Our Daily Bread: Kansas Skies

Sunset on my way to a meeting in Stafford last evening, September 20, 2016

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. As a writer, I never seem to lack words and that quote has always stuck in my craw a bit, if truth is told. However, my former editors would likely say that I could be a little less effuse as they tried to pare down my words to fit under a headline.

However, while I don't often lack words, I sometimes lack time. Today, I'm sharing more pictures than words. I am blessed to witness many a sunrise and sunset from the County Line. I sometimes take the photos and don't end up sharing it via a blog or Facebook post.

I think Ralph Waldo Emerson had it right:

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

 ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

If the sky is daily bread, it's a never-ending banquet filled with variety. So here are some recent sky favorites, along with some quotes from other people. 

When we look up, it widens our horizons. 

We see what a little speck we are in the universe, 

so insignificant, 

and we all take ourselves so seriously, 

but in the sky, 

there are no boundaries. 

No differences of caste or religion or race. 

~Julia Gregson

 
The sky is that beautiful old parchment 

in which the sun and the moon keep their diary. 

~Alfred Kreymborg

[Haze:]
Sun-dust. —Thoreau

  [Twilight:]
Reach of primrose sky
With heaven's pale candles stored. —Jean Ingelow

[Dawn:]
Light a little trembling in the gray,
Above the folded hills. —Mrs. Browning

[The Morning Moon:]
The stars burned out in the pale blue air,
And the thin, white moon lay withering there. —Shelley

 [Sunset:]
The level sun, like ruddy ore,
Lay sinking in the barren skies. —Jean Ingelow

[Evening:]
White moonlight comes
And takes the inert landscape by surprise. —Unknown
~Hannah R. Hudson, "Word-Painting," Poems, 1874 

We can only appreciate the miracle of a sunrise 

if we have waited in the darkness.

 ~Author Unknown

I thank you God for this most amazing day, 

for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, 

and for the blue dream of sky 

and for everything which is natural,

 which is infinite, which is yes. 

~e.e. cummings 

There are no rules of architecture 

for a castle in the clouds.

- G.K. Chesterton

God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, 

but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars. 

~Author unknown, commonly attributed to Martin Luther

To see the summer sky

Is poetry, though never in a book it lie.

True poems flee.

Emily Dickinson, c.1879

Weekend Warriors

Mother Nature decorated for the "family reunion" in Manhattan last weekend. A field of Kansas sunflowers bloomed just north of the Bill Snyder Family Stadium, just in time for the home opener for the K-State Wildcat football team.

I made Randy take a brief time out as we were walking to a Kansas Agriculture in the Classroom gathering before the game. It's a photo shot I've always wanted to try. And though it doesn't qualify as one of my best photos of all time, it does combine two of my favorite Kansas things - sunflowers and K-State football.

It was the first time that we'd seen the latest changes to the north end of the stadium.

The band has its own space in the northeast corner, so we south end zone people were better able to keep time to the Wabash Cannonball, since the sound was pointed towards us.

There was a flyover before the game. But there's a different kind of "flyover" happening nearer to home. I missed the Monarch Mania event at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday since we were in Manhattan. But when I saw that a record number of Monarch butterflies had been tagged on Saturday, we decided to drive up to Quivira Sunday evening. 

At first, all we could find were hundreds of the Clouded Sulphur butterflies. Most didn't linger long enough for a close-up, but I finally captured one on a wild sunflower.

As we drove toward the Little Salt Marsh, I kept my eyes scanning the skies for Monarchs. I was disappointed not to see any fluttering along the ditches. But, we got out at the marsh to listen to the water and watch the sunlight across the surface. But across the road, I found what I was looking for. With the Kansas winds blowing, some Monarchs were sheltering down in a hollow, drinking nectar from the goldenrod.

How many butterflies can you find in the photo above? I didn't see them all at first. In fact, I labeled it "5 Monarchs" when I did some photo editing. But then I looked again. (You'll have to click on the photo to make it bigger to see all of them!)

Just like my sunflower photo at the football stadium, it wasn't easy to get the shot as the goldenrod swayed in the wind and as the butterflies played hopscotch as they danced from one bloom to the next. 

Even though temperatures this week in Kansas won't seem much like fall, the Monarchs' migration does signal a move toward autumn. The Monarchs begin the journey in their summer home in Canada and the northern regions of the U.S. They are headed for a mountain range 70 miles west of Mexico City in central Mexico, where they find the perfect habitat to survive November through March in the Oyamel forests. As many as 300 million spend the winter there. Wouldn't that be a sight to see?

It's not like ducks and geese which migrate year after year. The butterflies will only make this journey one time. So how do they know where to go? It is just another miracle of God's creation. Researchers say that it appears to be a combination of directional aids such as the magnetic pull of the earth, the position of the sun and the availability of milkweed, where the butterflies lay their eggs. No matter the reason, they are a beautiful signal of fall.

We started our weekend with "weekend warriors" on the gridiron.  (Our Wildcats beat Florida Atlantic University with a score of 63-7.)

 

 We ended it with the Monarchs, who are warriors in their own rite as they make their long, arduous journey.

Family Heirlooms

Four generations - Jill, Brooke, me and my mom, Janis

Life moves quickly. With Snapchat photos that disappear just after they are clicked open and life summed up in 140 characters per Tweet, permanence can be elusive. We are never far from our phones, scrolling to make sure we don't miss the latest post from our "friends" - some of whom we've never even met in person.

When the washing machine breaks and it's cheaper to replace it than buy new parts, we bemoan the "planned obsolescence" of "things."

So maybe it's even more important to celebrate the things that last. Relationships top that list, of course. And sometimes, a few mementos survive the journey, too.

For Brooke's 2nd birthday, I passed along a wooden doll cradle. It first belonged to my Mom, who got the gift from her parents when she was about 5 years old. Her little sister, Merlene, got a similar cradle.

Little Janis Neelly's cradle featured a blue "J" at the base. So when Jill was little, my mom passed it on to her. Now, it belongs to Brooke. Though her given name doesn't start with a "J," her middle name is Jaylin, so the "J" cradle passed to her.

We also gave Brooke a Raggedy Ann that had been crafted by Randy's mom, Marie. I don't expect a 2-year-old to understand the significance of these family heirlooms.

For me, however, there's deep significance in passing along a 75-year-old doll cradle or sharing a doll made by another great grandmother who would have loved this next generation of little girls.

For right now, it's enough that Brooke will put her "babies" to bed in the same cradle that rocked her Great Grandma Janis' dollies. (In the photo above, she's covering up a baby with a blanket made by her Grandma Christy ... more family connections!)

Doll buggy and accessories from G/G Ladd!

Brooke loves her babies.  She's more interested in doll babies than Kinley ever has been. But when there's a real baby around, she'll gladly "take care" of her, too.

Cousin Ruth got plenty of love from Brooke and Grandma Christy.

Need a diaper change? The 2 year old is on it! We'll have this girl babysitting in no time! (Of course, there is that baby dolly that was abandoned in the background of this photo. Maybe we'll hold off on the babysitting gig!)

All the dolly gear may seem stereotypical. But we also got her some farm animals and a farm play mat. This girl can be a Mommy and a farmer.

Or maybe she'll be a firefighter, courtesy of Uncle Brent.

She'll keep in shape by pedaling her trike and her head will be protected in her new bike helmet from Great Grandma and Grandpa Moore.

It's a blessing to get together to celebrate birthdays.

With sisters ...

 And parents ...

 And even more generations.

Thankfully, those are the things that last.

Another To-Do Done: Corn Harvest 2016 Report

I like "to do" lists. Sometimes, I'll even add something to my "to do" list after it's done ... just for the satisfaction of crossing it off. (Forgive me my Type A obsessive behavior.)

In reality, I didn't have corn harvest on my "to do" list. I'm a cog in the wheel, but I'm not the orchestrator of all things harvest. Still, I like to think it was more easily crossed off my farmer's mental list with my parts runs and meal deliveries and my help moving from one field to the other. Since those "drop everything" times probably impacted my ability to tick off items on my own list, I guess I should have scribbled them in after the fact - just to make myself feel better.

We're all glad to move corn harvest from "to do" to "done."

This year, we had only 185 acres planted to corn, down from 243 in 2015. (In comparison, we had 1,559 acres planted to wheat this year. As I've said before: We are wheat farmers.) We began corn harvest on September 3 and finished on September 12.

For 2016, our overall average was 71 bushels per acre. It ranged from a low of 61 bu/acre to a high of 97 bu/acre.

This was our fourth corn crop, so it's a relatively new addition to the County Line rotation. So how did Corn Harvest 2016 stack up? Our first year of corn production was 2013. We had an average yield of 57 bushels per acre, with a low of 18 and a high of 78. In 2014, we had our best year to date. Our average was 108 bushels per acre, with a low of 82 and a high of 145. Overall yield average for 2015 was 43.88 bushels per acre. So, all things considered, 2016 was a relatively good year.

Randy was a bit disappointed by the yield, considering our wetter-than-normal summer. However, we had some weed pressure from herbicide-resistant weeds. Also, some corn was drowned out with rains. (Not enough rain ... too much rain ... rain at the wrong time: Farmers have a reputation for never being happy with the weather. It's probably deserved!)

But, since we are a totally dryland farming operation, we are dependent upon Mother Nature's rains and her heat index during critical times like pollination.

We raised enough to fill the corn contract we had with the Kanza Co-op, so that was a relief. Now, if we could just do something about commodity prices, we could look forward to wheat planting later this month with a little more confidence.

April 23, 2016

Our 2016 corn crop was the crop that almost wasn't. A dry spring had Randy considering not planting any corn. But some timely rain changed his mind, and we started planting corn in April. Compared to a wheat crop, corn provides a short time from planting to harvest.

So, all in all, it is good to have the 2016 Corn Harvest in the books ... and crossed off the list!