every word.  Although not all the talking heads agreed afterwards, I thought it was an excellent speech, those who are for Obama will stick with him, those on the fence will be watching John McCain closely to see if he can measure up.  Obama promised to end our addiction to foreign oil within 10 years, continue to support biofuels(McCain is against subsidies for biofuels), promised universal affordable healthcare, and to bring our troops home.  The speech Obama gave was down to earth and convincing.  I have heard much of this before over the years from other politicians I am sure meant well, but could not or would not deliver.  Obama did mention farmers and farms two different times in his speech, a far cry from 10-15 years ago when every candidate would elaborate on what their farm policy would be, it shows just how many fewer farmers there are today that no candidate believes they need to address us directly. 

 Whether you agree with Obama or not, he is an impressive man.  He is a clear speaker with a voice that a statesman should have.  He has indeed come from humble roots and seems a devoted husband and father.  His mother died of cancer, she was white and born in Kansas.  Obamas Kansas grandparents had a huge role in raising him, he acknowledged that again tonight.  Perhaps the best way to describe Obama's political prowess is that after I hear him speak I always have to remind myself why voting for him would be bad....I am very much a conservative and he is so far left it is sad, but he appeals to all people, at least most people. 

For the rest of the night and the next few days the various news people on all our networks(even BBC America covered the speech) will try to disect what Obama said, and whether he reached Americans or not.  He reached me, and impressed me, but John McCain will have to flop big for me to decide to vote for Obama. However, Obama has broad appeal, if I were a betting man I would not bet against him.  No matter what, Obama has made history tonight, the first non-white to be in the running for President of the USA, and to top it all off, he has a very good chance of winning.

This past week was one I will not soon forget. It really didn't hold any promise for being out of the ordinary when it started. As my farm straddles the county line, I had the honor of going to two different FSA offices to certify my crops and sign up for our rather anemic 2008 farm program. On Monday this took me to Emporia Kansas, where afterwards I purchased a new roto-tiller for the garden, fighting the global food crisis with a hoe has proven to be pretty inefficient.  So Mrs. KF would not feel I was neglecting her, I bought her a brand new hoe, made in China, with a bright yellow fiberglass handle, so the next time she leaves it laying next to the garden I will not run over it with the mower.

Wednesday took me to Eureka, to the FSA office there.  I had heard for nearly a week about a young soldier from Kansas who had lost his life in Iraq, the TV said he was from Newton, what I did not realize was that his father and grandparents were from Eureka, and he was to be buried in Eureka, the very day I was there.  One of the FSA employees had his attention divided between his radio and doing my paperwork, I learned that many of the townspeople intended to line the route to the cemetary and hold American flags to show their respect for this young mans(18 years old) sacrifice. 

While I am quick to criticize my government, my love of my nation is unwaivering, and my respect for those who defend it deep.  I think you Brits would find that in the middle of the USA, especially in towns of 25000 and less, we are extremely patriotic and honor our military.  Although I did not know this young man, I decided that since I was already in Eureka, the right thing for me to do was to pay my respects as well.  Eureka is not a large town, about 3000, and the drive from the FSA office to downtown just a few blocks.  I must admit a tear came to my eye as I viewed the main street, people were gathering all along it holding flags, and every business with a place to fly one had a flag flying outside of it.  The flags at our county courthouse were at half staff, as were all official flags in the state that day.  The Patriot Guard was the first to arrive, most of them are vets or ex military riding motorcycles, I was to learn later they numbered 285 that day.  They are the result of our very infamous gay hating ex Baptist disbarred lawyer turned preacher Fred Phelps and his tribe of lawyer children, who have decided it is their God-given duty to picket the funerals of fallen soldiers. Not because they are against the war, but because they believe that God is killing these soldiers in retribution for America being tolerant of homosexuals.  As our Bill of Rights protects the Phelps clan and their picketing, the Patriot Guard was formed to build a human shield between mourners and the bigoted Phelps and their handful of supporters.  Happily on this day they did not show up. 

Perhaps 15 minutes after the main body of the Patriot Guard rolled through town, the funeral procession came through, led by a Harvey County Sheriffs car and a Kansas State Trooper.  It was a solemn and rather inspiring sight, to see so many turn out with flags for this sad event. 

As odd as it may sound, I was moved to go to the cemetary.  I think a number of people were like me, they did not know the soldier but felt a need to honor him, because so many people stayed back from the main group of mourners.  The Guard formed a square around the gravesite, each man had a large American flag.  I counted 220 flags, and I did not get them all counted.  Taps was played, a 21 gun salute was fired, a lone piper played Amazing Grace, and an 18 year old was finally laid to rest, halfway round the world from where he lost his life.  I happened to turn around and see the stone I was next to was from a WW2 1st Lt.  I had to wonder how long it would be before most had forgotten the young man we were burying, and if 60 some odd years in the future we would still be fighting wars and planting young men in our little country cemetaries who had made the ultimate sacrifice halfway round the world for people who hate us. 

Vietnam taught us that we can hate the war, but need to love the soldiers fighting it, and there has been a concerted effort since to show soldiers respect.  A young major was standing not far from me, I took the opportunity to thank him for his service(this is considered to be appropriate in our nation, I don't know about yours).  He was just back from Iraq, and quite moved by the show of support for his fallen brother in arms.  A short distance from us was a support vehicle for the Patriot Guard, I also went up to the fellow with it and thanked him, he was a Korean vet.  He shook his head and said, "just 18, with his life ahead of him, I hope America knows the price he paid", tears rolled down the old soldiers cheek, and mine as well. 

Friday, my extended family travelled 83 miles to the farm of my mothers sister and her husband, to see my cousin off to his deployment, we are all amazed he had not been deployed long ago.  I tactfully did not mention Wednesdays events, but it ran through my mind that perhaps my cousin might meet the same fate, and I wondered if I would think it was worth the price we are paying then.  Even the most patriotic among us have a limit to the price we are willing to pay. 

As I predicted, it is now August and we were starting to suffer.  Several days of temps right at 100F was taking its toll.  Most of our rain came hard this spring and early summer, packing the ground tight.  All the late planted stuff was really showing stress.  Thankfully, it is raining this morning, an inch so far.  Actually we got .8 about 9 days ago, you would think we wouldn't be that bad off, but when your temps get that high it doesn't take long to really dry out.  This rain will finish all the corn, even the very late corn I am going to silo.  It has a respectable ear now, and while it will not be any kind of great crop, there will be plenty of grain in the silage.  The mown haymeadows will get a nice regrowth now, the alfalfa should make one more cutting at least, and what hay has not been mowed will freshen up, as will the grass.  The soybeans are going to need rain into the first part of September to make a really good crop.

Last year we had ample grass left in the pastures, we got through the spring without any big fires, and if I had been a betting man I would have bet no way could we have such big grass this fall.  We will go into winter with grass at least as big if not bigger than we had last year, meaning if we get a dry snap(and surely we will, it has been rainy for such a long time) we will be prone to big fires.

The last several weeks have been dominated by haymaking and babysitting.  My brother and his wife welcomed another daughter the end of June, Mrs. KF and I had my older niece Olivia(2 and a half years old) for a week, then my sister-in-law and the baby came to pick her up and stayed with my parents another week.  My dad has been a bachelor now for some time, as mother spent about 3 and a half weeks in Nebraska with the new grandchild.  We had a nice bonding experience, however this time around Olivia found out her uncle was not bluffing about spanking her and she ended up getting spanked 4 times, 3 right in a row, the effect blunted by what is called a pull-up, more or less an emergency training pant type diaper thing.  We were at my parents and she was messing with bottles of my mothers perfume, when her grandmother told her to put them down she walked out of the bedroom and dumped one on me, well half of one, then dumped the other half on the floor.  That was it, it was smackdown time.  Of course, I was careful, and the net effect of my spanking was that the soft pullup kept it from hurting, so as soon as I released her she turned around and stuck her tongue out at me, prompting another spanking, getting the same result which led to a third spanking and the dire warning the pull up would come off if there was a fourth. 

My nieces grandmother then informed me that she and the grandfather did not believe in spanking.  Quite odd, because as best I can recall these also happen to be my parents,and I distinctly remember getting spanked by both of them.   Funny how turning from a parent into a grandparent makes you change your attitude toward discipline.  So on one hand I have to listen to 30 minute phone calls from my brother griping about how everyone down here spoils his daughter, then on the other I have Grandma telling me that when Olivia tells people in Nebraska her uncle spanked her, I will have social services after my head, I just can't win. 

In spite of the spankings, we had a good time, Olivia is a smart little girl which leads to some problems actually.  She got her first tractor driving lesson, you just can't start training help too soon.  The great thing about having a niece is after a couple of weeks, she goes home. 

On the haymaking front, the going has been somewhat slow, constant forecasts of rain and a few flat tractor tires has slowed progress some.  I have baled about 200- 1300 pound bales, and since I was struggling to catch up hired 400 more baled that I mowed.  Best I can guess I have about 100 bales of prairie hay left to bale, 60 or so of crabgrass, and another cutting of alfalfa which will be light, maybe 80 or so bales.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but as soon as hay is up it will be time to silo, then shell corn and plant wheat....the work never is caught up. 

I think Buster Poindexter sang that song, and it describes our weather now.  Thankfully, we got a nice soft half inch of rain Friday.  From the looks of the forecast now, we will probably be crying for rain before we get it, not at all unusual this time of year.  What is unusual is our crops, at least many of them, are about 30-45 days behind where they should be this time of year, I don't know how the heat will effect them. If it is just a 2 or 3 week thing, we can probably sail through it, but if it turns into an until the 15th of September event, we are probably in real trouble. 

We haven't hit  100 yet, but we are very close, with the humidity our heat index is above 100.  Didn't take me long to decide to come back into the house while putting some new teeth on the baler a little while ago.  Mrs. KF sheared the dogs the other day, they seem to appreciate it.  This is good hay making weather, but with alfalfa it gets dry too fast so must be baled after dark or before noon so as not to lose all of the leaves. 

As our house is old(by US standards) we have 2 window air conditioners, not central air, my fingers are crossed they will both stay running.  This time of year they pretty much run non-stop, I expect this is one reason more energy is consumed by Americans than Brits.  I have tried shutting them off at night, but the house will heat up and then never get cool enough to go to sleep until about 4 in the morning.  In the old days, most farmhouses(and for that matter houses in town) had screened in porches, and people slept on them at night.  If energy costs get any higher, I guess we might be screening ours in and sleeping outside. 

My intention for today had been to go to the 4 State farm show and post some pics, but the idea of standing outside in the hot sun all afternoon pretty much nixed that.  I have always wondered why they cannot run it late into the night when it is like this(and it is always like this the end of July).

The county fair is coming up, not much compared to the farmshow, but maybe I can post some pics of that. 

One year ago today I was at AllyRs enjoying some good Scots hospitality.  Time really does zoom past, I simply can't believe it has been an entire year.

Rather like Matty, I got caught with my pants down so to speak this afternoon, luckily all is well. Our weather was to be uneventful today, with perhaps a shower or two. We had oppressive humidity, and little wind. We had over 3 inches of rain yesterday, so I thought I would build some fence today as there was little else I could do.  I have an 18 year old helping me some this summer, I left him to work on the fence for a while and went to walk my electric fence around the sows.  I have a creek to the west of the sows and saw it getting black on the other side, but didn't think too much about it, I heard a little thunder and figured it was just a typical summer afternoon thunderstorm coming up.  About my second clap of thunder I got a cell call from the Undersheriff wanting to know if I saw any funnel clouds, he had reports of one not far from where I was.  I got up on  a rise and looked, I could see what might be a small funnel, but it didn't worry me much, I told him as much.  He said he was headed our way, I called the kid helping me to ask him if he had seen anything, yes, he had.  I drove up to a higher hill to watch, I still didn't see anything, then another fellow called me to say they could see a funnel from town, about that time Caleb who helps me said his uncle called and said there was a tornado on the ground near where we were, I could still see nothing but sent Caleb home.  I then called the Undersheriff, while we were talking the NWS put us in a tornado warning, and still I saw nothing.  My wife then called, she was in Emporia and they were blowing the sirens, as soon as she got off the phone another friend called, he was coming through the next town south, Olpe, and they were blowing the sirens there, and he said he could see the tornado hanging out of the clouds, by golly I still  couldn't see anything, my wife now informs me she saw one as well.

I finally looked straight above me, there was I guess one hanging right over me, although it is hard to make one out looking straight up at a black cloud.  There was a little swirl, but it was really hard to see much. 

I did tell Caleb in the future, sighting a funnel cloud over the farm is noteworthy enough to run for cover, and perhaps alert me to the fact, as I might also like to take cover. 

 Grandpa told me that 30 or 40 years ago he was fixing fence and a tornado came across the river, lifted up and went right over him dumping water on him.  I always wondered how that could be, to get caught that much by surprise.  I guess I know now.   

There are a few pics from this afternoon as well as from a few other storms on www.kvoe.com the Emporia radio station website.

The old adage in July is "rain makes grain".  Even though many in the US are still trying to replant, the forecast of rain has driven down markets today and yesterday.  Several factors are mentioned in the tumbling grain prices, other than rain making grain.   A stronger dollar, funds think grain has topped, and crops maybe being in better condition all mentioned.  Give us one hot dry week in Iowa, and they will go back the other way.

I am now getting the rain I needed 5 days ago, replanted 40 acres yesterday and should have done 25 more, but ran out of seed.  Headline in grass and grain is "Plant soybean crop in July, says MU agronomist".  This is stressing that IF we have good conditions we can still raise soybeans even after a July 15th planting date...I hate to bet on it though.

The corn is looking better all the time, maybe I should post some pics of it, now that I am no longer ashamed of it.