Pit Crews

It is little a too sticky to plant this morning so the pit crews are busy.  Dad, Derk and Eric are switching the eight row planter soybeans.   We go from eight rows of corn to 15 rows of soybeans. 

Our seed treater has been giving us fits since last Friday.  This morning we have people from Omaha, Minneapolis, and South Africa (Believe it or not) working on it.  We are back up and running now but yesterday was a little nerve racking. 



The inside of the control panel for the seed treater  - one of the
scariest things I have ever seen.



The black box holds 2500 pound of soybeans seed. There is a slide opening on the bottom of the box.  The seed then goes up a belt and into the treater drum where fungicide and insecticide is sprayed on the beans.  The tannish/brown thing is a drum and turns and gets the protection products evenly dispersed onto the seed.  The seed then comes out of the drum and goes up another belt and into a seed tender that we use to deliver the seed to our customers or our own planter.



Tanks that hold the crop protection products.





Seed tender being loaded with treated soybean seed.



The techs think that a lightening strike in early April is the culprit to all our problems.  But all should be better now with a new control panel.

The pit crew was also getting the field cultivator checked over and ready to go. 

Greasing the crumbler on the field cultivator

Checking to make sure all the shovels are tight.

And finally I went out to the field behind the warehouse to see how wet the field was and I saw two orioles in one of our cherry trees.  I did attempt to snap a pick before scaring them away.



I'm a slow typer so by now all the equipment is back out in the fields, soybeans are being treated and I need to hop back on the forklift!

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day!  Joe is out spraying, Dad is planting, Stan is soil finishing and Amos and I are in the seed warehouse. Yesterday, a friend jokingly asked where Joe was going to take me for brunch this morning.   My Mothers Day brunch consisted of a granola bar, a chocolate Easter egg and some iced tea in the Pioneer office.  As long as we can plant it's a great day.  We can do brunch next winter. 

Cesear on patrol.

It's relatively quiet this morning so I want to introduce you to three unassuming individuals that are important to our farming operation.  This is Ceasar.  He is 12 pounds of claws, teeth, and fluff.  Before we had Ceasar we would have a mouse nest in a pallet or two of seed each year.  We can't sell bags of seed that have been chewed on by rodents. A bag of seed corn can cost up to $310.  We have had Ceasear for eight years and since Cesear has come along we have not had a rodent problem in our seed warehouse.  He is definately worth his weight in gold.

Cesear is pretty much all business but he does like to
cuddle up once in awhile.

Next we have Cheese Cake. (I don't name the animals - I just buy their food.).  He was born a year ago.  Here is a picture of him with his mom, Lucky Bob, and his litter mates. 


Cheese Cake and litter mates at three weeks old.


Lucky Bob was a good mouser and her off-spring have always been as well.  Lucky Bob passed away last fall after being a very prolific cat for several years.  We have always had neighbors and friends who have wanted our cats for mousing so we only have the two cats on our farm.
Lucky Bob always had her litters in the rag box in the farm shop and that is still Cheese Cake's favorite place to sleep

Cheese Cake may need to improve on his work ethic.

 Our newest addition to the farm is Ugly George.  He is a guinea.  I heard that guineas are suppose to get rid of rodents and reptiles.  Since I hate snakes I thought we would give it a shot.  I bought George from a 4Her at the end of our county fair last August.  George makes the most unique and/or annoying sound we have ever heard.  He has pretty gray and white dotted feathers and he poops a lot.  We will see what kind of job he does for us this spring as all of the Lord's creatures start coming out of hibernation.

Ugly George

Have a great day and enjoy the great weather with your Mom!

Wordless Wednesday

Oh, crap (literally) the grackles are back.