Have I ever mentioned how weather is a major factor in farming? Did you know you can’t control weather? It is a great reminder of Who is really in control in life.
This growing season has been a stark contrast to last year. Last year we didn’t have more than sprinkles from the middle of May to the beginning of August. In that same span this year, we’ve had over 20 inches of rain! That’s not a typo. It’s really unbelievable and wonderful. The dry land corn in some places looks just as good as the irrigated to my untrained eye.
This is dry land corn from one of the earliest planted fields.
The problem – seems like there’s always a problem with farmers – is that some rain storms have come with hail. It’s been devastating for some farmers’ fields. Last year we would’ve taken hail to just get some rain. At this point this year if we see red in the radar of a storm, we wish it would go away and we pray it doesn’t have hail. We’d actually take no rain so we wouldn’t have to try to not worry about if it’s going to hail or not.
Brad has several fields near each other that did get hit with some hail last week. Pictures of the actual fields would be more interesting, but all I have is pictures of leaf samples that Brad is going to send in to somewhere that will tell him what his nutrient deficiencies are. The first is from the field that was hailed on the most and the second one is from a field right next to it.
These leaves are taken from where the ear is at on the stalk so obviously the ones above them look worse. At this point the rain has benefitted us more than the hail has hurt us, but we still highly dislike hail. It’s out of our control either way.
We had to stop to get our annual picture. We weren’t dressed for the occasion, but we made it work.
Oldest to youngest next to the semi – it’s the tradition. 
Do they look like children whose dad has been working easily 70+ hours a week for the last eight weeks? Here’s a closer view. 
This irrigated field and the one pictured below were planted one day apart eight weeks ago. The fact that these fields and the non-irrigated fields have actually had rain on them this month has helped our mental health. That didn’t happen at all last year in June!
One field left to finish planting with rain in the forecast for today. Brad is going on one minute of sleep in the last 29 hours. Seriously. I sent Elliana along to keep him awake. Let’s all pray they stay safe.