2 Weeks Old

The corn, that is. I took a shot this evening of some corn planted about two weeks ago just north of town.

Now that planting is done, time for spraying and praying as we watch the crop come up!

8 out of 10 Americans Live in Urban Areas

I saw this article this morning. It says 8 out of 10 Americans are now urbanites, according to the 2010 census. Wow. I'm not sure why I am surprised by this, but it really drives home the point that so many Americans are removed from the rural culture in which their food is produced. I often hear the statistic touted that today's youth are on average three generations removed from the farm. I get it - lots of Americans are getting away from rural life.

Photos like this one remind me of why I am in the rural minority :)
And the article is a good reminder to keep in mind the perspective of most consumers out there today. The processes of how our crops are grown and marketed, how the land is taken care of, the equipment that is used, and the reasons behind the operating decisions that are made are often foreign concepts to those whose view is not one from the seat of a tractor cab.

That's a Wrap

Planting 2012 is coming to a close. The guys should be finishing up today or tomorrow.

We have had some nice weather lately and that has made things easier versus the muddy conditions that the guys were having to deal with, adding extra time and work cleaning mud off the planters.

Chad had a little extra help yesterday:

Planting Corn

Yesterday the kids and I went to take Chad some supper in the field.

He took a couple minutes to chat and eat his meal.

He's planting corn, but it's been slow going lately as we've had some intermittent rain showers. He said it feels like he's spent more time out of the tractor pulling mud off of the equpiment than he has actually spent planting.

They have a little over half the corn acres left to put in. The forecast looks dry until next weekend, though, so hopefully they can get some good days in.

Guten Tag, Everyone!

That's "good afternoon" to you :) I've been meaning to post these pictures for well over a month now and am finally getting around to it. The second week in March Terry went with a group of Claas customers and employees to tour the Claas factories in Germany.

 

They toured Claas parts distribution, harvester works, manufacturing and industrial technologies.

Combines have been manufactured at the main Claas factory in Harsewinkel
since 1936 with over 400,000 machines built since then.

The kids would love to play with these!



Parts distribution - over 100,000 parts housed in 230,000 sq ft of storage surface area



A field in the German countryside

Streets of Germany

Of course it wasn't all work and no play...



Out to dinner



Sightseeing

Rainbows

This was the scene at the farm tonight. The guys got rained out of planting corn. When Chad came in he told me to grab my camera for not one, but two rainbows after the rain.

Barley is Up

This is some barley that was seeded on April 12, not quite two weeks ago, in between the shop and our house. You can also see some puddles from the rain we had late last week (this photo was taken on Sunday). We had beautiful weather yesterday and things are drying up nicely. Everything is a go to start corn today!