Moline

We really want to go to the John Deere Pavilion in Moline Illinois this weekend. LuAnn came home and exclaimed it took $60 to fill her gas tank and it would take a few tanks to get to Moline and back. This economy is limiting us already.

There are a few Women in Agriculture meeting there Saturday and we had hoped to leave after her photography class tomorrow. There are some pretty savvy ladies on that board and most of them have not met each other but they still send Christmas cards to each other. I really respect them.

The Quad Cities is a pretty neat place for a farmer to visit. I have friends scattered all around the region but my best friends are near Washington Iowa, just a an hour or two southwest of the Quad Cities.

I went there the last 10 years in a row to talk with my mentor Paul Reed and his cousin David Moeller. I have learned so much from them and helped other farmers learn from them also.

So I am kinda bummed. This world situation is holding us all down but I know we need it. We spent like there was no end to money. Now we are out of money.

We are a far cry from the 12 cent gasoline I put in my car as a teenager. A dollar was terrible and now we are facing four dollars per gallon. That really stymies the farmer, too.

Fertilizer and fuel prices run together and they are getting astronomically high again. Good thing we have record commodity prices to go with them but farmers know that won't last forever.

I don't know where where this will end up but is it strange this all happens during Lent, a time of fasting?

One week and it's April, year already one third gone. Can you believe that?

Ed