Cutting Silage

This has been an unusually hot and dry summer, which has changed the schedule for harvesting and the crop production.

The wheat harvest was completed almost by the date that the combining typically begins in a normal year.  Harvesting corn usually happens late in the fall; but this summer it was too hot and dry for the ears to fill, and the leaves were turning brown.  In order to get a crop from the planted corn, they hired a silage cutting crew from Kansas who started Wednesday morning with their trucks and silage machines.  They finished this morning, July 28th.  The silage will be feed for cattle this winter.  

Pastures are also hurting due to lack of rainfall, but we did get a welcomed .4 of an inch last night.  With the ground so dry and a 90-degree temperature today, the moisture doesn't last long.

Truck bringing chopped corn from the field.

Since the corn was still greener than desired 

for making silage, Brent is bringing hay bales to add 

to the mix so that the moisture will be lower.

 Grinding the hay and adding to the corn.

Dumping the chopped corn at the top of the pit.

The truck is emptied and ready to

go to the field to bring back another load.

Sam is in the tractor pushing the dumped corn

down into the silage pit.

Moving down into the pit to level the silage.

Another silage pit in the background has been filled and

covered.  Old tires hold the plastic in place.  Covering the 

silage reduces the spoilage.  This winter, the silage will  be 

mixed with ground hay in a feed wagon and fed to the cattle.

Ryan and Tani's Family Here for a Visit

It is always a treat to have family come for a visit.  Ryan and Tani's family came from their home in Eagle Mountain, Utah, on Thursday, June 14, and were here for one week.

  

After coming home from church in Rosebud, 

we had a family photo taken before eating.

The menu included green chili enchilada with "Ireland cheesecake"

for dessert as a family favorite in honor of Father's Day.

(Narene, Kyle, Marisa, Ryan, Tani, Kyle, and Sam)

Not surprisingly, Sam received books for Father's Day.

This year it was Glenn Beck's "Cowards" from me

and "The Winds and the Waves" from Ryan's family.

(Sam and Ryan)

On Monday, we toured the Badlands and

Mount Rushmore.

(Ryan, Tani, Marisa, Kyle, Brady, Narene and Sam) 

 Badlands of South Dakota

Another view of the Badlands

I never get tired of seeing Mount Rushmore.

(Ryan, Tani, Marisa, Narene, Sam, Brady, and Kyle)

"The Shrine of Democracy"

Mount Rushmore

Grandma and Marisa

Having some fun photos in the courtyard at

Wall Drug.

(Marisa, Kyle, and Brady on a "jackalope.")

One of the activities the grandchildren did while

they were here on the farm was to go fishing at Bad Hare.

It turned out to be a catch-and-release time with only

a painted turtle big enough to keep (temporarily).

 Ryan and Tani have their lock ready to add 

to our family marriage tree.

Ryan and Tani left for home yesterday.  We are now looking forward to Beth and children coming this evening for a visit, and we appreciate Todd's support in having them come.  

The landscape is looking more like the end of August than June.  We finally got some much needed rain on Thursday (.65) and again on Tuesday (.55).  It's a bad year for grasshoppers, too.  Right now they are small, but they still stripped many of the leaves on the rhubarb plant.  Trying to save the peppers and squash in the garden and my flowers, I sprayed them with what was supposed to be an insecticide; but it must have had some residual weed killer in the sprayer.  I don't know whether the plants will survive this, but for sure they are set back and the flowers are currently not making new blooms except for the dianthus ("pinks") around the marriage tree.    

 

An Enjoyable Weekend

This weekend was our church's 181st Semiannual General Conference.  As I watched the two sessions on Saturday and two more sessions on Sunday, I thought how lucky we are for the technology that brings the messages of President Monson and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and other church leaders into our home where we can watch on our T.V. as they speak from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.  

I thought about my parents who moved to South Dakota in the fall of 1931 and never did have this technology all the years they lived in South Dakota.  I don't know whether KSL radio became an option for them to hear conference; but they may have had access to the talks in The Improvement Era, the church magazine they received each month (which was replaced by the Ensign in 1970).

[I read that KSL, Utah's oldest radio station, had as its first broadcast a talk given by President Heber J. Grant on May 6, 1922.  By 1932, its power boosts had reached its current 55,000 watts for daytime broadcast power; but although KSL's AM signal currently can be heard in much of western North America at night, during the day it is heard mostly in Utah.  By 1947, they had FM radio; but it was limited to a format of beautiful music at that time.  I do seem to have a memory as a little girl of listening to the KSL radio broadcast about President Grant's death in 1945.] 

Not only do we have the option of watching the sessions live over the BYUTV channel, but they are also available online on the computer.  The broadcast could also be seen in the chapel at Rosebud via a satellite feed for those who wanted to watch there.  Audio, text, and video versions are made available online as well as updates on Facebook and related tweets on Twitter using the hashtag  #LDSConf.

Then, next month we will have access to all the talks published in the Ensign.  There is no excuse for not knowing what the Lord wants us to hear and do.

I enjoyed the music provided by the Tabernacle Choir and also on Saturday afternoon the music provided by a choir of Primary children.

We are always eager to hear if there will be new temples announced, and it was interesting to learn that the historic Provo Tabernacle that had a fire in 2010 leaving only the outside walls standing will be restored as a temple.  There will be a temple built in Star Valley, Wyoming; and the other temples announced will be in Paris, France; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa; Durban, South Africa, and Barranquilla, Columbia.  Not one in Rapid City yet, but hopefully some day.  

There are currently 135 temples operating worldwide, and there are 31 more announced or under construction.

President Monson was a little late arriving to the first session of conference on Saturday morning.  In the closing prayer, Sister Monson's health was mentioned; so I wonder if her health was the reason for his delay.  When President Monson came to the podium to speak halfway through the morning session, he offered welcoming remarks and began by giving a cheerful "hello."

In his remarks on Sunday afternoon, President Monson ended with these comforting thoughts:  "I bear my testimony to you that this work is true, that our Savior lives, and that He guides and directs His church here upon the earth.  I leave you with my witness and my testimony that God our Eternal Father lives and loves us.  He is indeed our Father, and He is personal and real.  May we realize and understand how close to us He is willing to come, how far He is willing to go to help us, how much He loves us and how much He does and is willing to do for us."

We also enjoyed having Brad and Todd Hicks here this weekend, as they had come to go bow hunting for deer.  They left Monday before noon without getting a deer yet, but they will return later this month to try again.  There are a lot of deer here and they could have gotten a doe, but they would rather wait for a buck.  

The weather has been very hot the last few days, which is unusual for this time of the year.  It was 94 degrees on Sunday, but we stayed cool inside.  I have been making salsa with tomatoes, peppers, and onions from the garden and put another seven quart-size packages in the freezer today.

Another batch of salsa.

Ready for the freezer. 

Yesterday, they finished combining the sunflower field east of the house that had been sprayed to "kill" the plants, so they now have two fields harvested; but the rest of the sunflowers are too green yet to combine until we get a freeze.  Yesterday afternoon, Sam started combining soybeans.  They have about 400 or 500 acres of wheat yet to plant.

Sweet Corn, Sunflowers, and Weather

With our children all married having their own gardens, I don't do the amount of canning and freezing that I used to do. Consequently, in recent years I have not used all the garden space and have downsized to planting tomatoes, a variety of peppers, zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, and onions, along with strawberry plants and rhubarb.

Sam planted the rest of the garden to sweet corn, although we also have more sweet corn planted by the field corn. Sweet corn is not Roundup ready, and some of that planted in the field got sprayed by mistake again this year. We also have to set a trap for the coons, because they really do havoc on the ready-to-eat corn.

Corn and tomato plants in the garden on July 21st
with half of a large rainbow in the background.


Looking down our driveway on the other side of the
quanset is the other half of the rainbow. A second
rainbow is also seen, only not as bright.

Then in July, we had a terrible wind storm that really knocked the corn plants over, but they still were able to continue to grow and produce good ears.

The corn stalks two days after the wind storm.
(Photo taken July 25th.)

In spite of the wind and competing with the racoons, the corn produced well. While Marla was here, we got 48 quarts of creamed-style corn ready to put in the freezer. She had come Thursday, August 18th, to bring Trevor so he could ride back to Utah with Beth and children who had been here visiting for ten days. Tauna, Rachel, and Weston came over and were good helpers. We appreciated having Grandpa Sam and Weston shuck the corn.

Ready to make creamed-style corn to put in the freezer.

The angel food pan is used to support the end of the
cob of corn while using the electric knife to cut off the top of
the kernels, leaving the outer part of the kernel attached
to the cob. Then with the back of a table knife, the
cob is scraped to get the inner part of the kernels,
which makes the corn creamy.

The newspapers are put down on the counter and on the floor,
because the scraped corn is starchy and leaves a sticky mess;
but it is worth it.


Cooking the corn with the added ingredients.

The Recipe:
9 to 10 cups of fresh corn, cut from the cob
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 cups water

Combine corn, sugar, salt and water; place in large pan.
Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently.
Cook for 3 minutes after it is bubbly and turns "milky."
Remove from heat; cool in shallow pan.
Spoon into freezer containers or bags and freeze.

We don't like creamed-style corn you buy at the store, but this recipe makes delicious creamed-style corn and is a family favorite.

After removing from the stove, pour into shallow
pans to cool the corn somewhat before packaging.


Rachel is measuring the cooked corn into freezer bags.


The packaged bags with the hot mixture are
laid out to cool some more before putting in the freezer.

If you come for a visit to our home, we will be happy to serve you the "Best-ever Frozen Corn"!

They finished the wheat harvest this last Wednesday. The field corn is not ready to harvest yet, nor are the sunflowers, millet, and soybeans. We don't have as many sunflowers to harvest as we had planted due to a bad hail storm that hit 1,200 acres.

These sunflowers are in a field east of the house.
(Photo taken August 17th.)


Jared in the field of sunflowers that was hailed out August 10th.
There are only a few sunflower heads left on several stalks.
(Photo taken August 17th.)


Joshua playing with the bare sunflower stalks.


This is a happier picture which we took on our way
back to the house after seeing the hailed out field.
(These sunflowers would be higher than Jared's head
if he were not standing on a little rise at the edge of
the road, as they are over six feet tall.)


Nature can be both ugly and beautiful.

Winter Wonderland

I stepped outside this morning in the 0.0 Fahrenheit degree weather just long enough to take these two photos. Sam finds this is a good day to work in the shop.

We wonder when warmer weather will come and are definitely ready for better temperatures, but the forecast doesn't look promising the rest of the week. It's a good time to do projects inside. I just need to decide which one on the list!