Not another record. . .

But Nancy's Pumpkin was the largest grown in Missouri this year!! It was 1,012 pounds. . . she was tickled to death to have her pumpkin over 1,000 pounds. . . BUT she received second place at the Pumpkin weigh-off in Republic, MO last weekend. A guy brought his 1,060 pound pumpkin in from the Chicago area to beat Nancy. She can still lay claim to the largest pumpkin in Missouri though!!! Can't set a record every year. . . but she is happy to have grown a pumpkin over 1,000 pounds. . .a definite feat in itself!!!

As for Harvest. . . hopefully I will post some pictures soon. It has been going pretty well. We have been harvesting both corn and beans. The combine did break down last week and took a few days before we were back in the field. We brought in a second combine to help us along while our combine was being fixed.

Diplodia

Here are some pictures of a problem we are experiencing with our corn. It is called Diplodia Ear rot. It is caused by excessive moisture. Japanese Beetles make it worse by eating the silks off of the corn. So, we had a lot of the perfect elements for the ear rot this year. Lots of moisture and lots of Japanese beetles. If you look at the pictures you will notice a white film on the corn. This is the diplodia. Collie will have to give me the percents again. . .how much we are experiencing in our corn. And what this means at the elevator. I can't remember all of the facts. These pictures were taken west of our house on the south side of the road.

Cantaloupe, cantaloupe, and more cantaloupe

This picture was taken towards the end of July after the mornings picking. This was at the height of the Cantaloupe season and we picked quite a few cantaloupe. . . just about one thousand in the picture!!!

Cantaloupe still going strong!

We are still in the midst of Cantaloupe season. . .and now Watermelon too! Here are a couple of pictures I snapped the other day. . . One is of Nancy throwing Collie a Cantaloupe. Collie then throws it out to whoever is loading the wagons. This is how we pick the cantaloupe! And the second picture is of a load of cantaloupe.

Cantaloupe Season is underway. . .

Our life is pretty hectic right now with melon season in full-swing! It has been a little too cool and wet for our melon crop to be producing as much as normal, but the cantaloupe are still very good! We haven't picked any watermelon yet, but we will be very soon! I don't have my camera with me much while we are picking. . . .but I did manage a few pictures from the other day!

Brady sure does love cantaloupe!


Brady enjoying some Cantaloupe. . .



Collie and Brady bringing wagons of Cantaloupe out of the field with the Kubota. . . I am surprised Brady didn't talk his Dad into letting him drive!




Here are some cantaloupe loaded onto our truck. . .ready for market!

We're being invaded. . .

Actually, the plane came to our rescue!! Japanese Beetles have invaded our farm and this plane is helping to eradicate them!!! It was amazing to watch. . .and a little bit scary!! They flew right over our house. . .it felt like if I reached out the upstairs window I could touch the plane!!!

Anyway, the corn seems to be saved. However, all of the Elm trees in our yard are quite bare at the moment. The beetles have eaten ALL of the leaves off of them. It looks like fall! And the ground is covered with leaf skeletons and Japanese Beetle droppings. How nice!!! At least the Elm will regrow it's leaves rather quickly! (as we learned from the previous two years!)

The corn is absolutely beautiful and SO tall. We now have a complete privacy fence around our home. Corn on all sides!! The beans are gorgeous too!!! Even with all of the rain, things look rather good!! Even the produce!!! Though, we have been on weed control pretty heavy in the melons and pumpkins for the past week or so! At least the last couple of days have been absolutely gorgeous--perfect weather for working outside!!

I will have to do a better job on taking pictures and posting them!! We knew life would get crazy around here and it would be hard to find time to update as much as we would like.

Collie on the Sprayer

Collie spraying south of the house on May 29!

Corn is growing fast!

The first picture of Brady posing by the Corn field (he can't stand the thought of a picture that doesn't include him!) was taken on May 28! The corn is now almost above our heads!! It sure does grow fast!!


This picture of the rainbow over our house was taken on June 9. The rain had just cleared and as we drove home, we witnessed this beautiful rainbow! From this vantage point it seemed to be directly over our house!!


Things are still a little wet, but everything is growing fast!

Planting Progress. . .

This picture of the corn was taken about a week ago, just west of our house. We have been back in the fields for a couple days now after a torrential rain fall last Friday afternoon and evening. It rained over four inches in a short amount of time. The bottoms looed like a lake. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from this rain event, but it was something to see! Luckily, most of the water receded as quickly as it rose. . .so we were able to get back to planting pretty quickly.

Spring Planting and Rain!

Today it has been raining and everything is still water logged from our rain on Monday. Luckily, we are almost done with the corn planting and the plants are already coming up in most fields. It is a sight to see everything green up in the spring!

Here are some pictures taken this evening from our backyard. The fields are definitely water logged around our house!

The barn to the west of our house

The sun finally popped out right at sunset. It has been cloudy all day, so it was nice to see a little sun!

A view of the Shop

The plants growing fast in the greenhouse. . .cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkins, and a few other things mixed in!

filling pots with soil and seeds

a pretty dogwood

Gary planting corn

Corn Planting Started!

We had a beautiful day today and were able to start the corn planting. It was a relief to get started. They are calling for more rain tomorrow with several chances in the days to come. . . so that may halt our progress. Hope the weathermen and women are wrong!

Spring Snow Storm

We received an inch and a half of rain and a couple of inches of snow this past Saturday. The forecast said we would receive anywhere from 6-10 inches of snow, so we were happy to miss out on that! Though, we did receive some ice and sleet. . . and the wind blew something fierce!!!

This picture is from out our back door as the snow really began to fall!

Welcome/Spring Update

Hello friends! Welcome to our new blog! We hope you enjoy reading about the day-to-day operations on our farm! We hope to update weekly (at least!) of all the happenings on the farm. . .mostly dealing with the planting, growing, and harvesting of crops! We hope you enjoy following the progress of our farm!

Spring Update. . . All of the Anhydrous has been applied to the corn ground. The Anhydrous will be billed out at $560 a ton. Hope the corn prices hold strong!

We are working on getting the planter ready for corn planting. Don't know when planting will officially start. . .we are anticipating a snow storm this weekend...hopefully we will be spared, but the news is calling for someone in the area to be hard hit with snow.

As we get our blog up and running, we hope to add some links that will be relative to the farm operation. We hope you find them helpful!

The Crop insurance deadline was March 15. We will be filing reports on planting and such as the season progresses. We will keep you updated. Hail insurance can still be purchased at any point.