Cultivating Corn

Um......yes.......that's right........the previous post stated I was planning to take a breather from blogging.......but Sunday afternoon I heard the "putta-putta-pop-pop-pop" of the old John Deere, and just had to run out and snap a photo of this scene, which is a rare one in modern American agriculture. A farmer cultivating his cornfield!!

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That term, "cultivating", means driving up and down the corn rows with a tractor that has a cultivator attached, an implement which simultaneously uproots the weeds and aereates the soil. Everyone's fields around here were pounded on by all that heavy rain in early June and the result is a hard crust on top, which needs to be broken up.

The yellow, spiked wheels serve as shields to prevent the corn plants from being damaged.

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If you click the photo below to make it larger, you perhaps will better see the narrow, curved shovels which cut through the soil to dig out the weeds and open things up. The best time to cultivate is when the sun is shining, for then the uprooted weeds will dry out quickly, with less chance of regrowth.

The more modern way to get rid of weeds is to spray herbicide on the field. That usually means hiring a big spraying rig to do the job.........they have tall wheels and really long extension arms covered with nozzles which apply herbicide to a wide area, meaning less trips back and forth across the field, meaning less soil compaction. Possibly, more farmers will dust the cobwebs off their cultivators this year due to the hard crust on the fields......although........that will mean more tractor fuel to buy, and we all know how high fuel prices are! Always, one has to weigh the positives against the negatives, to see which side will win out.

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In my years of doing tractor work, I've disked, dragged, plowed, chopped stalks, pulled the baler, and hauled lots of grain wagons here and there, but I never planted, combined........or cultivated, which is fine with me. Cultivating would be nerve-wracking because of the danger of steering the tractor one way or the other too far and digging out part of a row of corn. And, that shameful error would be so obvious.........there's no way you could hide it!

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Ok.......this may be it for posting for this week........besides wishing to visit other blogs, I also made the mistake of saying "yes" to helping with Bible School this coming week. It will be fun, but will mean the hassle of getting dressed up every morning and going somewhere after morning calf chores.......it will disrupt my usual routine, and as time goes by, I care less and less for disruptions like that.

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My Bible School duty is to assist in the preschool class, and thankfully, the teacher is very capable, a retired schoolteacher........I'm looking forward to simply following her orders. Tasks at home will slide, though.........you know how it goes........meals for the menfolk, dishes, laundry, lawn-mowing, etc., will still need doing when I get home. Gosh, don't I sound like a wimp! I'm so glad I never had a job outside the home to run off to everyday! But, then again........maybe a job would have helped me be more efficient, ambitious, and organized......but, we'll just never know, will we........

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Have a great week!!