If You're Easily Offended, Don't Read This!

Signs, Signs, Everywhere There's Signs

This was one of my favorite signs for years, I always thought if you READ the top part,

Is the bottom part really necessary? 

I mean really, 

IS THIS NECESSARY?

Then a couple of years ago, I ran across this sign and the voices started running through my head. Like the final leg of a mile race. Flat out, full bore running.

Then I went a long time without seeing any signs that affected me.

Then Monday.

  

     I saw this sign and drove by it, then realized I may have missed something important so I turned around and drove by it again. And took a picture.

My first thought was that somebody had tampered with the sign.

Then those thoughts started running again.

Does that mean the sausage is shaped like a penis?

Is the sausage made of penis?

    I'm almost serious about that. I live in the county where the President of the NCBA is from. MAYBE this is a test market for a new National Cattlemans Beef Association product?

     But I really thought it was just somebody vandalizing a sign. But I shared it with a few people. And I got a response from one person, that well. It made me wonder. 

     What's Pizzle?

     A grocery store in Austin has been named in a civil suit. They sold Beef Pizzle as human food. Adulterated, non-inspected pizzle. Sold for human consumption. The outrage. The tragedy. 

     I'm not sure exactly how it happened. And I'm not sure if it was raw pizzle or something else. My mind is kinda drawn towards thinking they took the dog chew toys and sliced them up and labeled them as Smoked Boneless Turkey Necks. Which is sort of what a beef pizzle looks like. A turkey neck. 

    Try not to think of that the next time you are getting ready to eat your Thanksgiving Dinner.

 

Perspective

     I was thinking the other day, "Gee, I SHOULD write something on my blog". But what could I write about? I hadn't seen anything to make me want to write. At least nothing that made me want to write more than a paragraph or two on Facebook.
     Until Monday. Monday, I saw a story about a rancher in Nevada whose cattle were being rounded up by the BLM. They were seizing his cattle illegally (according to the article).
    The federal government (MY federal government) trampling on the rights of some poor citizen. I was horrified. But then I realized I had heard of this guy before. There had been something I had read with that name. 
     So I did a Google search. And I found it. Where I had seen the name before.
     Seems this rancher decided back in 1993 he shouldn't pay grazing lease fees to the BLM. Evidently he had been paying grazing fees before that. But for some reason he decided he shouldn't do that anymore.
     His decision for whatever his reasons, and there were evidently many, has led to lawsuits, court cases, news stories. 
     A couple of the reasons given: 
He should be paying the fees to state agencies, not the federal government
His ancestors were farming the land since the 1800's, long before there was a BLM.
     I wouldn't be real quick to use that second one as a defense if I were him, might lead to some other peoples then wanting to get some restitution from him. And I'm not sure he can use the first as a defense if he paid the grazing permit fees prior to 1993.
     But then in 1998, the desert tortoise managed to be found on the land he was grazing his cattle on. I don't know much about them but evidently they are considered a vulnerable species and need protection. Which means cattle were no longer allowed to graze on their habitat, whether the grazing fees are being paid or not. 16 years ago. SIXTEEN YEARS.
     If I read some of the news reports earlier correctly, this poor rancher had 1000 head of cattle grazing the contested land. According to that same story the rancher valued his cattle at $1000 each. 1000 head of cattle at $1000 each. That's $1000000 worth of cattle, if that story is correct.
     I'd like to say I'm on the side of the rancher. He's being forced out of his livelihood. 
     But then I look at it from a different perspective.
     A millionaire had been using this property rent free for 21 years. And is finally being evicted. 
     Same story, different perspective.
I'm editing this. After I read it I realized I had left out some things. There are 67 cowboys being contracted to round up the cattle. Evidently several federal law enforcement officials are out there to protect the cowboys doing the rounding up.
     I personally think this has made such big news because news reporters are doing there best to make it a big story. So they can convince their bosses that they need to be sent to cover this story. In Nevada. Clark County Nevada. Las Vegas is in Clark County Nevada. Coincidence?
     

WHAT Happened There?

     I have been thinking about how I could use this picture. I knew I wanted to use it in a post, but I wasn't sure HOW to use it. And as I sit here writing, I'm still not sure. So I guess I'll start writing and see where my mind takes me. :-) .
    So, what happened here? Was there a herbicide failure? Did someone forget to turn on the sprayer? Did it rain too soon after application? Or was this deliberate?
     Deliberate? Why would someone do this deliberately?
     Open your mind.
     Follow me to an alternate reality.
     Enter Nelson 's world.
     Why? WHY?
     Testing. Trying to figure out something. Is that last application of herbicide worth it? How do you decide something like that? The only way you can find out is to conduct a field trial.
     Yeah. THAT'S what it is. A field trial.
     But wait, do you know what a field trial is? If you're a farmer, or you are familiar with farming you probably know. But for those of you who aren't, you may not. So I'm going to give you a little idea.
     This idea of mine about it being a field trial may be right, it may be wrong. I don't know. I don't know the farmer who works that field.
     But let's just imagine. Farmer Brown wonders if that last application of herbicide is worth it. How COULD you figure that out?
     Well here's how you could do it. You take a field that is all the same crop. Planted the same day. All of the field has been treated the same all year long. Until it comes to that last herbicide application. And you just don't spray part of the field.
     Then, when you harvest the field you keep the grain harvested separate. When you take it to the grain elevator/terminal they test it. They weigh your load, test for moisture content, and check for foreign material (weed seed). If the grain is too wet or too much weed seed is present (foreign matter) you get docked.
     There is a constant moisture that grain elevators adjust grain to. The level of moisture that is considered 'dry'.  For grain sorghum, that level is 14%. The higher the moisture, the more it costs the elevator to dry it and the less they will pay the farmer. 16% moisture results in 2% shrink and a 4¢ per bushel drying charge. 20% moisture would result in 6.7% shrink and a 28¢ per bushel drying charge. I didn't know the precise numbers so I called a local grain elevator to find out. Thanks to Brett who answered the phone and answered my questions. I really appreciated it and it just reminded me of how much I miss being IN farming. He took the time to answer my questions when he didn't know me from Adam.
    But back to my idea. If you know how large an area you harvested and how much grain you produced from that area, you can determine what your yield was per acre. Knowing the yield per acre and knowing the cost per acre of production let's a farmer make production decisions.
     Weed competition can result in reduced yields, moisture dock can result in lower income. They may have been trying to determine if skipping a herbicide application would affect their bottom line. Like I said, I don't know the farmer, I don't know what happened.
      But I do know this. When I was growing up, if a farmer had a field that looked like that and it was visible from the road, he would have needed a good answer for WHY it looked like that. He wouldn't have been able to go into the farm supply, or the feed store, or the coffee shop, or the sale barn, or the grocery store, or the post office, or even church without someone asking him about it. And some churches, well he might have been the subject of a sermon, or at least put on a prayer list.
      But in all sincerity, I wonder what the difference in yield was between the 'clean' area and the 'messy' area. Or if there was a difference. For all the talk about sustainability, if a farmer doesn't make a profit, he's not going to be able to sustain his farming effort.

Let Me Explain

     Have you ever looked at a package of corn seed? Most of them I have ever seen have a statement on them something to this effect:

Since Corn is wind pollinated, it's better to plant 4 or more short, side-by-side rows than 1 or 2 long rows. This will help pollination and ear development.

     I planted my Glass Gem corn in 3 rows. about 15 inches apart. and planted the seeds 12 inches apart. I originally planted 2 rows of 17 seeds and 1 row of 10 seeds. 

X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X

                                   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X

X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X

     But then I had a little problem with some snail damage after the plants had been up about a week and it wiped out the red X's. I had 7 seeds left so I planted them to try to keep the big gap from being left. I put  some organic snail bait out to try to keep the snails off the corn.

     It didn't work as well as I had hoped it would and I wound up losing some more corn plants. It kinda left my corn looking like this:

                    X   X   X        X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X

                         X      X     X   X   X   X   X   X        X   X

X                                 X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X 

     The 5 purple X's were 2 weeks behind in maturing and are where the "Pearl" kernels came from. And that one blue X was kinda left all by it's lonesome. it matured when the black X's did. But it was over there by itself. 7 feet away from the other stalks that were maturing when it did. And it affected it. It made some beautiful seeds, but that whole ear development thing didn't work out too well. 

     The top ear. That's the one from the plant by itself. Pretty kernels. Pitiful ear fill. The plant by itself didn't have much chance for any of the other plants to pollinate it. Those other plants were in the middle of a big pollination party. While that one was over by itself. Playing solitaire with a deck of 51 cards.

              

Glass Gems and Pearls

     I posted about growing corn a few weeks ago. But I didn't post all the pictures I should have. So to provide some pictures of the process, I planted some more. The picture on the right is glass gem corn 15 days after it was planted. I decided to plant some and see if it could make a second crop. OH NO! I just realized I must be one of those big-ag monoculture farmers cause I planted it in the same spot I planted the other Glass Gem corn.
     No-Till Glass Gem corn, planted by sticking my finger into the ground, putting the seed in the hole, then filling it with compost. 

This is Glass Gem corn 29 days after it was planted. I actually used a shovel and disturbed the ground here a bit before I planted the seeds. It's growing pretty good, but I'm not sure it's going to ever make anything. Mainly because here in South Texas it gets HOT. How hot?

     2 days before I took the picture above, I took the picture to the right -->
If you can make it out, the leaves of the plant are really curled up. It's a corn plants self defense system to protect it from hot dry weather. curling up reduces moisture loss from the plant. (or so I was told once upon a lifetime ago)
     Anyway I hope to get some more pictures. and hopefully I will get a few more ears of corn. The older plants were planted from seeds I got off of these ears. These are definitely what I had hoped for when I planted those seeds in the first place. But I did have a few ears that were behind those. 2 weeks behind them, in fact.

     These ears are what I called the pearls. I don't know if you can make out how beautiful they are. But I photographed them against a dark background. You know how you always see pearl necklaces and earrings and such shown agains black velvet backgrounds? Well, I didn't have black velvet, just a dark colored towel. 
     I have some seeds that I didn't plant. And I am thinking I might sell them. I'm not looking to sell them at the price I saw them on Amazon, where the person was offering 8 seeds for $2. Nor am I looking to sell them at the price I saw on ebay (and they may still be there at that price) at almost $1 per kernel. 
     No, I'm thinking that I will sell them in one of 3 sizes. 25 seeds for $3.75. 50 seeds for $5.00. 100 seeds for $7.50. PLUS shipping and handling.
     So if you would like to try growing some of this beautiful corn, let me know how many seeds you want. Whether you want to Glass Gem or Pearls.

Make An Offer   
     Have a Great Day! God Bless You!

Jesus was an Inventor

     Today is the first night of the revival at the church I grew up in. Things have changed since I was a little child. Used to be the visiting pastor/preacher/evangelist would go to the home of one of the congregation and have supper before he 'brought the message'.
     Now they have a potluck supper on the first night.
     If you don't know me or haven't read any of my thoughts before, you are probably wondering what that has to do with Jesus being an inventor.
   You've read the Bible, you've heard the sermons, you've been to Bible studies. None of them ever mentioned Jesus being an inventor. He gave sight to the blind, healed the sick, made the lame to walk, turned water into wine. The most important miracle he performed though is the one that still touches lives today. Whether you are a believer or not you have probably been touched by Jesus' most fantastic miracle.
    2 fish and 5 loaves of bread fed 5000.
     Yes, on that day in history Jesus invented the casserole. One of the greatest inventions of all time. There isn't a potluck meal since (or at least none I've been to) that didn't have at least one casserole. Whether it's a family get together, a church meal, a meal after a funeral, a department meal at work, a meal to welcome a new neighbor, or even to welcome a new pastor. There has been a casserole dish there.
     The lowly casserole. Often made fun of, but always welcome, a symbol of God's love. Jesus's best miracle in my opinion.
     I know that Jesus really DID perform a miracle when he fed the 5000. And it wasn't inventing the casserole.


The miracle was that he did it without Cream of Mushroom soup.

What If They Were Right? (AKA 40 years)

     When I was a little boy, I had a girlfriend. Her name was Ms. Norma. She worked at the Farm Supply. I loved going to see her. She'd give me hot cocoa. Hey, when you're 3 or 4, that's all it takes for true love.
     Being at the Farm Supply meant there were old guys hanging around there. In all honesty, they probably weren't that old. Maybe not even as old as I am now. But I remember hearing one time they were talking about weeds. And one of them said that pigweed seeds could lie dormant for 40 years before sprouting. 40 years. That's a long time.
     Later in life, when I was 10 or 11, I was in the 4-H club and I signed up for the wildlife food plot competition. One of the other people who signed up was talking about there being pigweed in the seed package they had gotten. There HAD to be because they hadn't had any pigweed in that field in years. One of the Extension Agents made a comment about pigweed seeds could lie dormant for 40 years before sprouting. 40 years. That's a long time.
     And now. I hear reports about there being Roundup resistant pigweeds. Pigweed, the plant whose seeds can lie dormant for 40 years before sprouting. We may be looking at there being Roundup resistant pigweed sprouting for the next 40 years. 40 years. That's a long time.
    Read about the study.
     Maybe those old guys had heard about that study. Or possibly the Ag Extension agent had learned about it in college. Either way, they had heard or knew something that is backed up by scientific proof.
     40 years. That's a long time.
     Just to give you an idea of how long 40 years is, Roundup was introduced to market 39 years ago.
     And what that means is that there is a possibility that those Roundup resistant pigweed, may have been around before Roundup was even introduced onto the market.