Storm

What a storm blew through a few minutes ago! It had been building all night and one wind gust felt like it was going to blow the big old bedroom window out on top of us. Seriously, it was that strong. But nothing like the earthquake in New Zealand.

I hope all my readers are safe, this storm runs way back to Nebraska. The edge of the storm that passed through is like a knife. When it gets like I will have to go assess the damamge, I hope it is below the deductible but I heard a lot of thins blow off last night.

I know there is steel off the bins and old barn, I heard it. I know that sound by now, it has happened several times. It probably took off every weak pecan limb and I bet there is enough kindling in the yard to start many fires.

Pickemupstix, ever play that game? The older grandkids are old enough to play. My main man Liam won't be able to play with us very often. We bid them goodbye last night as they move to Cleveland this week for Will's new job. It is very bittersweet.

We could tell Liam doesn't want to go but he has no choice. We talked about adjusting to his new life and how we could still see each other. Oh the pain and the joy!

LuAnn and I both had that happen to us when we were 5 or so. My parents bought a new farm near nowhere New Hope on Stoney Hollow Road and her parents moved her from a comfortable suburb to a farm in the middle of nowhere, Alabama School System in New York.

At least we have some experience to commiserate with him. It all turned out good and his experience will too.

These fuel prices are going to eat into our traveling money and our farm profits this year.

That's the way it is at HyMark on the last day of February.

Can you believe the new year is 1/6 gone?

Ed

Sorts

My little buddy is moving away. That could make me really sad and out of sorts. His dad got a job with NASA in Cleveland so it will be about 3 hours to Liam's new pad.

But I have always taught me kids to be independent and here is the fruit of my labor. I don't have to tell you Liam and his mom Becky are two of the neatest and smartest people I ever met. By neat I mean extraordinary, not the typical meaning like picking up your clothes.

The family all prayed for this job and now the realization sets in. I can't drive to them in 15 minutes!

We had a good day yesterday. I went to my aunt's 89th birthday party. 5 of the 10 Winkle cousins were able to make it so I thought that was very good. Jane is weakening but still holding up really well for 89 years of life. She said one more year and I am 90 years old and I told here I sure hope you make it.

I think I may end up buying a new computer soon. They are a dime a dozen compared to other thins I buy and I tired of not having my workstation in front of me. I don't want a laptop or a Iphone, the screen and keys are too small for me. I probably spend a third of my time asleep and 1/5 in my office, so my work station is important to me. I am surprised I can even get by for a time without it.

So it's a melancholy day, I hope I don't get the Sunday blues. LuAnn and I talk about it and it is something deep in our background and in our souls that happen after a hard week, a fast weekend, church and the onset of a new week. I don't know how else to describe it.

The focus has been family and business here. We have to sign our loan paper for the year and Tuesday is the first day of March. By the 15th we have to have our crop insurance in order. I wish I could go self insured as it has never paid for me but I can't stand one bad open year and this fickle weather could be the indicator this is it.

I am bold about a lot of things but not my assets. I worked too darn hard to get them. So I hold onto to the things I can control and try not to worry about the things I can't.

Ed

March

February has marched right on by us, where did it go? It is a short month anyhow but how could time move so quickly? Just a year ago we were teaching and visiting in New Zealand and now that seems like a long time ago. Here we are learning about palenta from our hosts.

I read with interest Mike Bumpus's post on malware. His laptop is infected like my PC is. I still need a blogger class and now I need a malware class also.

These crafty evil monsters dream up these ways to infect our computers and then turn them loose on us. Every time we open an app or application we are subject to infection and the longer we are on there the more chance there is.

I found this article really interesting. What are we to do? Hang up the computer and turn off the switch? We are too addicted I mean connected so we can't do that! We just find another tech, short for technician and buy some more software!

It is like my old friend who takes 9 pills a day and his wife 13. They take pills to fight pills. Sad state of affairs but that is how it is!

So if I bought a new computer today and it had anti everything on it, would it even work? It might get me to HyMark Blogspot but that is about it. My site might even be infected but it looks like Google is a lot smarter than I am.

They are smart enough and powerful enough to be linked to revolution in the Mideast. That is a whole different subject and we won't go there today.

Mike and I and everyone else, we just want a computer that works and doesn't get infected.

I don't think they have invented that yet.

Ed

Union

Our union is getting tested again. Our union of states are paying for the right for the collective bargaining union.

I hope Governor Walker is successful as he is doing his job to balance a broken budget. I don't think he wants to break the unions but if he does, he will have a hard time.

Ohio is going through the same thing. Ohio can't pay its bills and some of those bills are really important ones for promised pensions and health care.

I think I was a member of the union twice as a teacher. My first year of teaching when they come at you like you HAVE to join the union to be a teacher and my first year at a new school when the board and the union were at odds to show solidarity. Now many places are a "closed shop" and you must join.

Dad was a member of the farmers union NFO about one day when some disgruntled members shot out the tires of a friends milk truck and he said enough of that, I won't support your union.

How in the world did we get into this mess anyway? Simply put governments have been robbing Peter to pay Paul since their first day. Government never had the money to fund all the grandiose schemes of the people, The more you gave them, the more they wanted to the point we can't pay what we agreed to pay. That is called bankruptcy.

Cicero wrote about this 55 years before Christ was born. Do you remember? “The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”

Cicero – 55 BC

Perhaps you saw it in a recent email but it is true. It sounds so easy on paper but man has never done well with it as a society. Too many people have no clue how live within a budget, let alone the government they elect to do all these great things.

Government can do great things and it has or we wouldn't be here.

But it is failing us to the point of bankruptcy.

Ed Winkle

CTTC

It is a big crowd today at the Conservation and Tillage Conference in Ada,Ohio. It has been held at Ohio Northern University as long as I remember, when my friend John Smith and I were agriculture extension agents in 1987.

John inherited the program when was hired as the new county agent in `987. He took it off and running.

Farmers are wanting to know more and more about the latest advances in conservation tillage. There are many continuous no tillers here.

Today is mainly cover crops, which there is much interest in. Many of these farmers have planted rye or radishes to get their hands on the benefits of cover crops. They want to know how to do better with their cover crops.

I am just happy to get the land covered with anything, then I can work my way up. The rivers are still brown so I know we can do better.

Covers are really paying off today as the ground in saturated and we are getting more rain. My friend Garth Mulkey from Oregon visited with me yesterday and we took a short drive to see all the bare ground with no over. Most of it is sloping land too, but farmers just wont cover crop it.

Garth raises cover crop seed in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Like many growers in Oregon he is struggling to make a living growing seed. He formed a new seed company and is here this weekend to answer questions at his booth at Ada.

LuAnn and I got to visit him and his wife in the fall of 09. I never saw such huge radish seed in my life, probably twice normal size. This makes it easier for the farmer to sow. Sowing small seed is real ticklish as I am sure you know. Small seed causes me to sow my lettuce seed too thick.

It is good to see conservation grow but it's sad it takes high input costs to force farmers to look at it. You would think we would know better but there are a few who farm like grandpa and do OK. My grandpa has a 5 year rotation and you don't see that anymore.

Now if they would chase the combine with a seeder they could make more money and build the source of their existence, the soil.

I am convinced a farmer should follow every harvest with fertilizer buggy and a seeder to prepare for the next year's crop.

Ed

More on Christchurch

I am sure you have seen the footage from Christchurch, south island of New Zealand.

I felt kind of funny making the decision in the Pellow house whether or not to visit both islands or fly to my friends farms in the Queensland of Australia. Both have been ravaged, one by earthquake, one by flood.

We could have stayed in the maize area of North Island flew to Queensland and flew back for our appointments on the North Island. I always wanted to visit Australia since my first contact with a farmer via Morse Code in Queensland in the early 60's.

Our hosts had travelled both islands of New Zealand so they encouragef us to focus our limited stay in New Zealand. They were right.

Now a year later, some of the great things we saw lay in rubble. It kind of mimics our lives, here today, gone tomorrow.

It is all overwhelming, no wonder some people never leave their birth area. My reading and curiosity led me to new places on new land to me and new people. It has been a great experience, one I can never give you full appreciation of.

Right now I am waiting on my Friend from Oregon to call back so we can connect at lunch. He produces seed we use for cover crops and we visited his farm two years ago, now is my time to pay back the favors he showed us.

He produces the largest radish seed I ever saw and is seeking seed companies to sell his product to. I will help him any which way I can. His area also produces the famous Oregon rye grass that is an important cover crop for many farmers here in the east.

The Internet has connected me to all these people. The power of the Internet, see what it is doing in the Middle East. It is a force to be reckoned with. Shut it off and you will see revolts like you have seen on TV. Wow, it is really powerful and has improved my life.

It looks like they will find more bodies today in Christchurch. The Internet can help us connect and see how each other are doing in times of peril like this.

Don't ever underestimate the power of technology, it has really taken a foothold.

I would rather be looking at these beautiful flowers in Christchurch right now but all of the tourists have been shuttled to a safer place.

Ed

Prayers to Christchurch

This morning I offer prayer to my new friends in New Zealand. We were in Christchurch a year ago. It was one of the most beautiful cities we have ever visited. The operating word is was.

The devastating second earthquake has just about finished her off after September's gigantic earthquake and the resulting aftershocks.

This morning's news shows the devastated streets we walked just a year ago. I saw so many buildings and things I remembered, now laying in rubble.

New Zealand is the most beautiful tropical island and there are two, formed by volcanoes. Their soil is mostly volcanic ash. They can grow anything thanks to this rich soil and their climate.

Christchurch is on the south island, my farmer friends live on either island.

I got an email from the north island this morning and my farmer friend quoted their Prime Minister, "this is a dark day for New Zealand."

Kiwi's are such beautiful people, so strong and resilient yet so mild, meek and humble. Their motto is, "no worries." LuAnn and I would be blessed to live there among them and it is that enticing.

Their strength and resiliency has been tested, and tested severely. I pray they are safe and can overcome their loss. It is a huge loss for them. The main cathedral near the square may be destroyed and I imagine those beautiful buildings we walked from downtown to the Botanical Gardens are very damaged.

I would think the trolley is not operational, maybe someone can update this for me.

We pray for New Zealand and are able to send help, just let us know your needs. I know you well enough you won't ask for anything. If you do, it's far worse than the news portrays.

The greatest thing I learned about your country is your people. Cheeriest people I ever met, backed with friendship and hospitality. Your country is beautiful, from north to south. We depend on many of your seeds from the south island that holds the rich Canterbury Plains south of Christchurch.

So of course, my heart is out to you and my prayer. We do hope you recover.

Blessings to New Zealand,

Ed Winkle