Crop Report

In this exasperating, sweltering weather, my energy level plummets to nearly flat-line readings.......apparently, my ancestors hailed from cool climates. Sweat has been everyone's constant companion here for the past couple of weeks.......resulting from the most miniscule of exertion, even such as required to type a blogpost. Yesterday, around noon, I found the fortitude to amble towards the mailbox, a quarter-mile down the farm drive, bordered on either side by..........you guessed it.........our farm fields! Hence, here's a pictorial crop report, whether you're interested in it or not. The humid weather, while very uncomfortable for us humanoids, is just the ticket for successful growth of field crops!!

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What is this?? You should know by now! Its adorns the tops of plants which are now boasting heights of 8 to 10 feet!

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Soybeans.......yeah........they're looking really nice right now, each plant a dark green nitrogen factory, considerately returning that crucial nutrient to the soil for future use.

And guess what! Soybean plants have blossoms! I'm not sure I've ever taken time to look at them closely before.......in my entire life. Quite lovely, actually! Eventually, the beans will form, looking like little pea pods. Notice, too, the fuzziness on the leaves and stems.

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Next we have........well, what DO we have? Alfalfa........growing like crazy to produce the third hay crop of the summer, due to be ready in a couple of weeks.......probably around the time of our son's wedding!! What fun that will be.......trying to make hay and do a wedding at the same time!

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Out from amongst the stalks of Cat-tails and Meadow Rue near the mailbox flew this little bird (a Song Sparrow?), landing handily on a corn leaf. Oh, to have such lightness of being!!

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The other night, on a whim, I surfed to The Confessions of a Pioneer Woman Blog. She was giving away five Zunes. Yeah......I had no idea what that was, either. Anyhow, I left a comment.......#3604, to be exact.......in order to be included in the drawing. This morning I stopped by there to see how many comments ended up coming in; I anticipated maybe 4000.......but, the total was over 11,700!! Holy Boy-Cow!! Can you imagine getting that many comments!?

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Here's a link to a great post by a new blogging friend, "Gotta Be A Countrygirl". She relates her unique thoughts while sitting at a railroad crossing watching boxcar "art" go by.

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Something else which caught my eye yesterday was information about Waterloo, Iowa's 2nd annual Irish Fest. Cool! Click here for info about that. On my mom's side, I can claim Irish ancestry. Husband has none.....haha......he's 100% German! His dad spoke ONLY German until he started kindergarten, and in later years would mutter little German phrases under his breath.......who knows now what they meant........we should have pressed him for the translations before he passed on last fall. We know that one of the mutterings meant, "SICK AS A CHICKEN........CAN EAT, BUT CANNOT WORK!" He'd say that about people he considered to be lazy.

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Live today in such a way that an old German guy would NOT mutter that phrase about you!! But, then again.....today IS a Saturday, so go ahead, relax and BE LAZY!!

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