Regrets

 Regrets, I have a few. But then again, too few to mention. That famous Frank Sinatra phrase went through my mind last week during one of my many hours in the tractor. One cannot help but to let their mind wander as you are rolling down the field at 9.5mph. Unlike Frank, I have enough regrets, too many to list. We all do. You regret not doing something in life, you regret doing something in life. Sometimes those are the same things, and you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. One of my regrets that I thought of this week was not calling my parents enough. I used to drive by my mom's place about once a week depending on where I was traveling for work. But I was so busy that I did not always stop by. I now regret not stopping by more often. 

What is your biggest regret in life? Something you did, or something you wish you hadn't done? Mine has to do with how I treated the love of my life. Young and dumb, an unkind word, an unkind act, seeing the hurt in someone's eyes is gut wrenching, knowing you are the reason for that hurt will suck the life right out of you. I wish I could go back in time an undo some things I have said and done over the years. But there is no going back, just moving forward. Both Barb and I choose to look at the bright side of things, not dwell on the negative. That is probably the attribute I love most about her, she always chooses to smile and look at the sunshine instead of the rain. And should it rain, she will say something like "We need a little precipitation". As any farmer knows, you need both sun and rain in order for things to grow and I like where Barb and I are right now. Had there been no bumps in the road would be where we are right now? It was a bump in the road that prompted us to make what is probably the biggest decision of our lives. We were both working fulltime, too many hours, making decent money when we decided we needed a change, and we set forth a multi-year plan to sell our home and all (well, most) of our worldly possessions, by a 5th wheel and hit the road. Looking back, I can honestly say it is the best thing we have ever done bringing us closer than we had ever been.  

Okay, I am going to jump off my philosophical soapbox now and talk about real farming. We need rain, and we need it bad! With over 3,000 acres of seed in the ground it is time. We have had the promise of rain, but not a promise kept. Regardless, the seeds are starting to grow, sucking what moisture Mother Nature left us from the now distant snowfall. They go out to the fields almost every day to check, are the seeds germinating? Are the weeds growing? This is the most critical time for the seeds, once they are established, they have a fighting chance and keeping the weeds back helps them with that fighting chance. 

To see if the seeds are germinating you go out to the field and carefully dig in a row to find a single seed and inspect it. You would think with 2.4 million seeds per acre they would not be hard to find, but they can be. This is what you are looking for.... These two picture are wheat, the first being about 1/2" sprout. This is what a single wheat seed looks like before it emerges from the ground. 

We few days later, they will be popping out of the ground. Millions upon millions of tiny little sprouts reaching for the sun! To a farmer, it is a beautiful sight! 

This next picture shows various stages of the peas.

Our big project for the week was re-steeling the machine shed. Ugh! The building itself is 40x80. First, we had to rip off the old shingles, 5 guys taking turns on two shingle rakes. We all took our turns, but Chris, Dylan and Ty were the workhorses, Bob and I just don't have the stamina anymore. When you weren't raking, two guys were on the brooms, one with a hammer, sweeping and one pulling nails, we had one side off in 2 hours. Backbreaking work though. 

The aforementioned "Bob" is Bob S, Chris's dad, who too came up this week to help with the planting. He will be here for the remainder of my stay. Farmer Bob wanted nothing to do with the roof and found other projects to work on while we were doing that. The next morning Bob S and I laid out the underlayment and got to work! 

Two half days later we got one side done. Now, we just need to repeat the process for the other side!

While Bob S. and I were doing that, the rest of the crew was busy doing farm work. We too got called down to load or deliver trucks, which is why it took us two half days to get this done.

We have moved on from wheat and peas to Canola. Tiny, tiny little seed. The bag the canola seed comes in has a label that states it has a minimum of 85 million seeds in it. I was going to count them and see if they shorted us at all, but lost count after all my fingers and toes.  

A couple of people have asked if the tariffs are affecting the farm at all and so far, the answer is no. I thought I would see it on the lumber and steel for the garage and so far, I have not. The one area I have seen it is the 3D printer I bought a few weeks ago, it comes from China. It has gone up $150 since I bought mine, but they do have a $100 discount code, so basically a $50 increase. 

My goal this week was to get out and take some pictures of the wildlife. While I did not get out as much as I hoped, I did capture a few. The moose are still hanging out in that same field. 

Two of the most common birds in the prairie land are the meadowlark and pheasant. The pheasant is by far my favorite upland gamebird. Their coloration is just so fascinating. 

The waterfowl and shorebirds moving through or nesting here are in their brilliant breeding colors, trying to attract the females. 

My favorite pictures of the week are these two; while not the best pictures I have ever taken, they are not even in the top 100, but of all the years I have been coming up here I have not been able to capture a Hungarian Partridge with the camera. They are just too small and speedy! But earlier this week I got luck when I drove up on a covey along the road and they did not fly away. 

Meanwhile, we just keep rolling along here in the fields; literally and figuratively. 

With less than a week of my time here remaining, it does not look like we will get everything in the ground before my departure, but all darn it, we are going to try!