Just before the sun comes up I head out to the barn The soil's turned concrete or granite? It's so hard! Nice to think it's just a crust shielding life down deep Creatures live, under the frost roots are holding life Makes me think of a birthday candle that relights itself, again and again [...]
Welcome to the Arctic! and you didn't even leave home! Down, down, down comes the sub zero blanket of air freezing all it can Soil, rock hard snow, crunching cold "Crack!" noises here and there as materials contract, shrinking We bundle up and just keep going hindered, modified trudging to the barn early morning [...]
Coast to coast they come to the Heartland mid-America Breadbasket Flyover Zone The gene pool arrives! Gammy and grandpo hosting kids and grandkids a family of American Eagles and eaglets Generations in turn learning to fly and flying away but coming back home the family farm a hundred thirty years and counting Eagles, eaglets [...]
Folks down south miss a lot things the cold gifts to us Some good some not so pleasant This morning crisp, cold air nipped at my nose and fingers as I trudged out to the shop Overnight cold was winter's hold refusing to let go to the sun The January thaw was working Gulf [...]
Symphony, they call it music that wraps its arms around us because we listen, feel,smell, see Perhaps it's wind we can see percussion we feel bow strings we stretch and tune, bend and clip and brass we mold, shape, file and weld The farmer is a visiting conductor a concert master too finely trained, [...]
I discovered my wife in mother mode was a person of distinction For a start how could she do it? Deliver a baby Incredible... Impossible? But she did Five times Her love grew for each one and also for me How could that be that love can expand so and do it again and [...]
A feller born this day 74 years ago has a lifetime of planting the flag! I've seen him do it time and again courage is the backbone of leadership and he's got it! School district train wreck finances askew teachers on the walk somebody needs courage plant a flag draw a line in the [...]
Where horses used to run where buggies rolled along where people heated rocks to warm their ice cold feet cars and trucks now run rubber balloon tires springs and shock absorbers roll across the prairie blacktops delivering folks here and there Engines purr where horses snorted pulling loads with ease comforts taken for granted [...]
Crop Management Conference they labeled it The rest of the story is it's all about farming Year of Our Lord 2015 A baker's dozen of Ph.Ds sharing hearts and souls with a hundred fifty farmers and their supporters The very best from one of the very best lecturing and answering questions Getting their minds [...]
Winter evenings on the farm Find me settled in Family room, they call it And indeed it is 5 red sweatered kids Pictured above the fireplace Me in my recliner Good light, good book, warm fire The walls are aged red barn boards Hauled here by horse A hundred years ago The Parkville sawmill [...]