Missed the rains! Today is Wednesday, August 13, the sun is shining, the forecast is for several days of hot, humid weather, but I was hoping for a little bit of rain overnight to water the garden. Guess I’ll hook up the hoses tonight and water the cucumbers and butternut squash vines that are climbing up the fence and attaching to some big, round hay bales. Then move to the tomatoes and red raspberries. That is the garden in a nutshell except for the grass and weeds that want to overtake all of it.
I planted some beets, but not a single beet came up.
When I looked at the seed package I saw the expiration date was 2012! However, there is a volunteer muskmelon at the end of a row of hay bales that is Godzilla! I have never seen so many blooms or vines from seed that the coons “planted.”
Yep, that’s how it got so far from the pasture fence where I dumped the inside of a melon.
The other day I thought I should check the electric fence near Godzilla, and was switching the on/off knob. I was afraid some of the tendrils from the vine had hooked onto the wire and would short the line out. Well, I also had a wet piece of bale wrap in my hand that had been pulled from the ground, and while I was doing the on/off thing the net wrap touched the wire, and I found out the electric fence was definitely working!
USDA came out with crop predictions on the 12th for corn and beans, etc. The forecast is for a “bigger than last year” crop for both, I’m surprised some prices are a little above what they were a year ago. Beans for Oct. delivery closed at 9.79 and corn at 3.59 for delivery to Beardstown.
A year ago beans were at 9.51 and corn at 3.71. Neither are good when you look at the cost of seed, fertilizer, weed control, spraying for disease in beans and corn plus labor and the cost of machinery use, trucking and taxes. It “ain’t” a pretty picture! However, we are still so thankful for a good crop, and there is always HOPE. Don’t forget there is always HOPE.
Sharon Chenoweth is a resident and farmer of McDonough County. Her column focuses on rural life and will be featured every other week in the Community News Brief Friday Edition.
