I'm sorry that my posts have not been as consistent lately, I promise we have fully been enjoying the summer weather and all that it entails. I'm sure you're wondering what all we have been up to, huh? Well buckle up, because this might be my longest post yet!
We wrapped up planting season and for me scouting season began. Unfortunately, we had some bad weather around Mother's Day, which caused some issues in the fields and lead to replanting soybeans. That kept me awfully busy for a good week, between checking fields for customers, treating more soybeans and delivering them. Thankfully, that came to an end, but so did our rain. We've been awfully dry and haven't had good measurable rainfall since Mother's Day. Surprisingly our crops are all holding in pretty decent and I know it's awfully early to make a judgement call on what our yields will look like. With all the dry weather, scouting season continues to go on, we've just adjusted what all we are looking for in the fields. Justin was busy with spraying 2nd pass herbicide on all the corn and soybean acres and finally just wrapped that up last week. He should have a break with spraying until July, unless he needs to make a pass with insecticide earlier.
We finally got our garden tilled and planted. About 3 years ago I had the idea to do a raised garden but of course I wanted to be resourceful and use something we had on hand. After a quick walk around the farm, I decided these old cement cattle feed bunks would make for a great garden. At first, I think Justin thought I had lost my mind, but then as per usual he took my idea and expanded it even further. He placed the 3 bunks all in a row and carefully lined the inside, so we wouldn't loose dirt between the cracks. He even put in a tile line, in case it were to ever get extremely saturated. Then he placed boards on the ends, to keep everything secure. He took a mixture of our soil and some compost from my nephews farm, mixed it all together and then placed it in the feed bunk. This truly has been a huge success and it's so much easier to keep weeded. Every year in the fall, when the fertilizer truck is here to spread the fields, I grab a 5 gal buckets worth of fertilizer. I then take that fertilizer and spin it on my garden, our asparagus patch and around our fruit trees. Last year, I found a soaker hose and wrapped that all throughout the bunk so I could guarantee all the plants were getting an even amount of water. Unfortunately, my hose fell apart when I pulled it out of storage this summer so I'm going to have to make sure I get a new one and soon! I plant a lot of tomatoes, brussels sprouts, peppers and zucchini in our garden. There's a few other items in there as well, but those are the bigger items. A few years ago, I found a recipe for Zucchini Salsa and decided to use up my extra large zucchini's and can some. Turns out, it was a huge hit! Now everyone is wondering when they're getting their jars in the fall! I enjoy canning, whenever I have the chance. It allows us to save some of these great fresh products, so we can enjoy all winter long.
We spent a couple different nights at the ball diamonds watching our nieces and nephews play. It's amazing to watch them and see how much they've grown both mentally and physically year after year. Both Austin & Emilie have had their chances to pitch this season and it's been great watching them as they navigate through the different positions. We managed to grab a meal one night with Justin's siblings and the nieces and nephews.
This past Friday, I spent part of my day volunteering at the kids tent for my hometowns annual festival. Our Pastor Suzanne and I had the fun game of bags and all the chasing that came with it! It was so fun to watch the kids expressions whenever they would make the bag in a hole. Absolutely priceless!
We ended Friday night with a family dinner on Justin's side to celebrate Father's Day & Uncle Correy's birthday. The night ended with little Miss Emerson asleep on my chest, Justin, Grandpa Elmer, Austin & Emilie playing a few hands of crazy 8's and the younger kids running around trying everything they could to torment Justin! It was a fun night and I know everyone slept good after that!
Join the chat 💬 on the way home 😑