Sat Mar 31 2012 17:00:19 GMT-0600 (Mountain Daylight Time) by JustaDumbBlonde
Really weird; this just NOW came up on my pings page, despite several refreshes earlier tonight.
Oh, well mysterious are the ways of Free Republic; blessed be the servers!
Despite having decided NOT to plant potatoes this year, I bought a 50 pound sack of Yukon Gold seed potatoes Friday evening. A Rapid City farm & ranch supply just opened in new, much larger quarters, and while checking out their new digs, I saw the sacks of current-year seed spuds ON SALE for 30 cents/pound less than other local sellers of the same certified seed supplier's stock.
Today, I put the new middle-buster onto the old 1944 Ford 9-N, and broke some virgin ground for them, so TECHNICALLY, I won't be planting potatoes "in the garden" this year!
That tractor is a couple years older than I am, but still does an honest hour's work for an hour's worth of gas.
Also got a source for all the free, untreated grass clippings I want. We got a 4 X 8 trailer load, then spring cleaned another 2/3 trailer load of chicken bedding & rabbit manure out of the chicken/rabbit house, and built a compost pile. After 3 days it is too hot to insert my hand more than 4-5 inches inside of it. ANYTHING to keep too busy to plant stuff 7-8 weeks before Last Frost Date!
The winter wheat looks like it suffered about 35-50% loss thanks to the offbeat winter & spring weather. That weather is a two edged sword, though, since it has brought out wild honey & bumble bees early enough to pollinate the apricots that are starting to bloom. Our local beekeeper won't place less than multiples of 4 hives--a pallet--and we couldn't support more than 1 or 2 hives, so that was out, which had only left hand-pollinating as an option.
Speaking of rabbits, we have a 4-week old litter of 8, and another litter born last night; they won't get counted for a few days. One of the four-week females was marked & sold today, when neighbors brought by their property payment; they'll pick her up in a couple of weeks.
Before he left, we had a storm with horrible winds and almost 100 acres of our wheat was blown flat on the ground. It had headed, but not begun the milk stage yet, so the tops were not really heavy. I tried to point out that the stems didn't seem to be broken, just layed-over, so I thought it would stand back up after the sun came out for a day or two. He strongly disagreed. It was so much fun to call him several days after he arrived in Bozeman to tell him that the wheat field looked just like it did before the storm. Every last stem had stood back up!
I picked some wheat heads a couple of days ago that are, I kid you not, 5-6 inches long. If it fills out those kernels, that is going to be some great wheat!
Good luck with your taters! 50 lbs. of seed? My goodness, you are industrious. I also love it that you're still using the old Ford tractor. We have a IH 856 that is older than me that still goes strong. We had the engine overhauled 3 years ago because one of our field hands ran it out of oil. It is a pain to shift, etc., after driving my new John Deere with the hydrastat. I like one pedal for forward and another for backward.