Hooray!

We are finished with cotton stripping!  Finally.  This is the first year since 1984 that I have been stripping come Christmas and New Years.

Ironically, our harvest this year began on the day last year's harvest ended.  November 18.  We had several short runs between fronts bearing moisture, usually 3 or 4 days.  It was hard running.  It is anytime the ground is wet.  You can break through the crust and immediately fill a row unit with mud.

We had delayed the start of the 2013 crop harvest to give the late bolls every opportunity to mature.  Who would have ever thought we would have two ice storms before Christmas.  Not me for sure.  As it turns out, any increase we realized from these late bolls was negated by cotton stringing out from bolls that had been open for a long period of time.

Sometimes you can't win for losing.

It also seemed that the direction the rows ran had a lot to do with how bad the cotton stringed out, and how good or bad the remaining cotton stripped.

Rian had come down a few times this year to help strip, but every time we had poor conditions for harvest and all he had was trouble.  He came down Friday and we were running on the section.  It was good running.  Pretty good cotton, straight rows and cotton that was cleaning off the stalk.  He got on the stripper and had a blast all weekend long.

We will await ginning the crop for final numbers but two places were up substantially in production while two places were slightly down. 

December 31, 2013 marked the end of our farming the Marth place for Melba and Garland.  Several years ago Pepa had began farming this farm for them when Garland's health prohibited him from being able to do the necessary work.  Earlier this fall we received a letter from them telling us that they were taking the farm back January 1, 2014.  At a relatives funeral in November, Melba told me that their kids were going to farm the place for them to provide more income for Melba and Garland.

No harm, no foul, and absolutely no hard feelings.  You can't fault someone for trying to improve their own situation and to be honest, 143 acres with all the farrowing houses and pig pens to farm around is a pain.

While this harvest season was difficult because of the wet conditions, that is good news for next year's crop.

On Saturday just passed, I drove to San Angelo via Abilene to pick up Georgiana, and we supervised a visit for Merrit with Noble.  We picked him up and went to Henry's Diner to eat, then went to Merrit's apartment for the remainder of the visit.  Noble had a blast.  He is really a lot of fun.  He will repeat anything you say.  My favorite is "aw man!", but I am trying to teach him to say "Georgiana is a foreigner".  That one may be a while coming.  So far he has the Ganna down.

I seem to have contracted the flu or a winter cold.  I haven't felt very well the last few days.  Memama has complained of difficulty breathing.  She says she doesn't have an elephant on her chest, just a bear.

Well, Happy New Year!  Have a Year!

FATHER, thank YOU for a good year.  We know that our successes are because of YOU and YOUR blessings.  We pray that 2014 will continue to be filled with YOU and YOUR goodness!