Rain, Rain, Come Again Another Day!

Rain, rain, go away,

Come again another day.

SAID NO KANSAS FARMER EVER AT THIS TIME OF YEAR!

Farmers much prefer:

Rain, rain, come and stay

And keep coming for another day!

It may not have the same "ring" to it, but it's accurate. 

The rain on Saturday was not the perfect atmosphere for K-State's spring football game. But it sure made two little girls happy.

The tags got removed from Kinley's new butterfly rain boots. Umbrellas were unfurled.

And Brooke was so excited to wear her new raincoat from Grandma Christy and walk through the puddles with her rain boots.

The rain made Grandpas and Grandmas happy, too ... especially those who needed some rain to give the 2018 wheat crop a fighting chance.

Last week's drought monitor put even more of the state in either extreme or exceptional drought. Two tiny corners of the state were the only areas not classified as dry. While the 0.90" of rain we received here on the Stafford/Reno County line won't put much of a dent in the extreme drought, we are thankful for what we did receive.

Before moving some pairs of cattle to pasture Monday afternoon, Randy and I stopped for a look at a wheat field.

There was some concern that freezing temperatures during the first two weekends of April could have caused damage. The first week of April not only brought the season’s first snowfall to much of Kansas, but some of the coldest weather of the year as well, with nighttime lows falling into the teens and daytime highs barely above freezing.

However, that cover of snow on April 7 helped blanket the wheat. But on April 14, there was no snow cover. 

A chart from K-State had shown there was high risk in our area for freeze damage to wheat after our sub-freezing temperatures that second weekend.

The top of the wheat plant shows some freeze damage, seen here in the brown and yellow on the leaves.

However, the Kansas wheat crop is well behind the five-year average for maturation at this time. So, the growing point wasn't too far out of the ground. Having only a small fraction of the crop as far along as jointing meant less chance of massive freeze damage as a result of those adverse events.

In the photo above, Randy uses a knife to point to the growing point - or joint.

He then used the knife to slice open the stalk at the growing point. Good news: It revealed a green head! If there had been freeze damage, it would have been more white. It looks like we dodged a bullet.

This year's Kansas winter wheat crop definitely didn't need another challenge. Kansas has had  one of the driest winters on record: Much of the state - including our farm - got virtually no moisture from early October to mid-March. So the adverse conditions had already taken a toll on harvest prospects.

The Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service found only 13 percent of the crop in good or excellent condition (just 1 percent excellent) in the first week of April's Crop Progress report. A whopping 74 percent of the crop is considered fair to poor, with 13 percent very poor.

Wheat is said to have "nine lives." This will be another year when that theory is again tested. My resident optimist still says that Kansas could still have an average or close-to-average crop in many areas. We just need more timely rains and moderate temperatures during the next several weeks.

There's some rain in the forecast again today, so I'll try my modified rhyme:

Rain, rain, come and stay

And keep coming for another day!

The Song That Nature Sings

On Palm Sunday, a foreign exchange student who's attending school at Stafford High School sang a song at a community worship service. Even though I accompanied soloists at the middle school for many years, it wasn't a song I'd heard before. But I loved it and have listened to several versions on YouTube since that night. Here is "The Song That Nature Sings," with photos I've taken this spring around The County Line.

"The Song That Nature Sings"

Words and music by Ruth Elaine Schram

Copyright 1997 BriLee Music Publishing Co.

In everything there is beauty

A hint of love

A form of grace

Though it may be hard to see

Even harder to believe

Everything in nature has its place.

And in everything, there is wonder

A mystery to be undone

New discoveries to find

Simple pleasures redesigned

All things old and new beneath the sun.

 

Have you ever chased the wind

Can you tell where it will go or where it's been?

 

If you could see the earth through its eyes

Do you think that it would come as a surprise

That in everything there is music

A melody, a bit of song

Though it may not meet your ear

If you tune your heart to hear

You will recognize and sing along

The song that nature sings.

The song that nature sings.

Here's one version of the song. There are others on YouTube.

An Adventure in Rhyme

Grandma and Grandpa got a chance to spend some time with Kinley and Brooke while their parents were away earlier this month. Here's a round-up of some of our fun - better late than never!

Manhattan, Kansas was the place

To put a smile upon our face

K-State planned an Open House

"We'll have fun!" We did espouse.

 

A bouncy house was first on tap.

We entered it right through a flap.

Up, up, up! We had to climb.

Then slide on down! It was sublime!

Kinley had to help her sister.

She was such a great assister!

And though it was a big old stretch

Brooke made it through without a catch.

 

The College of Business knows what's fun!

A bouncy house through which to run!

Uncle Brent worked at that place

It was two girls' favorite space!

 

Besides the house, there were lots of games.

Uncle Brent helped with their aims.

The two girls used some fishing rods

While Grandpa tried to play the odds

He sure wanted to win a raffle

A purple golf cart would surely baffle!

Alas, we've gotten not a call.

I guess he didn't win at all!

Two girls came to photo booth.

They were disguised: Can you sleuth?

One dropped her mask. Now can you see?

That it was Brooke! Perhaps Kinley?

 

Though it was just a fancy barrier.

A lipstick tube seemed a whole lot merrier.

Imagining expands our minds.

If only we look for childlike finds!

Then in Shellenberger Hall

We shaped some treats - not hard at all!

They weren't for kids. They were for dogs.

Shaped like hearts and bones - not logs!

Then we shaped some pretzel dough.
We watched the girl to help us go.
Twist it this way, twist it that! 
This time, we'd be a copycat!

The pretzel dough was made with flour.
It makes it tasty to devour.
 Grandpa grows the wheat it takes
A flour mill, the flour makes!
 
 Then flour is used to make some bread
Or cookies, cakes or pies instead! 
Brooke - she likes to stir things up
She puts in tablespoons and cups.
She helped Grandma bake a treat.
It was surely good to eat!

Waters Hall was our next stop.
Students gave us this cute prop!

The Ag College was the place
Grandpa Randy set his pace.
As a student, there he'd learned
A bachelor's degree he'd earned

Will we study there some day?
Time will tell! Come what may!

We may not know our college plan.
But we are pretty sure we can
Join 4-H as soon as ready.
It'll help us grow up steady!

Our Grandpas, Grandmas, mom and dad
Would all be thrilled and oh so glad!
They like 4-H and they've been part
Of 4-H heads and hands and heart.

Crafts at home were next on tap.

Stickers down without a gap.

Unicorns we did devise. 

They were pretty, in our eyes!

Beads in springtime colors strung

Around our necks, they then were hung.

One day outside with chalk we drew

Red, yellow, orange, pink and blue!

The library is a place to go

To learn and think and then to grow.

We read some books, we played with dolls.

Playing dress up was a ball! 

It was time for mom and dad

To come home and we were glad!

Until next time, and now we're done!

With Gramps and Gran, we sure had fun!

In the Trenches

The cattle's "pantry" is nearly empty. So it was time to do a little maintenance on the "cupboard" this week.

We use a trench silo to store silage. (Click on this link for the 2017 blog post about filling the silo with silage.) Randy remembers that the trench silo was dug at Peace Creek about 1965 or so. It replaced a trench silo at a different location, where sandier ground had made the dirt sides collapse beyond repair.

Randy would have been about 10 years old at the time, and he remembers them digging into a hill at Peace Creek to make the new silo. After a few years, they poured cement in the bottom of the trench to make it easier to navigate.

There are still remnants of the cement, but, over time, much of the cement broke up. We now periodically put white rock in the bottom of the trench. As the photo shows below, even on a dry year, the weight of tractor tires makes the surface soft. The new white rocks will give a firmer surface.

Randy called for a delivery of white rock from Raymond Sand and Gravel.

It was delivered on Tuesday.

The truck driver backed into the silo and dumped the load in the trench ..

... leaving behind a "river" of rock. Randy will use the loader tractor to spread the rock and pack it in the bottom of the silo.

Randy also had the driver dump a little on a soft spot on the path our feed truck and tractor use to get to the silo each winter day.

This cow didn't let the activity interrupt her breakfast!

As we drove back into the farmstead, I asked about the upright silo there. Randy also remembers using it during his childhood. I found a photo of his Grandpa Clarence standing in front of the "new silo," labeled in Randy's mom's handwriting. Though the photo wasn't dated, it was near to some photos taken when Randy's dad Melvin was serving during the Korean War. So we think the upright silo must have been constructed around 1953.

I found a few other photos where the silo was a backdrop for fun on the farm. (Randy's grandma Ava is on the bicycle in the far left of the photo. If anyone can ID the other people, we'd love to know!)

 

Randy thinks he may be the "victim" in this photo below, where the silo is again in the background.

Today, the upright silo doesn't have a purpose for our farm - except for serving as a perch for a yard light and for holding a panel we swing into position when we work cattle. 

Like many of these old sentinels, they still stand as a silent centerpiece at the farmstead.

And they may conjure up conversations about young boys climbing the silo with their granddads, tossing down silage to feed the cattle.

Maybe there is value after all.