Animal OCD

This has to be one of the most bizarre corn field happenings that has ever happened to us.

From a distance in this field of Brad’s it looks like the planter didn’t plant one row.

When you get closer you can see that corn is there.

It has just been eaten by some creature.

THE WHOLE ENTIRE ROW! The animal did not quit at just a few plants or part of the row and it didn’t not try other rows. It only liked this one and couldn’t bring itself to quit. I’m not even exaggerating.

I think it’s a natural phenomenon. Have you ever seen anything like it?

Summer Reading

If you’re looking for an easy summer read, Back in the Saddle by Ruth Logan Herne would be a good option for you to consider. The cover might leave you wondering if it’s a Christian novel, but I can vouch that it is and that it didn’t contain any content that I would call questionable. It did have a much better written description of a calf being pulled than I could ever write and some good thoughts on kindness, family, and forgiveness. To make it even better, the author thanks our very own Nebraska author Mary Connealy for helping her learn about raising cattle.

The story takes place on a large cattle ranch in the state of Washington. One son returns home unwillingly after working in big city, corporate America. He has two brothers who I’m guessing might be the main characters for the following books in the Double S Ranch series.

It’s not an overly deep book, but it is enjoyable. That’s why I call it good summer reading. Thank you to Blogging for Books for sending this book to me so I could review it for you.

Do Baby Bears Have Mommies? by Crystal Bowman and Teri McKinley is a great children’s book with lots of facts about animals stated in a way that little people will remember them. The title had me thinking it might be focusing on birds and bees types of information – if you know what I mean – but it’s not like that at all. It asks questions that little kids might ask about animals (How do earthworms dig in dirt? Do monkeys like bananas?) and answers them well.

The only thing I don’t like about Do Baby Bears Have Mommies? is that I think having real pictures of the animals it teaches about would be better. It does remind me of the other book I’ve read by Chrystal Bowman and Teri McKinley in that it has great rhyme and rhythm. They have another “I’ve Got Questions” book titled Does God Take Naps? that I would like to check out. Do Baby Bears Have Mommies? is a book I will enjoy reading many times over. Thank you to the Tyndale Blog Network for sharing this book with me to review it for you.

Planting Setup

Brad changed from an 8 row planter to a 12 row planter this year. He wanted to change how his new planter was set up for fertilizing, and so he just did. How he knows all this stuff is beyond me. Here’s a look at his planting fertilizer setup.

The fertilizer is in the white tanks on the side of the tractor.It goes through these cylinders connected to the planter.
Then it goes out through all these red hoses. Look at all that tidy tubing!In the end, somehow fertilizer comes out at each row in supposedly the same rate.
This pump Brad added, which somehow works to make the fertilizer part of that happen for the entire planter, not just one row.So while the seed is going into the ground, it is getting fertilized at the same time. Then it soon starts to grow! Please take time to be impressed!

Brad knows how the tractor and planter work and often if something breaks he figures out what the problem is and can fix it. Would you have a clue how to even start figuring out the problem? I wouldn’t even want to attempt to take off a tire if I had a flat on my car! Farmers do so much more than just drive a tractor and get dirty. As you see from this, they are also mechanics and engineers, (My explanations of things show you I am not!) but they are also so much more!

Planting 2017

We are in the midst of planting season. At the end of last week, we were about thirty percent done.
As of yesterday, just over half of Brad’s corn is planted. That means we have less than half to go. 

It feels like its been “one of those years.”  For instance, I took this nice photo when Brad passed me on my walk as he drove out to the field for the first time this season. Before I was even done with my walk he passed me on his way back to the shop. A hydraulic line had blown and sprayed oil all over the tractor as he was lowering the planter. He hadn’t even tried to plant anything yet. Another day, I thought I’d be nice and ride with Brad a round. It was William’s first tractor ride. As you can see Brad had been really bored and was missing us a lot. (That was sarcasm there.) We got booted after an abrupt stop because something wasn’t working right had Liza’s head hitting the windshield. We didn’t even make it half way through the field.

A flat tire here, a wheel falling off there, questionable seed depth……cornstalks keep plugging the planter, a sensor isn’t working… BUT fields are still getting planted.Some even have corn sprouting already.

Oreo Dough

By: Wyatt

step 1:Put Oreos in a bowl
step 2:Smash it up
step 3:Put some chocolate chips with it. Choice of melting it
step 4:Put a touch of butter in it
step 5:Put a touch of peanut butter in it
step 6:Mix it up
step 7:Eat it

[He was wondering this morning if this recipe he created could become famous. “So try it,” he said.]
 

The Frightening Philippi Jail

The Frightening Philippi Jail by Gary Bower is a children’s book about Acts 16 where Paul and Silas are in prison. It’s written in a rhyming, repetitive, building pattern much like The House That Jack Built nursery rhyme. This makes it easy to read and fun to listen to. By the end of the book, you have the first part memorized because you’ve repeated it so many times. The first part focuses on the awful conditions of the prison, but in the end you read “This is the book that helps us to see how God shakes things up when He sets people free.” I wish that was the phrase you repeated the most when reading the book instead of “…the bugs and the rats and the slugs…”

Gary Bower has written other children’s books in his Faith That God Built collection using this same format. The Frightening Philippi Jail is the only one that is from the New Testament. It is very nice to have an interesting children’s book about a story in Acts since that’s not something you find easily. Young children will enjoy hearing this story again and again and will soon be telling it to you.

Thank you to Tyndale House Publishers for providing me with a copy of this book to review.

Broken Glass

Here’s Brad spraying some wheat that a farmer used just as ground cover. Brad’s aim was to kill the wheat, and the farmer will now plant something else in the field. Brad has a lot of other acres to spray, but he’s been sidelined temporarily.

When he was hauling the sprayer home on the trailer one night, something hit its windshield. Why they don’t make a sprayer windshield like a car windshield is a good question. These just shatter and end up all over. He thought he’d go get it fixed and be back to work in less than a day; but no dealership near us had a windshield stocked, so he’s having to wait over a day for it to get fixed. I’m sure all farmers can feel his pain right now and all farmers’ wives can feel mine.