Speaking Of Corn

Reed helped my dad plant his last row of corn for the season. Reed was very excited to hold the bag for dad. We didn't want him touching it because it was treated. I plowed the row and dad's plan was to drop 2 seeds in together at a time. The seed was getting sticky from the humidity and dad was having trouble only getting 2, sometimes he would drop 3 and even 4 at a time. Reed was cracking me up pointing out each time he dropped more than 2 "GG, you dropped 4 that time. That's too many!" So then dad sent Reed in to pick up the extra ones. It was a great lesson in math and I was impressed with how quickly Reed would point out how many dad dropped.

This is his corn after a few days, it came up quick and he is ready to eat it!

Children Of The Corn

This is one of my dad's corn fields. He was very proud of it and wanted me to take some pictures. Which was actually not the easiest thing to do because it was about 7 feet tall and I couldn't really get above it. I told him I would do my best.

So while I was at it I thought I would do a little lesson on how corn grows...are you excited?

This is the tassel at the top of the stalk. It holds all the pollen.

This is a silk. You may be more familiar with this part, it's what you have to clean off the ear before you eat it. There is one silk per kernel of corn.

The pollen from the tassel will fall from above and land on the silks. If every silk becomes pollinated, you will have a perfect ear of corn. Well, then you have to keep the worms, deer, squirrels, raccoons, birds and the neighbor's cows all from steeling it and eating it but that has nothing to do with tassels or silks. Some of that has more to do with lawyers and line fences but that's a whole different story.

4th of July Fireworks

This is my first time trying to photograph fireworks. I realize that a tripod is kind of a necessity to get great shots but I don't have one so handheld it was. I also wanted to try to do a little Photoshop work but since it is already July 13th I can tell that's not going to happen so here they are straight out of the camera.

Maybe one day soon we will be moved into the new house, which I realize I have not really talked about on here much, and I will have time to put my life back in order and do some better blogging. Until then, you will be stuck with straight out of the camera photographs and very little detail of events. I apologize but my main concern is getting a bed in my bedroom and finding all of our missing belongings among the boxes.

Happy 3rd Birthday Reed

Thanks to all of you who helped celebrate this special day!

Reed had a wonderful time filled with tools, tractors and swimming. What could be better?

Hay In The Hay

My mom has a movie she bought a while ago called "Hey, That's My Hay!" Reed loves it because it's all about making hay but he calls it "Hey In The Hey". The kids were lucky enough to get to see my dad make some hay this summer. Millie and Jacob have seen him do it before but this was Reed's first time and he was VERY excited. Every morning for about 2 weeks he would wake up and ask "is this the day we put the hook on on and make hay?"

Here is a little hay making lesson for those of you who know nothing about it.

First you have to cut the hay with the discbine. That's basically a mower with disc blades that cut the hay at the ground then it runs through rollers to crush the stems to help it dry faster. You have to have all the moisture out before you bale or the hay will get hot and catch fire - that's never good. Many a barn have burned down because of this.

After it's cut the hay sits for a day and you pray for no rain. Remember the barn burning to the ground issue? We don't want that.

The next day you run the tedder over the hay. This basically fluffs it all up and lets air get under it to...you guessed it...help it dry even more. These come in different styles but the way ours works is two large spinning discs have large prongs attached to them and they spin, grab and launch the hay around.

Then you let the hay sit and dry some more and again pray for no rain.

The next day you rake it (provided it's good and dry) and put it in rows to prepare it for baling.

Then you get to bale it. I had to leave before the baling actually started so all I got was this photo of the tractor and baler ready to go. And in case the only hay you city folk are use to seeing are large round bales, they come in different shapes and sizes. Our baler is a square baler and after the bales are dropped in the field a team of young and old strapping men (or women) walk behind and pick the bales up and pitch them on a wagon where someone else stacks it and then takes it to the barn where more men unload it and restack it. As you can see, making hay is a very long and involved process. It is very labor intensive and very dependent on the weather. Since you can only make hay after a long dry spell it is usually very hot, dry and dusty while you are working. My grandpa always said "you have to make hay when the sun shines" and he sure made a lot of hay in his day so he knew what he was talking about.