Sing Anyway

A Time to Think

Some days there won't be a song in your heart. 
Sing anyway.
–Emory Austin, motivational speaker
(From my email devotional from Guideposts)

The tires clickety-clacked over the small wooden bridge. I'd been over it three times already, and each time, I turned to the left as I passed. A creek meandered through a pasture, and clouds dotted a blue August sky. It registered each time, but I didn't stop the car. I thought I didn't have time to dig through my purse and unearth the camera when I had another place to be.

But, on my final trip (for now), returning from Miller Seed Farm, I decided I'd stop. I looked both directions on the rutted dirt road and didn't see anyone coming. I wasn't going to block anyone's progress in a farm truck as it rambled to get seed wheat cleaned or force anyone to wiggle by me on the narrow road.

It was an uncharacteristically cool morning for August. As I stepped on the bridge and jockeyed around, trying to figure out the best angle, I heard the creek babbling under my feet as it made its way under the bridge, doing the Limbo under the fence and gurgling its way through the green grass-fringed banks. Birds sounded their own tune, and the grasses provided the gentle drum brush accompaniment. And I remembered the words of the devotional that I'd just read the day before:

Some days there won't be a song in your heart. 

Sing anyway.

When I am distracted by my agenda or by my worries or by my disappointments or the latest farm breakdown, it's easy to forget to "sing." When I feel that way, it's easier to drive right by those everyday, ordinary gifts from God and hardly even notice the miracles right outside my window.

I was in my basement office, nowhere near the sky, when Randy called me from the tractor.

"It's a beautiful sunrise," my farmer told me.

So I left my computer and drove down the road. When I saw the sky, my first thought was of the hymn, "When morning gilds the skies, my heart awakening cries! Let Jesus Christ be praised!"

And then, when I was editing the photos later, a simple children's Sunday School song drifted in my mind: "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, to shine for him each day. In every way try to please Him, at home, at school, at play. ... I'll be a sunbeam for Him."

When those dark clouds cover up my "sunbeam," I still need to remember to shine ... and sing.

Taken as I delivered Randy to the tractor to bale. By the time I had gotten him there, the sun had almost sunk below the horizon.

¹² For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; 

the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, 

and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Isaiah 55:12

Barb's Chopped Salad

I took this before I added the dressing to better show the ingredients.

This is one of those recipes that isn't really a recipe. My friend, Barb, brought a delicious salad to a church potluck. I asked for the recipe. And I got an email back with this message:

"No recipe. I will try and tell you what I did."

Then, the next day, I got another email, saying:

"I think I forgot I also put in rinsed black beans and fresh corn that I cooked in the skillet for a few minutes."

Back in another era, savvy cooks combined a pinch of this and a smidgen of that. I have a tendency to start with a recipe and then adapt from there. A recipe writer opts for unsalted butter: I invariably used salted. Another uses all butter for a drop cookie recipe, but I like the texture that shortening provides, so I substitute all or part.

This recipe for Chopped Salad is kind of like that. If you've just come home from a farmer's market and have fresh zucchini, by all means, chop up some and add it. Same goes for other fresh veggies. This could also be called a "mix and match" salad, I suppose.

For the dressing, Barb gave me some measurements and then terminology like "a splash of honey" and "a splash of vinegar."

She went to all the work to type it and then the recipe got buried at my house until this summer. I measured my splashes and then I lost the internet at home. So I carried my recipe notes to another location. And I lost them.

 So ... I'm giving you my best approximation of things. But this truly is one of those recipes like your Grandma used to make. Add or subtract the veggies you like. Use a pinch more of this or that. It will all be OK. But I would use the avocado, since it adds a nice, creamy texture along with the dressing.

In her original recipe, Barb cooked chicken breasts on top of the stove. Since we are in the midst of grilling season, I grilled seasoned chicken, along with beef to serve to my cattleman. (I like beef, too, but I also like a change of pace once in awhile.)

The recipe makes a large amount, perfect for a potluck or family reunion. You can adjust the amounts downward if you're only serving a few.

This is not a low-cal salad. But it sure is yummy!

I put both my serving and Randy's on a platter for illustration purposes!

Chopped Salad

Recipe from Barb Sewing

4 chicken breasts cooked in non-stick skillet with butter, olive oil, salt and pepper
3 hearts of romaine, chopped
1 bunch green onions, diced
2 green, red or other colored peppers (or use the multi-colored baby peppers)
1 cup shredded cheese (use your favorite)
3 diced avocadoes
1 carton cherry or grape tomatoes (or chop up regular tomatoes)
1 cup rinsed black beans
2 cobs of fresh corn (or use frozen)

Dressing
1/2 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tbsp. vinegar
1 tbsp. honey
Salt & pepper to taste
Half & half needed to thin the dressing

Cook the chicken breasts and set aside to cool. You may also season and grill chicken or steak. If you're using fresh corn, remove the kernels from the cobs and cook in the same skillet until tender. If you're using frozen, set it out to thaw while you are preparing the other ingredients.

Chop lettuce and other vegetables. Toss to combine.

Combine dressing ingredients, adding ingredients to taste and thinning with half and half. When ready to serve, stir the dressing into the salad and gently toss. Barb also stirred the cooled chicken into the salad. I served it separately. It's delicious either way. Serve immediately.

Sky on Fire

Sunrise, August 25

Remember those bins of rubber balls in the end-cap display at the downtown five and dime when you were a kid? As I've looked at the sky the last few days, it seems like one of those balls has escaped from the bin and has rolled across the horizon, bouncing higher or lower as the day begins or ends.

It's been beautiful, almost like the sky is on fire. And unfortunately, the red sky at dusk and dawn has had fire as its source, according to meteorologists.

Sunrise, August 25

Recent red sunsets and sunrises will soon diminish as smoke particulates from western-state fires in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho and California are expected to disappear from the atmosphere in Kansas this week. A cold front this past weekend carried smoke from multiple western fires to Kansas, said Jeff Hutton, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Dodge City.

Sunset framed by trees, August 24

There’s been smoke in the atmosphere for the past few weeks, into even a month, Hutton said, but it’s not always easy to see. The air quality across the plains is fairly good, and air quality “is not really an issue” due to the strong Kansas winds.

Sunset, August 21. I wondered if the smoke made this sunset hazy.

It's too bad that such beauty in my backyard is tied to such destruction for others.

Pastor Nate has asked us to pray for a California church camp, Hume Lake, where he spent many happy summers. This long-time church camp has been threatened by wildfire. They are not alone. Prayers for those who've lost so much in the fires - even their lives - and for the safety of the firefighters combating the blazes.

It's a reminder to celebrate the small things every day. The small things often become the big things.

Back in the Bin

In 1,352 blog posts, I've never written about binning seed wheat. How did that happen? At harvest time, I guess I've been too busy serving as chief go-fer and making and transporting meals to go down to the bins and take photos. Since 2010, there have been five other opportunities to chronicle our seed wheat's journey from on-farm storage bin to Miller Seed Farm for cleaning and back home again to the bins.

But somehow in those millions of words and thousands of photos, I've missed recording it for posterity. Until now.

Farmers may store their own wheat and plant it for their next crop, but only for their own use. During harvest this summer, Randy saved two varieties: 1863 (a K-State Wheat Alliance release) and Cedar (a WestBred wheat variety). Each year, Randy has specific fields from which we harvest the seed wheat. Usually, he plants that wheat fairly close to the farm headquarters, where we have the capacity to store 2,100 bushels in on-farm storage in two different bins.

After the wheat came back from Miller Seed Farms, the guys hoisted the truck bed up and opened a hatch in the center of the truck bed, just raising it enough to let a slow, steady stream fall into the rubber trough.

An aside: Every time I see the back end of our old white truck, I have to smile at the irony of the "I Like Cotton" bumper sticker. The closest we've gotten to cotton production around here is through wearing jeans. But the bumper sticker came attached when we purchased the truck several years ago. So there it stays.

The wheat is that color because it's been treated with Cruiser insecticide and Vibrance Extreme fungicide.

I should have stepped back a little ways to show that the tractor was running the PTO that makes the auger run. (If you use your imagination, you can see a tiny portion of the tractor in the shadow on the lefthand side of the photo above.) The white rod was attached to the tractor and then to the auger, where it provided power for making the auger run.

The auger is used to transport the wheat back into the storage bin, where it will stay until we're ready to plant wheat in late September and early October.

Because Miller Seed Farms gets so busy closer to planting time, we schedule our wheat cleaning early. That way, it's ready to go when we are.

Photo from 2013 wheat planting

Wheat planting is probably about a month away.

And then, we'll again begin the 9-month journey toward harvest.

 

Planting a Seed of Appreciation

Dolores Wagler, Photo from http://millerseedfarms.com

Sometimes, customer service is as simple as a bright purple clipboard.

Let's face it: I'm not cashing a paycheck every two weeks from my job as "office manager" on the County Line. So when Dolores, the office manager at Miller Seed Farms, chased me down and gave me a purple clipboard, I felt like I had just gotten a prize.

Randy had taken photos with his phone of our struggling alfalfa crop so he could get a replant rate on the seed cost. But I was the one that got them texted to owner LaVerne Miller's phone. Randy made a comment about being glad he brought his office manager and communications specialist to run the technology. And I joked that I hoped Dolores got paid more than I did for her office management duties.

We all laughed. But, after we left the office, Dolores brought me that purple clipboard while we were waiting on the guys to load the alfalfa seed. I wouldn't have liked a dozen roses any better.  Don't get me wrong:  My farmer definitely makes me feel valued (and I know I'm fortunate because of that. Not every farm wife feels that way). But it was still nice to have someone else acknowledge my contribution to the cause.

 

It's not like we see the folks at Miller Seed Farms all that often, though they always make us feel like old friends. They are part of our annual pilgrimage toward wheat planting. We take the wheat we stored in on-farm bins during harvest time to get cleaned and treated before wheat planting starts in September.

Farmers may store their own wheat and plant it for their next crop, but only for their own use.

This year, Randy saved two varieties at harvest time, 1863 (a K-State Wheat Alliance release) and Cedar (a WestBred wheat variety). He and Jake loaded the saved wheat from our bins into our trucks. I went to Miller Seed Farms to pick them up so they could get some other work done while Miller's cleaned and treated the seed.

Just like at the local elevator, the first stop is the scales. Test weight on the Cedar was 59.6 bushels per acre as it came across the scales.

After it was cleaned, it raised the test weight to 61.2 pounds per bushel since they clean out any foreign matter and smaller or broken kernels.

Test weight on the 1863 wheat was 60.5 pounds per bushel. After cleaning, it was 62.3.

 

We also have our wheat treated with an insecticide - Cruiser - and a fungicide - Vibrance Extreme. This is an extra expense, but we believe it will get the 2016 wheat crop off to a good start. Detractors worry about the amount of chemicals that go into the mix. However, only 0.48 ounce per bushel of Cruiser is used, while 1.68 ounce per bushel of the Vibrance product is used. Think about a little bottle of eye drops (usually about 0.5 ounces). Adding slightly more than 2 ounces to a whole bushel of grain is really not much!

The clipboard wasn't the only customer appreciation freebie. Alongside the jars of wheat, customers can help themselves to a Lifesaver candy or a snack mix.

We've reserved KanMark (a K-State release) and WB 4458 (a WestBred variety) to plant for seed wheat this year. We'll go back to our friends at Miller Seed Farms at planting time to pick it up. Maybe I'll take my clipboard to keep track of the paperwork!

Next up:  The cleaned and treated wheat goes back in the on-farm bins until we're ready to begin wheat planting in late September/early October.

Try, Try Again!

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

The first written record of this proverb can be found in American educator Thomas H Palmer's Teacher's Manual published in 1840:

"Tis a lesson you should heed, try, try again"

Some sources believe that the expression dates back to Robert 1 of Scotland (Robert the Bruce), a 14th century king who, the legend says, suffered a major defeat at the hands of the English and went and hid in a cave near Gretna. While there he watched a spider trying to spin a web. Each time the spider failed, it simply started again. Robert I was so inspired that he returned to lead his troops in a series of victories against the English.

It's a proverb that we are living out on the County Line these days, too, though, thankfully, it doesn't require strapping on armor or drawing a sword. 

Instead, Randy has been try, trying again to plant a new field of alfalfa.

The signs of life in the newly-planted alfalfa field aren't easy to see from the road. Last Monday, we ventured out to inspect the field, which was planted August 3.

Randy used the handle of his pliers to dig into the soil, trying to find the seeds under the crusted surface.

Randy had planted the 30 acres just north of an existing alfalfa field. The average alfalfa field can produce a crop for six to eight years. This is the final year for the existing field, so he wanted to get its replacement started. He got the alfalfa seed in the ground, but we then had a fairly hard rain, which crusted the surface of the newly-planted field. That makes it difficult for the tiny plants to burst through the hard earth.

 

Early last Tuesday morning, we got 1 inch of rain. We'll see if that's the boost that's needed to get more of the plants up out of the ground.

The seeds are purple because they've been treated with an insecticide, Apron. The seed has also been inoculated, which means it's been treated with bacteria to promote its own production of nitrogen. Nitrogen helps build a strong root system and plant.

Seed costs for planting the new alfalfa field were $96 an acre, and that didn't cost planting costs and fertilizer. However, the cost will go up now that Randy has decided to do some interseeding to get the new field off to a good start. With having to interseed, the cost goes up to $118 an acre, just for seed. (The seed company offers a reduced price for seed needed for replanting.)

 

On one of our trips to Miller Seed Farms last week, we picked up five more bags of seed. The car trunk was dragging!

Friday evening, Randy interseeded the new seed, going across the field at a slight diagonal to try and lay the seed between the already planted alfalfa. 

 That way, he hopes the plants will fill in and give us a better stand. 

Most of the green you see in the photo is volunteer wheat, rather than the alfalfa he'd planted earlier. The smaller plants are tiny alfalfa plants.


Last week, the guys were swathing, baling and picking up the third cutting of the 2015 alfalfa crop. That task continues this week.

Double-Crust Peach Crisp

Going to the Farmers' Market in Hutchinson was just peachy. We just happened to be in Hutchinson on a Wednesday, so I brought my ice chest to snag some produce fresh from the farm.

It's been a good year for tomatoes here on the County Line, but we don't plant a big garden. (Yes, I am a failure as a farm wife if you are keeping score with gardening prowess.) 

Among my farmers' market purchases were fresh Kansas peaches. They were delicious eaten "as is," but then I saw a whole page of peach dessert recipes in our High Plains Journal. I had just enough peaches left to try one of the recipes.

The Peach Crisp recipe was a little different because it had a bottom crust as well as a crisp topping for double the "yum." The original recipe used canned peaches, but with fresh peaches on my counter, I jigsaw-puzzled my way to create a recipe to use them.

I have been seeing ads for Colorado peaches, so even if the Kansas peach season is over, our neighbors to the west have their world-famous fruit available for us now! Top with a scoop of ice cream.

It's just peachy. Really.

Double-Crust Peach Crisp

Adapted from the High Plains Journal

and Angie Sutton at Mother's Apron Strings

Bottom Crust:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, cubed

Filling:
4 cups sliced fresh peaches
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. lemon juice

Crisp topping
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
5 tbsp. butter, cubed

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar and salt. Cut in butter with pastry blender until crumbly. Pat into the bottom of a 9-inch-square pan (I used an 8.5 X 10" oblong pan.) Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, combine cornstarch, sugar and cinnamon, mixing together. Add sliced peaches and lemon juice. Cook on the top of the stove, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat. (You may do this step in the microwave, using a microwave-safe bowl. Cook at intervals, stirring every couple of minutes, until the mixture is thickened.

When the bottom crust is baked, pour thickened peaches over the baked crust.

Topping: Combine all ingredients, incorporating the butter with a pastry blender. Sprinkle topping evenly over the peach filling. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

***

A satellite problem with my internet company has had me MIA again for part of the week. However, this outage only lasted a day and a half, much more palatable than the 2 weeks I was without service earlier this month. The search continues for a new internet provider. I have someone coming to see if they can provide service. I'm trying not to get my hopes up ... but they are. We shall see!

The Many Faces of Kinley

Photo by Jill: I wish I could say I took this one. I love it.

Knowledgeable (for 3!)
Imaginative
Nurturing
Loving
Expressive
Y(WHY? It may be a stretch, but "WHY" fits better than any  "Y" word I could come up with!)

It was Brooke's turn in the spotlight yesterday, so today, it's Kinley. Since she's 3, I can still get away with it. In 10 years, I'm sure there will be a ban to rival Homeland Security when it comes to disclosing any information about our oldest granddaughter.

We had the pleasure of taking Kinley to her first musical during our visit last weekend. We went to Aladdin Junior, which featured a cast of children and youth. With a run-time of only 75 minutes, it was the perfect length for the short set.

We are at the cheesy grin stage!

Kinley loves singing and dancing and Disney princesses, so we thought it was the perfect show. She is not too fond of scary things, however, so Jafar - or The Mean Guy, as Kinley deemed him - was not a hit with our little theater go-er. Thankfully, the genie was a precocious little actress who stole the show. She was sassy - not scary (though her entrance with smoke and flashing lights had Kinley covering her eyes again).

Afterwards, she was content to watch Jasmine sign autographs and pose for photos from afar. That's as close as she wanted to get.

Saturday morning, we went to the Farmer's Market near the Kansas Capitol building.

She was quite the helper (after Grandma supplied a little energy with a freshly-squeezed lemonade.)

 

Since Brooke didn't want to ride in the stroller, it turned out to be a good produce cart.

Grandma bought a cookie decorating kit from one of the market exhibitors, so we frosted and "sprinkled" the confections while Brooke had a nap.

Kinley might have nibbled on a little frosting (if you look closely, you'll see the evidence.) She's a girl after my own heart when it comes to frosting.

Kinley loves to draw and color. She also loves to have Grandma read to her (but we didn't get any photos of that). She says that, "Grandma will read the songbooks, too." She has an Annie book where we can bust out our "Tomorrow" and "Maybe" renditions.

Photo by Jill

On Monday, she was so excited to move into her new preschool room at school. She is growing up quickly. I was glad her Daddy sent me a photo so I could see, too!