One man is dead, one is missing, one is in hospice, people off to cancer treatment, heavy duty stories. No lack of drama in this world. I need to pray for all of these friends and friends of friends and myself.
I guess that is why I got it together to cook this morning. Have just been doing something simple breakfast wise and out the door recently. But today I need something substantial to carry me through all this thinking and praying.
Nice pic of my breakfast setup and took that partially for PFJuan’s sake. Just showing off our corn products. I haven’t heard from him for the last few days and he is probably knee deep in planting his crop. I have a couple of hours to go with our planting which I need and hope to accomplish today.
Yea, we are trying to get life going in the midst of death and suffering. It’s all happening and making sense of that situation is our job, it looks like to me. And we have to remember to get some laughs in the middle of all that too. Thanks for hanging out with me today. Planting seeds love, Felipe.
Hola Amigo Felipe!
You nailed it with your “Where’s PFJ?” prognostication. Corn planting is in full bore now that the ground has dried up nicely and the April sun is doing its job. Finished up on the south farm this evening about sundown and hope to get rolling on the home farm tomorrow after the last tillage pass. I generally follow the maxim, “less is more” when it comes to tillage but the huge crop we were blessed with last year has left more stover (silly spellchecker doesn’t even know what “stover” is) on the surface than I can successfully plant in. Some neighbors practice what Cathy and I call “recreational tillage”. They’ve got all those shiny new implements half-a-football-field-wide and a $200,000 tractor to pull it with so what are you gonna do??? Gotta get out there and stir things up.
Anyway, all things “corn” in this comment. We grew up poor and ate more cornbread and beans than any other foodgroup, and you know what, I still love it. I can think of 15 ways to enjoy cornbread, it never goes to waste here. Cathy was babysitting the grands when I came in out of the field and she had retrieved a container of last summer’s sweet corn to thaw out for my supper. I could eat that stuff until my toes founder. I plant our sweet corn patch last after all the field corn is in the ground and shoot for a “first picking” day in the last week of July. Our bike riding team gathers up here before we do the Ragbrai (Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) and they may just mutiny if there’s no sweet corn for the send off.
And just because I’m on a roll here, I think you should know that our feedlot cattle eat corn in about every possible description: wet corn gluten (from our Coop ethanol plant), ground corn stover (baled in big round bales after the corn harvest), corn silage, corn screenings (from our hog-feeding friends whose pigs don’t do well on them), and of course, whole shelled corn. From time to time I’m able to get corn cobs from the seed corn producers and I grind them up as well for an excellent roughage source. And, for the “coup d’grace”, we use all that wonderful manure they produce to grow next year’s corn crop. By now you should be “cornvinced” that zea mays is a big deal around here.
So glad you figured out the mystery of the missing comments. Kind of like the stars and angels, eh? They’re always there-we just can’t always see them. 🙂
Always enjoy your attitude Marine!
SF,
PFJ
PFJuan ~ I’ll have to admit that I had to look up “stover” and it wasn’t in the standard fat dictionary. But I got that it’s the corn stalks. OK, I know that I can’t outcorn you but I want you to be impressed that we make our corn meal out of our tradional sweet corn variety. Not that it’s that hard but it makes for some good eatin. The new high sugar variety that we tried drying last year didn’t work out so well but it’s fun to experiment.
So, some time I want to fly in to your place and help out with some part of the yearly cycle. Maybe you need some extra help at a certain time. I need to pick up some tips and it would be a good excuse to meet.
Last night I went to a film showing that a Legion buddy of mine has been an advisor on. It’s a documentary about a group of guys that are Vietnam War reenacters down in Oregon. I know it sounds crazy and I worked them over during Q and A but it’s an kosher educational deal. You know it just wasn’t yesterday like we have in our brain and younger folks are trying to understand it. Well that’s all I know, Felipe.
You got yourself a deal Amigo! And so coincidental that I was just mind-wandering this morning doing the cattle feeding wondering how and when I could make it your island for a visit. The Spirit is a grand thing, is it (He? She?) not??
SF,
PFJ
Any time Sir!
You have planted the seed of love which have grown in all of us, the camino tribe! Sending you lots of love from Madrid.
We must fan the flame my Princess.
You guys are so corny!!! I’m cracking myself up over here, ha ha! But seriously now, sending you love along the airwaves. Love the blog, love the comments, love you all. Peace-Annie
Annie ~ you know there are corn people and then there are Neil Diamond people. I just made that up. But my old college roommate Mel and I are corn people. His people are from Brett is it Britt, Iowa. Well you met Mel in Buffalo! He can call me up any old day and we can talk corn for a solid hour no problem. Well, maybe a little hunting and fishing in there too. Anyway, you get the picture. PFJuan is refreshing at Caminoheads isn’t he? And a Marine too. Felipe.