Close call last night

We noticed the thunderheads about bedtime and started watching TV before we went to bed. About that time an alert goes off and funnel clouds were spotted in our county and all over SW Ohio.

We looked out the window heading up the stairs and there sat the storm spotters in the curve of Martinsville Road from the local fire department.

It was eerie calm here with a few gusts of winds and finally another .3 of rain. We have been getting nice showers since planting but that is not the way you want to get them!

We left the TV on upstairs and dozed off. When we woke up to turn of the TV the warnings were called off.

It turned out that the one that touched down did it right on NOAA's property about 8 miles north of us! I didn't see any wind or hail damage today thankfully but that was a close call!

Our kids accuse of heading out of town everytime a big storm comes through like the tornado that went through our property on Good Friday of 2006. We were in NY and when we got home, there sat the two car garage right on top of the bushes! I cleaned up that mess all summer!

I am very happy we were luckier this time. Hope you were too!

Ed

My corn doesn't look too hot

Of course it has been a challenging growing year. My best field I pushed the window a little too hard and have Sonic Herbicide carryover from last year. It hasn't killed it but it doesn't look to happy. There is your problem with Non GMO's right there and a reason why the invented RR Soybeans and RoundUp to spray on it.

To add insult to injury I decide to plant a 30 variety test plot in that field. Well I did it and found every variation ever seen by man. Each one expresses its own characteristic to the carryover, the notill and especially the weather.

I love it when a plan comes together but this one never came. I just hope it doesn't fall apart. I am pretty hard on myself and I have seen worse corn, at least it doesn't have to be planted over.

When I used Sonic to control my roundup resistant weeds last summer, I said hmmm, I wonder if this will carry over to next year's crop? I even used a lower rate because it was late and it sure controlled last years weeds. The only weeds I have this year are perennials.

It sure is a good herbicide but you better study and follow the label!

How many mistakes can a man make in one year? I guess a whole bunch!

Ed

Crazy Weather again

It got cool and damp again, it is almost June.

Perfect for bringing new seedlings out of the ground but it time for some heat. The summer solstice is almost upon.

But the weed scenarios could drive farmers nuts. You spray too much and everything is hurt, you spray too little and the weeds overtake the crop.

Then there is the possibility of soybean rust making a statement in the states. Now that would really send the markets up.

Farmers and suppliers have seem to given up hope for a good year, we soon want to end this one too and just give us 2010.

2010, is that possible?

I was born in 1949 so 2010 seems like a big number. It isn't, just another year and another notch in the belt.

Did Al Gore study his creator when he spoke of Global Warming? Everyone laughs about that around here.

These are crazy times we live in folks, but probably overblown in the media.

Man has withstood the tests of time.

Ed

Topdressing Corn

It's been years since I topdressed corn. Urea is "on sale" and it costs less to put it on yourself.

What we applied last night went right into the ground with the humidity and dew. Ideal with to topdress corn.

Corn takes anywhere from .7 to 1.2 lbs of Nitrogen per bushel of corn. This has been well researched and much disputed.

Most of my best farmer clients are down on the low end of that range because their soil is healthy, they are in a good rotation, and they are very timely at doing things. .7 is the best I have done, 2004 and 2007.

Nature is all about timing. There is a time to plant and a time to reap. Lately I have felt like casting stones but it is not the right time for that.

You can test soil for N and tissue test for N but all tests are a snapshot of that moment. They help me figure out what is going on. Old farmers know what to do, they are very savvy.

I decided to topdress corn this year because it felt right. The weather is perfect for melting urea into the earth to feed the corn. The microbes will be busy.

Funny thing, I found out neither 1655 has the right wheel spacing for 30 inch rows. Can't find our 3/4 inch drive socket set so have to go buy another one. I will set one if not both tractors for 30 inch wheels but they both pull so well at the wider wheel spacing right now.

We took a bucket of the urea and sidedressed some sweetcorn, hoeing it in. Now that is how you make good sweet corn!

I could eat a few fresh ears right now, not that nasty Kroger stuff shipped in from the south, yuck, that is cow corn.

Ed

Chuck Elking

When I took mom to the dentist this morning I looked over to the guy beside me and said is that you Chuck Elking?

He looked up and down at me but said yes, like who are you?

Ed Winkle, remember me?

He burst into laughter and said yes! Ed, how are you doing, I think of you all the time! It has been years since we saw each other.

I met Chuck in the 80's when I was teaching ag at Blanchester and his steopson Shane enrolled in my class. I made sure I met all the parents of my students.

Shane was a hard case of divorce but thanks to Chuck, he turned out to be a real good man. Chuck said he just returned from his second tour in Iraq.

It was funny, we were going to church Sunday and drove past Chuck's old house in Midland. I told LuAnn the story of Chuck Elking again and how he helped so many kids, especially his stepkids.

Chuck is a German Catholic whose family farmed near Chickasaw Ohio in Mercer County. That is the county of Ohio where there is a Catholic Church every quarter mile or so.

Chuck befriended me when I was hurting in the late 80's and we took our kids to the Bowling Green tractor pulls and stayed in a tent all weekend while getting to know each other.

He will always be a dear friend and we let too many miles pass between us. He is like a sponsor, elder, role model to me. He looked good and I told him so. Three knee replacements in the right knee, one in left and both shoulders. He crawled under GM diesel truck for a lifetime for Norwood Auto Transit, then Complete Auto Transit. Best diesel mechanic I ever met, so meticulous.

He said he has 28 grandkids and 8 great grandkids. Now there is the salt of the earth for you.

That man is a saint, I guarantee you.

Wish I had a picture of our tent to show you, I know Matt still remembers.

Ed

Dentists

We all hate going to the dentist. We know we need good teeth for good nutrition but the scary thought of having your teeth worked on has been past down a long time.

I am sure part of our longevity is due to dentists. My parents took me as a child to Dr. Roy Rogers in Hillsboro. He is no relation to the Roy Rogers we knew as kids but he had the picture with him and Roy signed and hanging in his office.

Today I took my mother to another dentist in Hillsboro for three hours of dental work. She never got in to see a dentist after dad died in 2001 so it was no easy task.

They had planned an IV sedation but the dentist said her veins are shot, literally that is what he said so he ended up giving her a half dose IM or Intra Muscular.

He got done quicker than expected but she just looked terrible. She hung like a rag doll all the way home off the seat belt in the truck.

Got to Sardinia and she popped right up. Time to feed my dogs. No mom, you are to lay down and take it easy for 24 hours. 24 hours, you kidding me? I got dogs and cows to feed!

Parents, God love'em. That would include me and LuAnn when we tell our children things they don't want to hear. This time the kids have to tell the parents what they don't want to hear.

We have both been doing this now since I met LuAnn. Since then both our dad's have passed away and we are dealing with our mothers. They raised us up and are still willing to take us out!

I have not been looking forward to today for a long time and she did a good job making my fears come to life.

We have 70 acres of beans to plant yet and start scouting everything we already planted.

Tonight is the Mass for LuAnn's dad at the local church.

I just want to get back to "normal." What is normal these days?

I sure hope you all had a better day than I did.

I leave you with a beautiful picture of my friend's winter barley, won't be long until its harvest.

Ed Winkle

Memorial Day

The history of Memorial Day is interesting.

"Following the end of the Civil War, many communities set aside a day to mark the end of the war or as a memorial to those who had died. Some of the places creating an early memorial day include Sharpsburg, Maryland, located near Antietam Battlefield; Charleston, South Carolina; Boalsburg, Pennsylvania; Petersburg, Virginia; Carbondale, Illinois; Columbus, Mississippi; many communities in Vermont; and some two dozen other cities and towns. These observances coalesced around Decoration Day, honoring the Union dead, and the several Confederate Memorial Days."

It was still called Decoration Day when I was a child. We would take time each Decoration Day to decorate graves of the fallen soldiers. That usually gave us time to reflect on the lives of our relatives who passed also and it became popular to decorate all graves at the cemetary.

If I am done planting I always go to observe the holiday by visiting friend and family gravesites. My favorite was always Grandpa and Grandma Winkle at Mowrystown. There are more Winkle gravesites than any cemetary I have ever found at Mowrystown. They have the prettiest site under a big old shade tree at the edge of the cemetary overlooking the whole field.

There are lots of Kier's buried there too and that was Grandma's maiden name. Kier and Winkle on dad's side, Carrington and Gray on mom's. LuAnn likes to bring rags and soap and water to clean the stones. I like to bring flowers according to cemetary rules.

I haven't had too much luck keeping flowers on those sites so I must have good taste. If you come back a week later they are gone. I can't believe people bother other people's decorations but I think they do.

My feeling today is to do everything in my power to make this country better, not worse. I don't like the path our society has taken and join the common people in keeping our country free and good.

We have six children and their families to watch over and they are all doing a great job. We are very proud of every one of them.

I hope everyone in our country takes time this weekend to celebrated the same.

Ed