Getting Caught Up

I must admit, I have taken some time off from the computer.  I apologize to those who find these ramblings so intriguing.  We will make some attempts to put some important information on this page on a routine basis.

The past few weeks have been extremely interesting.  As many of you know, I have enjoyed great fame.  That has led to some other opportunities.  Like this:

Glad to find ways to share my world with you.  You can follow all of the twitter road trip interviews here.

Then the next day after that interview…..

I was recently interviewed for a potential book on Social Media. It’s amazing how Twitter, Facebook, and social media have made the world smaller, and more interesting.

I have really had a great opportunity to make some great friends with the hail adjusters.  Did you know you are audited from the Federal Crop Insurance regulators when you receive a large check from them?  That ’s so nice!  The good news is, I know everything is up to date and not much to find.  That’s the value of a great insurance agent.

A week ago, we ventured to the Black Hills.  No, it wasn’t for the Sturgis Rally.  I don’t own a bike.  I was surprised at how few of bikes were present.  I hear they are getting upset with how much they are being taken advantage of.  Hotels more than double their rates.  People say that most places make a ton of profit during this week.  I can fully understand why they would want to stay away.

One story about the Sturgis Bike Rally participants.  We stopped for gas at a convenience store in Custer, SD.  It’s not easy for a car to fit in with a flock of bikers.  That didn’t deter me though, I desperately needed the gas.  When I went in to pay for the beverages, and snacks and gas I talked with the lady running the cash register.  She commented on how honest and nice these bikers were.  She had never had one problem with any of them.  That’s not what my prejudicial nature wants to think.  I’m still learning!

Things are back to normal on the farm.  The kids start school on Monday.  Michael starts 8th grade, Tyler is a 1st grader, and my daughter Kylie starts Kindergarten.  Tyler has informed Kylie that 1st graders are “the boss” of Kindergartners.  This should be interesting.  That leaves Trevyn home with me to do all the work.

Let’s keep in touch.  Leave a comment or say HI via twitter.

Welcome to My World

It has definitely been an interesting past couple of weeks.  I just wanted to use this post to welcome all of you who have decided to follow “the Twittering Farmer”.  From my recent exposure from my CNN interview, I have added over 1400 new Twitter followers.  It continues as every day I get messages from new people adding to the mix.

Many of you have sent me personal messages.  Many of those were thanking farmers for their hard work and efforts to keep this nation and world fed.  Whoever thought we could have a conversation about technology on the farm in the middle of nowhere.  I just wanted to take a moment and say Thank You and Welcome!

Let’s rewind the tape for a moment.  My wife has returned from Africa, but then loaded up my 4 kids and headed to Branson, MO.  (They are returning today) I’m trying to harvest wheat, but it was too wet and the place where we deliver it does not want wet wheat.  Something about wet wheat won’t grind into flour., go figure!  So, I waited by getting 400 acres of millet planted.  Unfortunately, 90 acres shy of the goal, it decided to rain…and hail.  It hailed out 300 acres of the 700 acres I had left to harvest.  This makes the 5th hail storm I have had this growing season.  Over 50% of Perkins County, Nebraska has suffered from hail damage.  It’s the nature of  the business. You can see pics here.

That is the latest from this area.  Feel free to ask questions in the comment section and I will attempt to answer your questions.

I have looked at many of the new followers.  Of course, there are a spattering of Spammers, but for the most part, many are real people.  What is quite peculiar is many are fairly new to Twitter.  I wanted to offer some suggestions of what to do with this new piece of the conversation.

1. Converse – Twitter only becomes valuable, fun, interesting, entertaining, educational if you get involved.  It’s easy, just send me a message here.

2. Look – Find other people or businesses that interest you.  Plenty of areas out there to keep you in the conversation.

3. Learn – Don’t be annoying.  Learn the features of twitter.  If you don’t know, ask.  Someone sitting in their office or tractor will help you.

So welcome to my world!  Lot’s more to come.  I’m thinking of producing some audio and video stuff from my little corner of the world and share what’s going on in my cubicle.

That all comes after I get the wheat harvested.  Oh, and by the way, farmers have insurance when disasters strike.  It helps pay the bills so we can do it all again next year.

Thank You CNN.com

Wake up one day and your world can change.

I am just a simple man.  I live in a small community (ok, tiny).  This morning CNN.com decides to post a story about twittering farmers.  I was selected along with some of my agricultural twittering colleagues to be highlighted in this article.

Let me thank the author of the story, John Sutter.  He’s from Oklahoma.  He has a grasp of farming.  And he did a very good job.

But, that article wasn’t the end.  Countless numbers of new followers on twitter want to see what goes on here.  I don’t understand.  I hear many travellers going down I-80 who stop in Ogallala, Nebraska say, “Well, this is one boring spot.” or something similar.  My answer to that is, we make up our own fun!

Welcome to all the new contacts and twitter followers and whomever else wants to come by and woller around in my 15 minutes of fame.

It continues with a brief little Skype Interview on CNNlive.  Here is the link to that. I got a call asking if they could do that tomorrow if we could make the Skype connection.  I’m lucky to have internet, let alone bandwith to run Skype, but it went very well.  My internet connection goes wireless about 50 miles before it gets to the main internet tube!

It’s alright, I didn’t want to get much done today anyway.  My family of four children and I are taking my wife Rachel to Denver this afternoon to put her on a plane for Africa.  Pray for her safe travels and the work she will be doing with the orphaned children of Zambia.  Pray for me that I can handle four kids, of which one is still in diapers.  (Grandma will be moving in tomorrow!)

Thanks for stopping by.  I can always use a few more friends!

My Wife is Leaving Me!

But it’s only for a 10 long days.  Thursday night she boards a plane and heads 8000 miles away to Zambia, Africa.

It has always been her passion to go to Africa.  Last January, a group was formed under the direction of one of our dear friends Cecelia Stoll, and Arbonne International to make a trip to Africa.  With lots of prayer and planning, it is now about to happen.

She will be heading to Lusaka,  Zambia.  While there next week, this group will work with Family Legacy, a ministry dedicated to helping thousands of orphaned children who lost their parents to AIDS.  Zambia holds acclaim to the most children orphaned to the AIDS virus over any other country.  It is said that for many children, the only gifts they get from their parents is the gift of life, and AIDS. Family Legacy saw a need and has created a large campus to serve the children of Lusaka and the country of Zambia.

I am proud of my wife.  My motto is, “She’s the brains and I am the braun.” I do all the front man stuff, the speaking, the boisterous obnoxious type.  She is quiet, subtle and humble.  And that is why things work quite well around here.  She is the breeze beneath my wings.  When she is passionate about something…there isn’t anything that is going to stop her.

I know you are asking, “How can I help?”  Many of you already have and for that, we are greatly appreciative.  We have raised several hundreds of dollars for the cause.  We personally have paid for the mission trip and the additional funds have been used to support the children.  Many children are going to be blessed because of the efforts of many who are supporting Rachel on this trip.  I will use this forum in the future to ask for your help in the work that will be needed after she returns.  Each one of the 30 kids that she will be working with will need a sponsor.  Details on that will be given to her while she is in Zambia.  Sometime after the 15th of July, I will have more details on how you can help, and become a friend to one orphaned child in Zambia.  The best part is, Rachel will get to personally work with these select children.

For now, I just ask that you keep my wife Rachel in your prayers.  It’s a long way over there, it’s a long way back and nothing is ever certain.  I do know it will be an amazing experience.

Stay tuned, there will be much more to come….

Whats Happening on the Farm

There are times on the farm when nothing goes right.  Much like life, there are times when it would have been better if I had just stayed in bed.  Of course, if that would have happened, something would have gone wrong there too.

But, there are times when things just go right.

Many in the Midwest (Indiana, Illinois, Ohio) were having an extremely difficult time planting corn due to continuous rain.  Here on the extreme western fringes of the corn belt, we began with cold weather, but, it has warmed and the corn has gone in without a struggle.  In four days, I planted all of my corn in amongst small rain showers.  After the corn was in, I sprayed it with fertilizer, hoping for rain to incorporate it into the soil.  A few hours after I pulled out of the field, the rain came!  I couldn’t have planned it any better!

I have received many questions about the farm and the practices here on the plains of western Nebraska.  In this picture, I am planting “no-til corn”.  The ground has not been tilled.  It has been sprayed with herbicide to keep the weeds controlled from robbing our stored moisture.  This practice also protects the soil from wind and water erosion.  In these parts, that is a good thing.

In this picture, I am planting corn into last summers havested wheat stubble.  If this was Iowa or even Eastern Nebraska, we could expect yields of 150-200 bushels per acre.  In this area, we think anything over 100 bushels is incredible.  We just don’t get the moisture here that they receive.  Therefore, we don’t plant it as dense as they would there.   It’s a nice addition to help rotate crops from our traditional staple crop of wheat.

I have been following the ag scene on twitter.  Tuesday nights is #agchat night.  Much of the discussion is centered around getting the word out about what is right with agriculture.  I must admit, most of the common folks that frequent this blog or follow me on twitter are fans of agriculture and todays food production systems. They like to eat.

I understand there are those who are the loud silent minority, advocating all sorts of changes to the established system.  Many of those advocates for change need to understand the truth.  It would be like me trying to grow oranges.  I have no clue about growing oranges, therefore, I am not going to tell them how to do it.  Trust me, I am not going to imlement a practice on my farm that jeapordizes my livlihood or the future of food production here.   I think I can speak that for all of my colleagues in the food production industry.

On behalf of the food production specialists of the world, thank you for eating!

Some busy times

May always seems extremely busy and hectic around here.  Graduations run rampant, it’s spring time, it’s time to plant, and a million other things are happening.

I just returned from one of the Nations premier fire schools.  Every May, Nebraska hosts one of the largest fire schools in the nation.  I have the pleasure of working as an instructor for the Fire Marshals office and had the opportunity to offer up some of my knowledge on Structural Collapse Indicators.  It was basically a class on how to avoid having buildings fall on you while fighting fires.

I got home Sunday night, and prepared for a busy Monday.  I am trying to get corn planted on the farm.  I had to go to the airport to get some supplies for the field.  I thought this picture was kind of cool considering it was taken from my phone.  The propellers were invisible to the naked eye, but in a picture, you could see them.

I then attended my son Tylers Kindergarten graduation/lunch at the park.  You can see his teacher Mrs. Johnson in these pictures.  I love Mrs. Johnson.  What a great teacher!  I was amazed throughout the year as Tyler would come home to share some of the things he had learned.  I thank God for great teachers like this!

I am sure Mrs. Johnson is looking forward to the summer vacation! They say the three best things about being a teacher is June, July and August.  Take it easy Mrs. Johnson, get plenty of rest, because next year, you get Kylie!

Later that night, my daughter graduated Pre-School with miss Karma.  I knew I was in trouble when just moments after our arrival,  a couple of boys in her class were begging her to have their pictures taken together.  I made sure those boys knew who I was and I informed them, I had my eye on them!  Their mothers left little in re-assurance by telling me that I will have my hands full with her as she was one they always talked about.  (I think it’s time to upgrade the gun selection in the house!)

As you can see, she is a show stopper!

It’s a very busy time.  May you find a way to give in all the busyness of life.  On my way home I had a great visit with my friend Neva in the hospital.  Hopefully she will be getting out soon, but she has had quite the time the past month.  I think we could talk for hours.  It was just as good as being at church!

OK, I am off to the field!  I have neglected my Farm Town on Facebook!  Frankly, I don’t think the bank cares if my Farm Town falls apart, but, he really wants to see a profit on the real farm.

Big announcement coming sometime later this week.  Stay tuned!  I’m off to the field….