Day 2 in the garden….

Ah, nothing much new.  Rainy today.  Gracie was really upset over thunder and lightning last night.  She is right of course.  December 4 is not a day for thunder and lightning.

Climate change seems to be affecting the middle of the North American continent – my part anyway – in an almost benevolent way.  Our hots aren’t as hot and our colds aren’t as cold.   The only really bad thing is that we are getting heavy rains in summer and flooding that is not nice at all.  My son the farmer says too that the moderation in really cold winters is bringing more insect and disease problems to crops.

Last night we put the combine away.  Corn is all harvested except for what we want to pick as ear corn and put in my father’s old corn crib.  We didn’t make silage this year – it didn’t get used up last year and there was waste.  Son plans to grind the ear corn and feed it to the cattle along with hay and corn stalk stover.

I’ve fallen in love with the word ‘stover’.  I have this phrase in my head – It’s Not Stover Till the Fat Lady Sings – that makes me smile.  Stover is the remains of crops after the grain has been harvested.  It’s kind of an economic and political issue – in that stover, plant residue has been considered and might be used to make alcohol to be used as fuel.  That’s good, except the plant residue really should be returned to the soil to preserve fertilizer costs.

So that’s the fat lady singing.   Me.

 

Have a good day everyone.

S

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December 7, 2017

I remember you explaining that corn is harvested as late as possible in order to let it dry out. That must be difficult with all the rain you get now.

December 8, 2017

It kind of depends – seed hybridizers make varieties jump through hoops and one hoop is that they do get dry better and earlier. Last few years we haven’t had to dry corn much but this year it was planted late and then we had this wet/early fall. It’s all kind of a financial juggling act. But good to get it done however it happens.

December 7, 2017

🙂