Eve

No, not Adam and Eve. New Year's Eve!

The picture shows where we were a year ago today, in the woods of Highland County riding four wheelers.

Are you ready for 2011? Two big checks written today should put us in pretty decent shape for 2010 taxes but probably all we did was just defer taxes to 2011. Most of our crop needs will be paid for.

I prefer a simple cash system but farming isn't simple. Farm management and record keeping isn't simple. The tax system is bad enough for the individual but it is crazy for a business. It creates many jobs for accountants.

Are you getting door to door salesmen? They are pretty well gone here but a few still crop up.

They can make a new subject for blogging. This kid(young man) roars into the driveway in a pickup that looked like my old 98 model and runs to the door.

Now I really like to help people, especially young people and will buy some products I need at a time when I don't really need them. It's their ability to sell themselves and I have become more cynical the older I get.

Our eyes meet then Sable runs up to him and he says Oh My God. I said yep, she is an oh my god kind of dog and try to get her from not jumping all over hm which is in his favor but he doesn't know it because he is still in shock. Her bark is worse than her bite so far.

He feebly said Hi I am from US Beef and I can't go home until this freezer full of beef is sold.

I said I am a US Farmer and I want to know where my beef is produced. My parents and my brother and brother in law are cattlemen.

He ran back to his truck and roared down to the bridge. Are we the trolls of the Martinsville bridge?

No wonder I hated missing the Trans Siberian Orchestra. I read this piece about Paul O'Neill, no wonder I wanted to go see them.

"Paul O'Neill has managed and produced rock bands including Aerosmith, Humble Pie, AC/DC, Joan Jett, and the Scorpions, later producing and co-writing albums by the progressive metal band Savatage, where he began working with Jon Oliva and Robert Kinkel. O'Neill took his first steps into rock music in the 1970s when he started the progressive rock band Slowburn, for whom he was the lyricist and co-composer. What was intended to be the band's debut album was recorded at Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios and engineered by Dave Wittman. However, despite the fact that Dave Wittman's engineering was capturing the exact sound O'Neill was hearing in his head, O'Neill was having trouble with it due to the fact that many of his melodies were between two to three octaves. Rather than releasing an album that he was not happy with, he shelved the project, but continued working in the industry at Contemporary Communications Corporation, the biggest arena rock management company at the time.

Over the years, O'Neill continued to work as a writer, producer, manager, and concert promoter. In 1993, when Atlantic Records approached him with an offer to start his own band, he jumped at the chance. Building on the foundation created by the marriage of classical and rock music and the artists he idolized (Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Queen, Yes, The Who, and Pink Floyd, as well as hard rock bands such as Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin and the multiple lead vocalists of the R&B groups the Temptations and the Four Tops), he brought in Oliva, Kinkel, and Al Pitrelli to form the project.

I used to listen to all that music. Becky said Liam loved the lights and the guitars but I bet that music would stick in your head for awhile!

Thanks for reading this blog. It's been TWO years since I started thanks to a challenge from my wife, LuAnn.

It has broadened my knowledge and perspective and given me a chance to share my stories of life.

I always wanted to write a book, this is my book.

Happy New Year!

Ed Winkle

Dad

Would you like a piece of pie and a cup of coffee?

Do you dream? I had a dream last night night that made me smile. I had a new Troy Bilt Rototiller and I was tilling up the worn out yard at the old farm for a new garden.

Dad would take a turn then I would take a turn. Dad's pass would go off at an angle from mine and I would try and straigten it the next pass. It wasn't going too quickly, it looked like all we were doing was aerated that high traveled worn out lawn.

When I woke up I had a smile on my face. I know exactly where I was in that lawn on that farm where dad and I threw baseball. It might as well been a garden, we never had time to play much.

Dad was a very simple man, hardworking, God fearing farmer. Here is the Bible. Read it. Do you believe it? Yes or no type of answer. He never seemed to get ahead but he really did. He was so far ahead of others it isn't funny.

Then I thought about myself. The parts of me I admire most is the ones I got from dad. Generally happy, love kids, love the earth. The parts about me that helped me be who I am where I am are complicated. Grand dreams, grand schemes, somewhat risky, great when it works, horrible when it doesn't. Not simple at all.

Isn't it funny how one dream can make you think? Dad was about of it 10 years ago today.

Do you think he paid me a visit?

I found out I have a young friend I really admire who reads this everyday. I thought wow that is neat when I heard it then I gulped. He lost his dad this year and he is half my age.

You readers are a big responsibility. I accept it. This blog has become therapy and release for me. I tell you things I don't tell anyone else. It has become habit to me. I think about it every time I wake up. What am I going to say today?

Your comments and email keep me going, just like dad did.

I would have done anything in the world for that man.

Ed Winkle

I am digging for a picture of my dad.

NoTill Cuts Greenhouse Gases

Did you ever have nitrous oxide for dental work? Or use it to increase horsepower of an engine?

It is a powerful gaseous mixture of the elements in our atmosphere, Nitrogen and Oxygen. Mixed together they are green house gas.

"Tony Vyn, a professor of agronomy, finds that no-till reduces nitrous oxide emissions by 57% over chisel tilling, which mixes crop residue into surface soil, and 40% over moldboard tilling, which completely inverts soil as well as the majority of surface residue.

"There was a dramatic reduction simply because of the no-till," says Vyn, whose findings were published in the Soil Science Society of America Journal. "We think the soil disturbance and residue placement impacts of chisel plowing and moldboard plowing modify the soil physical and microbial environments such that more nitrous oxide is created and released."

During early season nitrogen fertilizer applications on corn, no-till may actually reduce nitrous oxide emissions from other forms of nitrogen present in, or resulting from, that fertilizer.

Nitrous oxide is the third-most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere but, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has about 310 times more heat-trapping power than carbon dioxide in part because of its 120-year lifespan.

"This suggests there is another benefit to no-till beyond soil conservation and improving water quality," Vyn says. "There is an air quality benefit as well."

Using a corn-soybean rotation instead of continuous corn decreased nitrous oxide emissions by 20% in the three-year study. Vyn says the reduction could be even greater, though, because for the long-term experiment, both continuous corn and rotation crops were fertilized based on the needs of continuous corn. A rotation cornfield would normally receive 20% less nitrogen.

Finding ways to reduce nitrous oxide emissions is important because food production accounts for about 58% of all emissions of the gas in the United States. Of that, about 38% is coming from the soil.

"There is more nitrous oxide emission coming from agriculture than the tailpipes of cars and trucks," Vyn says. "And there is likely to be more nitrous oxide emission if we increase nitrogen application rates to increase cereal yields."

Permalink: http://www.farmprogress.com/story.aspx/nl15_13nl/notill/cuts/greenhouse/gases/9/45021

Science keeps bashing ethanol and notill for political reasons.

They both make sense to me.

Ed Winkle

No Go

Has your family had that terrible stomach virus going around? It hit us both at bed time last night. That bug is wicked. Your stomach gets hard as a rock and you feel more miserable than you can imagine.

We layed in bed about 12 hours and I think we got about one hour of sleep. That is the sickest I have been since Christmas break 1978. Matthew was one and we were both so sick we could barely take care of each other.

So there went the TransSiberian Orchestra today. Becky was able to take Liam herself so at least he will get his birthday present. We really wanted to hear them for our birthday present but the bug took care of that idea.

I hope you don't get it, it is a really nasty bug. Many have had it around here and some in our family. Don't know when and where we got it, viruses are smoking guns, hard to figure out where they came from.

There has been more fires. A house on Second Creek Road burned and they got the people out in time. Once again, firemen are angels. The old Norco building in the Sharonville-Blue Ash area burned to the ground and the fire was so hot it melted the street electric wires and even a cross walk sign. It takes a lot of heat to do that.

It was built by Sears and Roebuck and that is where they assembled the pieces for their famous old pre-assembled homes. We lived in one of them on Canada Road and it was assembled in 1922. It was a beautiful old farm house and still is.

"Many Sears' prefabricated "kit" houses, distributed during much of the first half of this century, were at least partially constructed/assembled in the the Norwood (Oh.) Sash & Door Co. plant. Several hundred "Sears" houses in the Cincinnati area have been identified and classified in a fascinating University of Cincinnati Master's Thesis by Bea Lask."

It had the built in cabinets and French doors. We only lived their 4 years when we moved to Rhude Road when I became extension agent in 1987. It was really out in the boondocks with a Midland address, Lynchburg phone number and the last house in Blanchester School District. It wasn't very handy for any services for our young family but it sure was quiet. I planted a pine windbreak with the kid's grandpa and it is beautiful and functional today. It had the best garden I ever tended as it was an orchard before and got all the manure from the barn. That was the best green beans and veggies I ever grew.

Hopefully we will feel better tomorrow but this really takes a toll on you.

I sure hope none of you catch it.

Ed Winkle

Before and After

The kids and grands as Lu calls them has come and gone. Those nice neat packages are all in the trash. But not the contents, at least for now. In a hearbeat, it was all gone.

What did we accomplish?

I mean if you really think about it we all have so much stuff now, how much can we put upon ourselves? People add on, build sheds and barns to store their stuff. A quarter of million dollar combine is one thing but all this junk made in China?

I wonder if we have all lost it. I really do. That day of shopping and thinking about the number of semi loads of stuff really got me thinking about it again. I have always felt this way about stuff versus the real meaning of the season but it seemed over the top this year. Was that because we had a little more money and a little more hope than last year?

Personally, our family knows each other well enough we learn how to find something special that person can really use. We got the hint and LuAnn bought a Kreuing Coffe Maker for Kevin. He opened it up and went right to kitchen and started using it. Everyone got to try new drinks and flavors.

Have you seen a child push away a pile of gifts to play with one silly little toy? Caolin and Tyler were drawing on a $5 dry erasable board. $50 toys pushed aside.

The bummer is bum gifts. I bought two Jupiter table lamps from Joann's Fabrics sold by Ottlite and neither on of them worked! I fired off an email to them and it will be interesting to see how they respond.

None of us broke the bank as they say for Christmas. The gifts were all well thought out, like Shannon's ice bucket for LuAnn or LuAnn's battery charger for me. You know though I will use the three pack of vice grip tools from Shannon even more?

It's the thought that counts. We are blessed with a family full of good thinkers. We all feel blessed to have each other. Our beliefs and daily work are very similar and compatible so it is not that hard to figure out what Eric or whoever really needs. Now everyone wants a set of those lightweight saw horses.

Five year old Liam drew us a picture he demanded to draw before his family came to see us. It shows two happy people with big smiles and blue skies. That says it all to me.

As a country I think we really need to think before we act before and after an event. I don't know that we will ever all agree on what to do before a 911 and after.

Me, I have a lot of thinking to do. What will I plant and how will I sell it before and after it is planted? What can I do today that is even a little better than yesteday?

It has been a great Christmas for our family. Tomorrow we get to go watch the TransSiberan Orchestra with our music grandson for three birthdays, his, mine and LuAnn's. I have wanted to see them perform ever since the fellow in Mason used Wizards in Winter in his fantastic light display that changed the way people think about decorating a home for Christmas.

The next day we meet with the banker for our 2011 farm budget. I think we are ready. Back to the ebb and flow of daily life and all of its little requirements.

Hope your Christmas was as good as ours. The ideas of a Christmas tree and a gift has exploded in our society in these days.

I just hope we remember Before and After.

Ed Winkle

I Lost It

I was driving to Kroger's this morning and had this brilliant idea for today's blog. By the time I got home, I lost it.

How could you lose a good idea so quickly?

It is part of man's brain.

We are all attention deficient, some more than others. If you stick out too much you classiy as AD, ADHD and all these other disorders.

We all suffer from disorder, don't we? I think that is man's basic nature. It seems to me the more disordered the world gets, and I think it is, the more disorderd our mind gets.

We can only hold so much information to make decisions. I think we have too much today. I know I have too much for mine and I was able to memorize everything I read in my younger years.

It is all gone. Too many brain cells are full, I can't generate enough new ones and I have lost too many to age and and the way I lived my life where I chose to.

I feel pretty good about it. I can keep up with most of my peers. Some people look to me for advice. I haven't lost it all, I just lost that great idea I had for a blog this morning.

The experts say write it down and I have no doubt those who master this technique do better than we who don't.

Sable was licking my face as I drove down the road and I can't write and drive anyhow. I always wanted to make recordings and notes as I lived my life, I see so many things and get such great ideas and then poof they are gone.

I lost one good idea this morning but I have not totally lost it.

Yet.

Ed Winkle

Merry Christmas

Let me be the first to wish you Merry Chistmas this morning! You know me, I am a history buff and I looked up the origin of Merry Christmas.

Our friend Wiki says:

A Christmas tree inside a home."Merry," derived from the Old English myrige, originally meant merely "pleasant, and agreeable" rather than joyous or jolly (as in the phrase "merry month of May").[2]

Though Christmas has been observed since the 4th century AD, the first known usage of any Christmastime greeting, dates back to 1565, when it appeared in The Hereford Municipal Manuscript: "And thus I comytt you to God, who send you a mery Christmas."[2] "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" (thus incorporating two greetings) was in an informal letter written by an English admiral in 1699. The same phrase is contained in the sixteenth century secular English carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," and the first commercial Christmas card, produced in England in 1843.

Also in 1843, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was published, during the mid Victorian revival of the holiday. The word Merry was then beginning to take on its current meaning of "jovial, cheerful, jolly and outgoing."[2] "Merry Christmas" in this new context figured prominently in A Christmas Carol. The cynical Ebenezer Scrooge rudely deflects the friendly greeting: "If I could work my will.. every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding."[3] After the visit from the Ghosts of Christmas effects his transformation, Scrooge exclaims; "I am as merry as a school-boy. A merry Christmas to everybody!" and heartily exchanges the wish to all he meets.[4] The instant popularity of A Christmas Carol, the Victorian era Christmas traditions it typifies, and the term's new meaning appearing in the book, Dickens' tale popularized the phrase "Merry Christmas."[5][6]

The alternative "Happy Christmas" gained usage in the late 19th century, and is still common in the U.K. and Ireland alongside "Merry Christmas". One reason may be the Methodist Victorian middle-class influence in attempting to separate their construct of wholesome celebration of the Christmas season from that of common lower-class public insobriety and associated asocial behaviour, in a time where merry was also understood to mean "tipsy" or "drunk". Queen Elizabeth II is said to prefer "Happy Christmas" for this reason.[2] In the American poet Clement Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (1823), the final line, originally written as "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night," has been changed in many later editions to "Merry Christmas to all," perhaps indicating the relative popularity of the phrases in the U.S."

Every phrase has a history and I am full of the one's I learned around my parents like you're hoot dad but your still an old coot, don't stumble when you put on your boots. One of dad's favorites was about the little boy who couldn't speak English plainly and when asked what he wanted for Christmas, he answered Yoots to Yade in and Yaggin to Yide In. Most people don't get that one, they must think it is Yiddish or something.

I think Merry Christmas must be older than that, don't you? I think a lot of sayings were said in some fashion long before they were recognized on a larger scale.

I do wish you all a Merry Christmas. It is neat to see the big mall areas finally shut down Christmas eve like we saw last night on the way to Cousin Sheila's.

I wonder if most kids have so much stuff they don't look forward to Christmas morning like I did in my Christmas Tale yesterday?

Ed