Rookery

"It was a fine autumn morning; the early sun shone serenely on embrowned groves and still green fields; advancing on to the lawn, I looked up and surveyed the front of the mansion. It was three storeys high, of proportions not vast, though considerable: a gentleman’s manor-house, not a nobleman’s seat: battlements round the top gave it a picturesque look. Its grey front stood out well from the background of a rookery, whose cawing tenants were now on the wing: they flew over the lawn and grounds to alight in a great meadow, from which these were separated by a sunk fence, and where an array of mighty old thorn trees, strong, knotty, and broad as oaks, at once explained the etymology of the mansion’s designation." 

Winter is the time of year when the starlings flock together in great numbers and hang around livestock farms looking for feed and shelter.  Hundreds of them will sit in our trees, on our roofs, or inside of our hoop buildings, leaving their droppings covering everything underneath.  That is why I keep a shotgun handy just inside the house door.  When a large flock settles in a tree near the house with a clear shot behind it, I quietly open the door, slip the gun through the opening, and sight on a spot where there is a tight group of the dirty birds.  The goal is to see how many I can drop with one shot.  Also the goal is to do this regularly because it scares the flocks away for a while, as starlings tend to spread disease from farm to farm.
Gus is scared of the gun blast, but loves the dead starlings.  He has a great time when he finds them and parades around the yard with his trophies! 

I finished reading Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) this week.  It was the first time that I have read this classic novel.  I was amazed at the amount of Bible references and quotations she used in the telling of this great story.  The story includes a great deal of spirituality in it; traditional morality, religious hypocrisy, Christian love, confession, sacrificial service, atonement, and forgiveness.  It also includes love, overcoming hardship, English country manors, and English mansions and castles.  A little something for everyone.  I recommend it.

We got to spent an evening with our Alaskan cousins again.  I could sit for hours listening to the stories of their life, times, and adventures in Alaska.  Stories of driving a converted school bus up there from Peoria in 1973, living in it off and on for years.  Stories of work and travel around the primitive state.  Stories of bears, fishing for halibut, and moose hunts.  Cabin building and a house fire.  The neccessity of neighbors working together.  The beautiful scenery and the brutally cold winters.  Twenty one and a half hours of daylight in the summer and twenty one and a half hours of darkness in the winter.  Wildlife everywhere.   
It stirs a desire in me to head northwest and experience again that magnificent place.

Once you've gone to Alaska, you never come all the way back.

Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.
Jeremiah 12:9

 

Useless Facts

I received a promotional calender in the mail last week that had a lot of farm facts on it.  I will share some of these useless facts along with a few of my own.  They deal with an "average" farmer.  I am not sure what they consider an average farmer to be, or if I would be considered above average or below average!  All I know for sure is that I am often found outstanding in my field!

The average farmer drives 1650 miles in the field each year.

  We just installed over 11 miles of tile in one of our fields this fall.

The average farmer checks commodity prices 11 times per week.

  I check them a half a dozen times per day, which puts me up around 30 times a week.

The average farmer does 22 oil changes every year.

The average farmer grows twice as much food as their parents did.

  Today's American farmer feeds about 155 people worldwide.

The average farmer cleans a tractor 2860 times in a lifetime.

  But his wife takes the car through the car wash.

The average farmer drinks 78.5 gallons of coffee each season.

  Not me, I only drink one to two cups per week.

The average farmer plants 21,600 pounds of seed each season.

  I figure we plant over 22 million individual corn kernels, and over 82 million soybeans each year.

The average farmer eats 20 meals in the tractor cab during planting.

  Not me, I eat in the van with my wife.

The average farmer owns 27 pickup trucks in a lifetime.

  Since this old farmer is only on his second pickup, I am going to have to live another 425 or so years to get my 27 trucks in.

The average farmer spent $365,000 on equipment over the past five years.

  We spend almost as much time with our banker as we do with family!

The average farmer goes through 500 gallons of diesel fuel while planting.

  Add to that several thousand more gallons for spraying, harvesting, hauling, and tillage.  At a price that hovered around $4 all year.

We grind/mix and deliver over 2000 tons of feed for hogs each year.

We hauled/spread 853,717 gallons of liquid manure and over 150 tons of solid manure on our fields last year.

We trucked 7,515,200 pounds of grain from field to storage last year (even though we had a drouth).


It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Luke 14:35



 

New Year

I have been keeping busy doing year end bookwork and inventories.  It's not a bad job to do on these cold winter days.  Our banker wants a complete detailed balance sheet, so I spend quite a bit of time working on that.  You have to keep your banker happy!
I got the USDA Census of Agriculture form in the mail this week.  It has become more of a book than a form, so I spent several hours filling it out to do my patriotic duty.

Probably because of the implementation of "Obamacare", my health insurance company has decided to phase out their individual health care policies.  So I have been shopping online for another company.  I am seriously considering switching to one of the Christian sharing plans that are available.  They seem to be a good fit for my convictions and lifestyle, and are much cheaper.

I've been reading a book on anti-gravity and levitation.  It's so fascinating that I can't seem to put it down! 
(Latest Uncle Bill joke)

We had the church young group in for New Year's Eve.  It was a very good turnout and we had an enjoyable evening.  They played some group games, ate a lot of good food, and sang the New Year in.  Of course, when I went to bed at 1:00, most of them were still here.  But that didn't keep me from sleeping.

Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
Deuteronomy 32:7