Saturday, June 13, 2009

Fairytales

Tinkerbell Zee


Cinderella O


Fun with Lily

Monday, June 8, 2009

Wheat Harvest


Rice is the first crop planted in the spring. Then we follow with soybeans. Wheat is planted in the fall after the other crops are harvested. It is called Winter Wheat and creates patches of beautiful vibrant green in the dead of winter. This is the time for harvest and many farmers plant soybeans behind the wheat. We are letting this field "lay out" or rest this year after it is harvested. We practice crop rotation and always plant crops which will add back to the soil after another crop has used the nutrients. Yesterday we started the wheat harvest. Master March planned his visit so he could ride the combine--one of his favorite things in the world.



Happy farm boy




There is a buddy seat with a seat belt.




View from inside the cab.




Another view.


Much of the time the driver of the combine is looking up and to his right at a screen. Once the pattern for cutting is established a gps records it (somehow--above my head) and the combine actually steers itself! We use it on tractors, also. This would've saved a lot of arm waving back when I first learned to drive a tractor! Another advantage of this compurized genius device is that during harvest it shows the bushels per acre yielded and the exact spot that may be weak or strong, so when applying fertilizer you set it up with the spreader and it unloads the exact amount of nutrients needed in any given area.








Usually we have grain carts go into the field to carry the grain to the truck, but this is a smaller field and we don't have the manpower to run an extra machine because rice watering is also underway. The combine is unloading directly into the truck,




This is "Neecy" waiting on her Dad, who will drive the grain to the port on the Mississippi River. It will be loaded on a barge and delivered to the buyer who may be in the United States or another country.





Saturday, June 6, 2009

A Boy's Adventure





Bed in Summer
~Robert Louis Stevenso

In Winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle light.
In Summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?


Master March is visiting for a couple of days. He has finished his school work and is taking a little break. He told Papa and me a few months ago that he no longer wanted to sleep with us. We were boring. Spending the night on the sofa with the cat would be much more exciting!

Now I have visions of him and Smash, the cat, racing through the house, leaping off the arms and backs of the sofa and chairs. So far, I haven't noticed any picture frames or lamps knocked down. No signs of mice, either.





Little Boys
Author: Unknown
Little boys come in all shapes and sizes,
Shy and adventurous, full of surprises,
With misshapen halos and mischievous grins,
Small dirty faces, and sweet, sticky chins.

They'll keep you so busy, and yet all the while
Nothing can brighten the world like their smile.
And no greater treasure has brought homes more joy
Than a curious, active, and lovable boy!