Believing in Tomorrow

It has been said that planting a seed is believing in tomorrow. Truly, it's an act of faith. It never ceases to amaze us how a little tiny corn seed can turn into a beautiful plant, producing an ear of corn.  It's a miracle that we witness every year here on the farm.

Mother Nature knows what to do, however, our planting practices...including seed spacing, seed depth, and seed varieties...play a big part in the plant development and ultimately in each ear of delicious sweet corn. Of course, some factors are out of our control, like the weather and soil temperature. Weather conditions play a critical role in the development, health, and yield of our crops. A late frost, or a sudden hailstorm, could do lots of damage to the corn.  However, with lots of farming experience and countless hours of study and research, the boys have a pretty good understanding of how to baby all those seeds along.  We believe that being progressive is important; every year we to improve quality and yield.

This year's beginning corn crop has been in the ground for a couple of months now.  Each Sunday evening, we take a picture from the same location, hoping to better document the progress.  We're hoping to have sweet corn everyone to enjoy for the 24th of July holiday!

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Plant Progress

Here are a couple of photos documenting the progress of a few of the plants we started on the drip irrigation system. 

Barn Progress

The guys are working on the inside of the barn whenever they get a little bit of extra time. Right now, they are getting all of the wood up.  Their next step will be the giant sliding doors.  Little by little, it's coming along.

Don't you love the imagination of children? This little farmer is working hard, right along side the big boys. Our children need time to explore, to pretend, and to imagine. They need to serve, to contribute, and to feel important. Learning the value of a good day's work is one of the important values we hope our family comes to understand and embrace as they spend time on the farm.

Drip Irrigation

While we've used drip irrigation in our yard and garden for years, this is the first year the guys have decided to use it on a large scale. (Check out the huge pump and filter system!)  Water is pumped from the ditch and carefully filtered before it's pushed through the drip system. The drip tubing is laid down prior to the plastic mulch.  Once the mulch is down, and the plants are in, the main line is laid and the tubing is connected.

Plantin' Maters

Today was "test" day! It's taken a winter of studying and countless hours putting new machinery together; so having things work perfectly when the crew planted tomatoes today was wonderful!  Once things were set up, it hardly took any time at all to get things planted! Pretty slick!

(And...for the record...Grandpa's little helper really was loving the ride...she just doesn't look like it!)

Cutest Lil Punkins Ever!

We know that everyone thinks their grandchildren are the cutest...but seriously!  Could there be anything cuter than this?  Great Aunt Julie took a few preview pictures for the upcoming Fall Festival and needed some little models!  What do you think?