Dear Dave, I always hope these letters contain interesting news. I have always felt that I am capable of saying interesting things, however this belief was shaken by a recent incident.
Lisa and I were on our Sunday drive when I launched into an excited monologue about how landscapers had done such nice work of leveling dirt at one location, then commented on how well-prepared one local service was with all of their colored mulch. This was followed by a minilecture on a location which I had inspected that contained the noxious weed, Purple Loosestrife. I then had one of those moments of self-realization which ended with me saying, “I really have nothing interesting to say.” Clever conversation tires me out, Dave. I guess there is always the radio.
Spring planting is going great around here as we missed the 2.6 inches of rain that found you in Carrington. The speed of farming is a necessity but it really is quite stunning. It reminds me of watching professional football, it is just too fast for me to totally enjoy it. In football, I prefer a game of high school as it is easier to follow.
In farming, there are still a few two wheel drive tractors pulling press drills up and down the field. It always takes me back to the 90s. It’s easy to become increasingly nostalgic as our memories travel backwards however I also remember $1.21, bin-run corn in the 90s. I guess you take the good with the bad, Dave.
I enjoyed farming so much in the 90s, Dave. I had a dream of putting together a herd of Scottish Highland cattle and eventually had a pretty nice group. I put up hay with a Hesston hay stacker pulled by my Belarus tractor. I planted radishes with a Haybuster no till drill and built inventions to make it all work together. I had it all, Dave. Sounds crazy, but that’s the farm I wanted back then. There I go with my old man stories again. Lisa would be asleep by now.
We are preparing for cattle, Dave, I ran the fence this week and replaced a few insulators but we are ready to go as soon as we get some grass. We knocked down the old hayshed and lit it on fire last fall before it could find a reason to fall on its own. I purchased some spruce trees from the Soil and Water District to plant where the building once stood. I installed a new valve on the cattle pipeline so we can easily water the trees, picked up some fertilizer spikes and even some of those tree-watering rings. I am slowly turning a very economical replacement to the old hayshed into a less-economical answer.
I heard a phrase recently I thought I would share with you, Dave. “We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.” When good people invest their time in you, it really has a positive effect, particularly the five you see the most. It’s like that phrase about the value of a bottle of water. It may be worth a dollar fifty at a run-down convenience store while that same bottle costs $6 at 35,000 feet in a first-class airplane. You have to go where you are valued most, it makes such a difference. Tell everyone hello, Your little bro
