Wheat Harvest

Wheat harvest is in full swing in the eastern states.

Yields seem to be good from what I have seen and heard.

Hopewell continues to be the number one certified Ohio wheat variety!

If you enjoy Oreo cookies or any kind of pastry, think of us! Ohio is the number one provider of soft red winter wheat.

We used to bale all the straw but there are so few livestock around here anymore that many farmers just blow the straw back on the ground, it is loaded with nutrients.

Many farmers have Shelbourne stripper headers now and just strip the grain off the stalk. This is popular in Europe and is becoming more popular in the states. I have several friends who use stripper headers. The advantage is faster harvest speeds as you don't have all that straw running through the combine.

It makes for some funny looking fields if you are not used to it!

Ed Winkle

Sunday Blues

LuAnn and I always had to fight the Sunday blues. It is a down mood after a good weekend doing what you want to do and not looking forward to another weak of challenges.

I always had them going back to college after farming all weekend. Yes, I was a weekend warrior too long. Since 2002 I haven't had to so it hasn't been so bad for me.

LuAnn is still working though and has to go back to work. We would rather stay home and work in our gardens and play with our grandkids.

Do you get the Sunday blues?

How do you handle them?

I have to pay a lot of attention to LuAnn on Sunday so she doesn't get them. She will even tell me it is coming on so I drop everything and we go do something fun to get our minds off it.

I am no psychologist but I know they are real.

How we handle our mood changes definitely affects our happines and our ability to handle new challenges.

Ed

Fireworks

I used to enjoy fireworks but haven't seen many in years. Last time I remember was with Paul Reed's family in Washington Iowa near Keota. The place was packed.

I have to give the Blanchester community credit, they do a pretty good job honoring the fourth.

Sardinia had the best around but it fizzled out, literally!

I get so that when I hear big booms now I am looking over my shoulder. Usually some piece of equipment just blew all over the ground and that spells money and downtime.

Hearing is probably my best sense, it sure isn't vision.

Got to get my eye test so I can pass the drivers license again this year.

Without my keys I would riding a bike, the Mule or a tractor.

Independence Day, that is what it is all about.

Ed

Has the fourth ever been more special?

I think about our soldiers protecting us almost every day.

I often think about all the discussion on how tosolve our country's problems and I really wonder if this fourth of July is most special to us?

We used to attend the then once big Sardinia Fourth of July Celebration. Dad would always take time out for that. That became a big deal in our little town.

There could be 100 tractors and floats from all over the region in that parade.

Antique cars from everywhere.

I have pictures somewhere I would have to scan and post.

I have three orange boxes full of pictures! Uncle Roy would love to see them I am sure.

Happy Fourth,

Ed Winkle

Here's to dad!

Dad was born today in 1915.

I have tried to imagine what it was was like then. He had older sisters, Florence and Mildred and he was number three of nine children. Uncle Roy and Aunt Jane are still here with us.

They watched automobiles, tractors and electricity come and the out house go.

Dad taught me so many valuable lessons but the big ones were hard work and respect of others.

I am wearing a long sleeve shirt today like I do in late fall. It is 62 degrees and the crop is all stationary. It is just sitting here, waiting for heat.

Dad talked about a year like this and I think it was 1936. They cultivated corn under snowflakes. The crop was so short that buckwheat was planted and saved the farm to feed the livestock. I have always had a fond admiration for buckwheat and buckwheat pancakes.

Yesterday Dad had another Great Grandchild born. With all the girls in the family the Winkle name is becoming more extinct but the bloodlines are still here.

When I held her I was holding her for dad, too.

We love and nurture our family and try and represent our ancestors all at the same time.

It is really amazing.

Before LuAnn's dad passed last month his little great grandson spread his little self across Gordon and told him he loved him, sobbing, knowing grandpa was short for this world.

Isn't that what life is all about?

So many people are yearning for this but our families have learned how to "spread the wealth," and I don't mean money, and pass it on.

I pray it never ends.

Ed Winkle

Caoilin's Here

Round face, 8 lbs, long piano fingers, 21 inches long, healthy baby.

Becky did well and she is so happy. My hat's off to these young women, three grandchildren and a grand nephew in one year!

Nine months is a pretty long time in these days and the girls get all the credit.

Papaw is very happy.

Caoilin, Tyler, Claire and Joshua, what a crew. Seven within 6 years of age.

See you later or as Brynn says, C YA.

I need to go see her and her sister soon. They are all precious.

Ed

No Delicious Living

LuAnn picked up this free magazine at Kroger's called Delicious Living.

She said read this article and walked away. I think she knew I would get mad.

Some treehugger wrote about farmers and ethanol ruining the world in a so called free grocery magazine where I have invested thousands in 40 years.

My local Krogers is the only place I can buy E-85 and yet they hand out magazines disputing it? Left leg doesn't know what the right leg is doing!

Drea Knufken obviously never had a real job in her life or has any understanding how food is produced or what is really going on in the world.

We want peace but we start wars. We want food but we have to buy fuel. Did anyone ever really study our past?

A good farmer friend said Ed, you are getting cynical. Who me? I want my grandkids to have a life and a whole bunch of people are trying to ruin it for them!

We are dangerously getting to a point that people are so far removed from their food they don't understand the process, even if they got an A in Biology.

The best thing I have seen this year is LuAnn's garden. She is putting people right back to their roots, where "corn is grown and future farmers meet."

If I saw a family with a garden in their front yard, I would knock on the door and shake their hand.

But we are probably considered queer in this society!

Sorry for the rant, but the CEO of Kroger is going to hear me, guarantee you.

One of the VP's signed my paycheck for 8 years. He is a good man and will address this issue. He is a scientist from a long line of family farmers in Ohio.

All this hoopla this week and they are missing the point!

Food is basic, we all need to know how to grow it or trust those who do it. Everything else comes later.

Ed Winkle