I love a good breeze!

Hey, I like a good breeze as much as the next guy, but if the winds keep up I'm going to decided the only good breeze is Drew Breeze!


I had short rated Memama's winter wheat crop on the fifteenth.  last week I had gone in and done a modification for the certification at FSA.  So all that was left was to destroy the crop.  I didn't want to plow the already dry ground so I decided to spray the wheat with PowerMax RoundUp.  We just needed the wind to cooperate a little.


Yesterday morning we got a break with the wind and Slats hauled a load of water and got the sprayer out and prepped.  When I arrived I gave him the load instructions and while he loaded the chemical and water, I programmed the flow controller for the desired rate.  By lunch we had finished two fields and moved three times.  I was kind of in a groove and would have liked to have kept spraying, but for some reason the guys like to get paid every Friday.


So we loaded another load and decided to break for lunch.  It was as good a time as any as we needed another load of water.


I went to the office at Memama's house and wrote checks for the farm, paid Frances, and sent Reid's church camp scholarship Memama promised him.  I grabbed a soft drink and some left over chicken  and got in the hands pickup with the water tank.  They had taken mine to cash their checks.  As I was driving down the road (headed to get water) I met them and they just circled in behind me.  When we got to the gin I ran by the post office and the bank before going back to the sprayer. 


Still, by the time they got back to the field I was out of water and waiting on them.  We loaded and I sent Dakota to the barn in my truck and sent Slats back to top the water nurse tank and head for the last farm.


By 5:30 in the evening Memama was out of the wheat business.


By 6 pm. the sprayer and nurse tank were in the barn and locked up for the weekend.


On my way home I stopped by Blackland Smokehouse to  get barbecue, as I walked out with the bag of food the norther hit.  Dust was everywhere.


It was almost disheartening spraying yesterday and seeing how dry and cracked the ground is.  We are getting in really bad shape at a high rate of speed.


Oh well, we will get it when we re supposed to get it.  Someone much bigger than you and I is in charge of that!


FATHER, thank YOU for the break from the wind.  We ask for YOUR rain blessing for this dry parched earth.

The Agriculture act of 2014

I went to a meeting last week, sponsored by the National Cotton Council, Rolling Plains Cotton Growers, and PCCA.


This was our first look at the new farm program.  It is a 900 billion dollar program with the bulk being made up of the food stamp program, approximately 850 billion.  Needless say, the farm program took a pretty good hit.


Probably the most shocking fact that came out is that cotton is no longer a program crop.  No more DP (Direct payments), or CCP (counter cyclical payments).  The latter statement was expected news.


2014 will be a transition year, and all options will not be available for the program for this farm crop year.  Therefore a 5.4 cent/lb on all base acres and DP yields will be paid.  It extends to '15 at reduced rates for any counties for which STAX is not available.


I do not envy the FSA staff as this new program is going to call for a great deal of production history.


Yesterday I was in the FSA office re-certifying wheat acres after short rating all of our wheat acres.  In visiting with them, they said they are in a hold pattern waiting for the regulations to be written.  Once the regulations are written they will go back to congress for approval and be accepted as to intent or sent back to be re-written.  This could be a timely process.  Until the regulations are out, they are unable to train or do any of the preliminary work that it looks like will be required.


The County Executive Director told me what we learned at the meeting last week, 50% will be right and 50% will be wrong.


I guess it is the not knowing and speculation that has really worked on the producers.


It appears program sign up will not begin before late summer or early fall, and it could be as late as the end of the year or after harvest.


I don't know about you, but I don't know of too many businesses that can operate this way.  Talk about leap of faith, we are being asked to put a crop in without knowing what the rules and guidelines will be.


The safety net for cotton will now be through all risk crop insurance.  The STAX program or stacked income protection plan will not be available until the 2015 crop year.  Stax will be administered by USDA's RMA (Risk Management).  It will be on a county wide experience, not an individual experience.


Premium subsidy is at 80%, although coverage is available up to 120%  STAX may be purchased alone or in addition to the CAT coverage.  Irrigated ad non-irrigated practices are offered.


The other coverage is SCO or Supplemental Coverage Option.  It too will not be available until the 2015 crop year and cannot be purchased of cotton covered by STAX.  My understanding is this can be purchased to cover the producer's deductible.  Indemnities are triggered on the county yield or revenue experience depending on coverage.  SCO deductible is 14%, premium subsidy is 65%, triggers are if yield/revenue falls below 86%, adjusted based on the value of the individual producer's indemnity.  SCO coverage extends down to the underlying coverage.


Other crop insurance changes by '15 include enhanced options by enterprise units.  It makes permanent a higher premium subsidy, allows the enterprise unit coverage by irrigated and non-irrigated practices, as well as different coverage depending on practices.  Adjustments in APH insurable yields are coming.  It appears they will use a 20 year history and any year in ten year grouping the producer has the option to drop.  4 years minimum for APH.


One important thing is that the crop insurance subsidy bill is not tied to the farm bill, and the increases in subsidies are permanent.  Sequestration  is not applicable to  premium subsidy or indemnity.


I visited yesterday some with Memama's crop insurance agent and told him we were going to be relying on him a lot.


Upland Cotton marketing loan rate will be set by formula using the average of AWP (Adjusted World Price) of the two most recent marketing year.  Loan rate for base quality not less than 45 cents or greater than 52 cents


Loan rates for other commodities remain at 2013 levels.


Covered commodities will be wheat, feed grains, rice by type, pulse crops, soybeans, other oilseeds, and peanuts.


Producers will have  choice between price or revenue based programs


Base acres will be for covered commodities while generic  acres would be the cotton acres.    '13 cotton base acres will automatically be converted to generic acres and producers can choose to retain 2013 base acres or reallocate the bases.  Base history using '09-'12 planting history and allocation is for covered commodities only.


For covered programs a producer must choose between PLC or ARC.  If ARC is chosen planted acres for that commodity are ineligible for SCO.


The PLC (Price Loss Coverage is triggered when price falls below reference price.


ARC (Agriculture Risk Coverage) is triggered when actual crop revenue falls below ARC guarantees.


My understanding is that even though a producer allocates acres (or can) to covered crops, he or she can flex generic acres into base acres and vice versa in a given year.  However payment acres cannot exceed total base acres on a farm.


New, more stringent rules apply to defining actively engaged in farming, unless it is an operation comprised solely of family members.


Conservation compliance is required for eligibility.


That is it in a nutshell.  There are formulas and such that I didn't include.


Lots to digest before decisions are made that will remain in place for the duration of the farm bill.


You know, this is all well and good, and we finally have a new farm bill, but bottom line is rain.  I wish we didn't have to talk about safety nets and triggers.


FATHER, we ask for YOUR rain blessing.  This earth of yours is mighty thirsty.

Over and out!

Today's blog is a personal note.  As most of you close to me have known, I had been dating a woman for over a year.  She was very personable, very smart, attractive, and an excellent cook.


We took jitterbug classes together, which gave us something in common to launch a personal relationship.  We would dance, we would go out to movies, we would go out and eat, go to church, and she would come to Roscoe and spend time.


As with most courtships, it wasn't without rough patches.  The primary and recurring rough patch for us was a life long friend who the woman I was dating wanted out of the picture.  I took this as a vote of no confidence in my ability to make correct choices.  This friend is someone I have known for 55 years.  She knows things about me that my dating friend will never know, just because she grew up in the same small community with me.


My dating friend made repeated accusations that my childhood friend was making waves for her.  My childhood friend, when I asked denied all accusations.


Eventually we found the best way for us to get along in a dating relationship was to avoid any of the places we had frequented in Abilene with my friends or her friends.


Just after the first of the year, the program my dating friend is the director of underwent a federal audit.  Even during the Christmas vacation, this federal audit kept rearing its head.  I could be talking to this lady and she would begin making notes to herself in her phone about some audit detail.  Then she couldn't tell me what I had said to her.


I told her that I had been through several state and federal audits and what I have found is that if you do business every day like you are supposed to, you have no problems.  When you have lapses, you spend a lot of time and energy trying to go back and fix stuff before auditors arrive.


It was during this time, I realized that I would always come in behind her job, and I took a step back.


As she saw it, I was not happy with her and was disciplining her by denying her affection.


Maybe I was.  But maybe I was realizing that any affection I had had, was mistaken and not true or possibly not as great as I once thought..


When my birthday came up in February, my lifelong friend had called saying she had planned on driving on and fixing birthday breakfast for me and Memama but she had a busy night with her work and she wouldn't be making it.


My farm hands and I had planned on grilling burgers for my birthday, and near lunch my friend called and said she was on her way.  She ate burgers with me and the guys and then she went to sleep at Memama's house.  (She works nights).  I returned to the barn and the hands and I finished our day.


Just before five my cell phone rang and it was the woman I was dating and she wanted to know where I was.  I told her and she said she was at Memama's.  I drove to the house and discovered she had brought birthday cake and gifts.  She and Memama were sitting in the living room.  She asked about my day and I told her about cooking burgers and that my lifelong friend had been over (I've never tried to hide my friendship).  She told me she knew.  I asked her how she would know and she said it didn't matter.  I said it did.  I have wondered if she had taken advantage of Memama's mental state and quizzed her about whether or not my friend had been over.


Then Pat and Hag walked in and Memama mistakenly gave credit for the cake to my lifelong friend, not my dating friend.  Pat was trying to hide because she was cracking up.  I corrected Memama, but Pat said for an instance the look on my dating friends face said it all.


My dating friend, Memama and I went to Ma Allen's buffet for my birthday dinner, and my dating friend was extremely quiet.  We returned to the house and ate cake and opened gifts before she returned to Abilene.  I asked her to text me when she got home so I wouldn't worry.  Well, I guess the drive gave her time to think things over and get mad.


For my birthday she had given me three gift certificates, all of them redeemable by her.  One was for a quilt made using Crown Royal bags, one was for a one night stay at the hotel of my choice in the metroplex, and one was for dinner and drinks at Casa Rita's,


This was all set to coincide with her going to Tyler to one of her granddaughters gymnastic meets.  She was going to ride down with her daughter and wanted me to drive to Dallas on Saturday and get her and spend the weekend.


I may not be the smartest guy, but I am not a glutton for punishment.  I told her there was no way in hell I was going to put myself in a position of being confined with a person as upset with me as she was for the weekend.  So I declined the invitation.


We had no communication for almost four weeks.  She was wanting a face to face.  I set it up as I was going to Abilene for supplies and I picked her up, saw a square for my quilt and we went out to eat.  I will say there was a lot more drinking went on than talking.  Nothing was settled, the only result of the face to face was a little buzz, a full stomach, and a healthy charge to my debit card.


Unbeknownst to me, a letter arrived March 7th.  Memama got the mail and somehow it ended up lost in the covers of her bed.  On March 16, Pat discovered them trapped between the quilt and the comforter.  She brought me the letter addressed to me and I opened it and read it.  It was very junior highish and contained $120.  She told me the money was for the hotel and dinner gift certificates.


I put the money in an envelope and wrote a letter telling her here is the money, IF we ever go to the metroplex we will talk bout the gift certificates and I told I was not saying we would go, I was not saying NEVER, but I was saying NOT RIGHT NOW.


Needless to say, the fight was on again.


It occurred to me that this was a woman who had been told no very few times in her life and on those few occasions I doubt she accepted it.


Her MO anytime we had a skirmish was to let some time pass and then sweep it under the rug and live to fight another day.  This time, I felt like she was going to bully and bluff her way to get what she wanted.


Didn't happen.  Now it ain't gonna happen now.  I have seen this woman at her absolutely best and I have seen her absolute worst here lately and the bad way outweighs the good.


Yesterday I received an e-mail sent to a group my date friend was in.  Usually they send them out to tell everyone where they are going dancing for the weekend.  When I received mine, I e-mailed the lady back and asked her to remove me from the group mailing list.  I told her that with the situation like it was between my dating friend and I, I didn't want her to think I was stalking her and if we did cross paths I wanted it to be purely coincidence.


Well, once again what I thought was the considerate thing to do rang the bell for another round.


I have been accused of using her, being misleading, scheming.  I could go back to the texts and tell you exactly but I won't.  I will tell you though that she did cut me to the quick.  She unfriended me on facebook!  Talk about Junior High.  That's like giving back someone's disc.


Oh FATHER, deliver me!

A good bye to gorgeous!

At different times in this blog I have referred to the little Red head.  On occasion I would refer to her as Brandy.  She was a miniature poodle, apricot in color, that came to live with us several years ago as a foster dog.  She never left.


When she came to live with us, the animal shelter had given her the name Jezebel.  Carol and I were both in agreement, that wasn't a proper name for her.


She was full of energy and cute as a button.  She didn't like men though.  The people at the shelter thought she might have been abused by a man at some point.


She was captured by animal control on Judge Ely Boulevard in East Abilene.  It wasn't a fair fight.  When she was apprehended she had her head in a McDonald's sack.  Speculation was rampant that she had either run away from a vehicle when they stopped in Abilene, or possibly her owner had died and she had either been released by the family or she escaped.


Either way, she was on her on.


She was extremely smart, already house broken, and she fit in quickly with the other hounds, although she was the runt.  Abilene ordinances called for a maximum of 3 dogs at a residence, well, at times we had five.


I could be sitting in my recliner with my shoes and socks off and she would run by, then back up just to nip at my toes until they bled.


It was a slow process for her to warm up to me, but eventually she did.  Finally she found her favorite spot was to sit beside me in my recliner or on the arm of it and rock.  In bed she loved to push against me until I would roll away slightly, then she would cuddle closely as I rolled slightly back toward her.  I guess it was a puppy "dog pile" kind of a thing.


She didn't travel well in a vehicle, so I kind of discounted the theory that she escaped while traveling through Abilene.  Eventually however, she became a great traveler.  In fact she got where some days she would cry to go with me and if she say a suitcase she would go into mourning.


Eventually she became the head hound of the house.  As the black dogs dies off and when Brandy migrated to me, Carol brought in Phooey, the miniature Spitz.  Eventually The Jack Russell, Pomeranian mix pup, Eville came and they were like the three musketeers.


Everything was always a contest, and position and posturing were everything.


I use to laugh at Kathryn when we talked about names that we should have considered for Brandy.  Kathryn was partial to Lucy (after Lucille Ball), other possibilities were Penney or Copper.


Brandy was a blessing.  She was gorgeous inside and out.  One of the most difficult things in the divorce was letting Carol keep all three dogs.  If I had been selfish I would have held out for Brandy, but then I knew how much the three dogs loved each other, and I walked away.


But every time I stopped by after the divorce, Brandy was the first to come to me wanting me to pick her up.  Somehow, someway, I think she understood.  On a selfish note I guess the divorce conditioned me to a certain extent, but now I have lost her twice.


Brandy died Friday from acute renal failure due to age.


So long you gorgeous little red head.  I love you!


FATHER, thank YOU for blessing my life with this precious dog.  I can only hope I was as big a blessing to her.  Take good care of her.

P A R T Y

Friday was Memama's official birthday, but earlier in the week I had made a few calls and texts to have her party Sunday.


It was kind of a surprise party, but not really a surprise.  I told her about it, but by Sunday I had to tell her again.


I had made a call to Stevie, then a call to Pat..  I talked to Joni and I talked to Rian.  We had two options for the meal, Ma Allen's or to get Rian and Jason to do brisket or burgers.  Most of the residents who live close had no preference but the ones that lived farther away expressed a preference for Ma Allen's.  So Pat volunteered to handle that.


I had talked to Joni about the cake.  I hadn't wanted to go to a whole lot of trouble so I told her just a sheet cake to serve 30-40, and I thought it would be funny to make it look like Memama's favorite place in the world, her bed.  In fact I even talked to Frances about helping ice it because Frances knows how Memama likes her bed made!  Everyone I talked to about the cake thought Memama would get a big kick out of it.  Kind of like if she ate cake in bed she would have her cake and eat it too!


Joni opted for a different direction so it was a good thing it was a freebie!  She let her nieces and nephew make and decorate the cake, and they REALLY like sprinkles!  Joni also made a chocolate cake with dipped strawberries, so they were special cakes anyway!


I have to tell this on Joni.  She texted me one day wanting to know what the dinner menu was going to be and I told her I had talked to Billy Allen and asked him to cook barbecue chicken.  I had her going for a while.


According to Jake, 32 were in attendance.  We had six drop out at the last moment (that's O.K., I've got their names for when we do Christmas list)  Out of all the families, none were 100% in attendance.  Out of Freddy's, only Devon was missing, out of mine, only myself and Rian were in attendance, out of Pat's Steph, JR and Kyle were absent, out of Stevie's Colb, Court, Kirb, Andi, and Chad were missing, and none of Terri's were able to make it.


Everyone ate enough chicken to grow feathers.


It was interesting to have Colby and Courtney's four girls here without their parents.  They were much more interactive and just visited with everyone.  Jersi is really coming out of her shell.  She is such a cutie!


I will say that Memama did not overdose on loving, but it was very close.


It was very evident that Memama's house still holds the same magic it has had for 55 years, all of the kiddos play and played an most of them weren't ready to leave.  It is interesting to see all the little girls, Avery, Gracie, Chloe, Dakota, Kennady, Jalen and Jersi, then the two little boys in attendance Brody and Carson. (Rian's boys and Noble would have almost evened it up).  Of course I am not including Devon, Dillon or Addison because they are considerably older than this second group, and they didn't slide down the cellar door.


I thought it was interesting when Chloe explained that these were her cousins, they were her friends.  I asked how you determine cousins and she told me cousins are people you get to play with a lot, friends are people you get to play with sometimes.


By the end of the day, they were all cousins!  They had a fun day.


I doubt the last car was out of the driveway before Memama was in her bed resting her back.


It was kind of funny, on Saturday night Memama asked me where the roasts were.  I told her they were in the wash house refrigerator.  On Sunday morning she asked me if I had them on and I told her I was cooking them in the refrigerator in the wash house.  She began to go out to get them and I told her no, that we were having Ma Allen's and all the trimmings.  Then in a bit she began washing potatoes.  I told her Pat was bringing cream potatoes.  All right she said.  Then a short while later I looked and she was peeling taters.  I reminded her once again we were doing Ma Allen's and Pat was bringing mashed potatoes.  Finally I told her "Why don't you get dressed and brush your hair in case we have company".  I knew she didn't want to get caught in her gown and robe.


Anyhow, she had a good day!


FATHER, thank YOU for Memama, and I pray YOU bless her with many more happy birthdays!

A different generation.

Growing up, I can remember lots of contention among businesses, schools and sometimes individuals.


My first baseball league was called Ginners and Bankers.  There were two teams in the league.  You got it.  The Ginners who were sponsored by the gins in Roscoe (I believe there were four inside the Roscoe city limits) and the Bankers, sponsored by the local Bank.  Loving the farm the way I did there was no way I wanted to wear the white uniforms of the Bankers and thankfully I was given the gray uniform of the Ginners.


It is comical now, thinking back.


There were two cooperative gin associations in Roscoe, Farmers Coop and Acme Coop.  They too were arch enemies.  I have never found anyone who could tell me "why" they had such ill will for each other, but I was assured numerous times that it was something big.


As time passed and a new generation of farmers (my generation) the animosity was less and less.  In 1980 Farmers and Acme merged and built the new Roscoe Coop gin, and a few years ago Roscoe Coop and Inadale Coop merged to form Central Rolling Plains.


It only made sense.  Too much duplication of services.


I can remember when I was in school, there was quite a rivalry in basketball between Highland and Roscoe.  Particularly in the girls programs.


Now I am not going to say there is not a rivalry there today, but after the game is over, things return to normal.


I know I personally, and I think Roscoe as a whole, takes great joy in the success that Highland has enjoyed the last couple of years in girls basketball.  It was quite heartbreaking to see Highland lose in the State semi-finals the past two years.


I think several years ago, when the Roscoe boys won the state title in basketball the Highland community delighted in that achievement.


Congratulations Highland Hornet girls basketball on a great season!


Yesterday was my Sunday to cook Sunday lunch.  My roommate wanted to help me.  By the time she got up I had the roasts in the oven and I was putting other pieces together.  Peeling potatoes, slicing squash, cutting up german sausage, peeling carrots, cutting broccoli, making fruit salad, getting corn and green beans on the stove, and finally biscuits and sweet tea.


It was all on the table by 12:45.


My roommate, in helping me, decided to cook breakfast in the middle of all the Sunday lunch hustle and bustle.  She did assist in peeling carrots and cutting up broccoli and I did entrust her to mix in the ranch dressing.  Yesterday was not one of her better days.  She could turn around and forget what she was doing, would be in the middle of something of something and walk off and you didn't know if she was through or just got sidetracked.


But we got it done.  Twelve were here I believe.


I sure don't mind cooking as much as I mind cleaning up.  Thanks to Joni, Christy and Lindsay for cleaning up my mess.  And I am a messy cook!


Brody showed me a newspaper clipping her carries in his jacked pocket.  Zipped pocket, to be exact.  It is a perfectly folded newspaper add for the "Monster Truck games" Friday and Saturday in Snyder.  After showing me the paper he neatly re-folded it and put it back up.  He is stoked about going!


I would say that we may have to change his name to Biscuit.  The boy ate three and a half biscuits yesterday and would have had more if his Momma would have let him.


I did get tickled at Jalen and Dakota.  When they were told to get their shoes and jackets on they weren't ready to go.  So I guess "Memama's" still got that magic!


I watched NASCAR yesterday afternoon, then a movie, then the Voice, then the Academy Awards.


I finished off my day reading for a while before studying my eye lids.


I heard that it was 11 degrees here this morning.  I know I had enjoyed the break from the cold and ice, but 50 degrees difference between highs Saturday and Sunday was just to big a shocker.


The guys aren't working today, and that is all right with me.


I may go look at wood stain later today.  I think we are about ready to start assembling my shelves for my room.  Then we will be sanding and staining before finally bringing them here to install.  As soon as this is done I hope to get lots of my oodies up and off the floor so I can re-arrange and bring my desk in and get my paperwork orderly.


Well, stay close to the fire.


FATHER, I pray for relief from the cold, and I ask for YOUR rain blessing.  Lead me on.