My Favorite Season

Indian Summer is that weather in the fall after a frost when the days are warm and the nights are cool. It's my favorite season. I'm not sure we've had a killing frost yet but this past week reminded me of how beautiful this time of year can be.

I think we've had a first this harvest season. We have 111 day corn going to Eddyville straight out of the field between 14 and 15 percent moisture in late September. I wonder what we'll do with all that LP we contracted.

It was also a good week to harvest beans. We split up our workload this week. BJ and Kurt worked on some custom work while Mark, Karl, and I stayed on our own crops. This load of beans is getting ready to go to Cargill in Des Moines.

One of my favorite jobs during the harvest season is cleaning up waterways and field edges after the combine. It's a good time to observe and make a plan for what needs conservation work before next year. This is our part time helper Alex doing a great job.

We don't own hogs but we do haul honey. It's very effective fertilizer for next years crop. It's always a tough call to know when to start applying. We want to take advantage of great weather conditions but we don't want the warm soil conditions to kick the nitrogen in gear. All the good stuff that happens in the soil to feed the crops goes to sleep when the soil temps cool to 50 degrees or below.

My favorite season is Indian Summer. My favorite time of day is early morning. Many times my favorite time of week is Saturday evening after a very productive week thanks to a great crew. Psalm 104:19 says "The moon marks off the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down."