Activities varied this week on the farm from hauling grain to cleaning the mower to heading back to school. See what keeps us farmers busy in winter!
Trucker Hat
Fueling up in order to haul some more corn this week!
Before corn could move I had to dig snow out of the back side of the grain leg. Trust me you don’t want to plug this thing.
Starting up another truckload of corn!
Long Term Snow Cover
Freezing and thawing makes for a dirty truck. It’s been a few years since we’ve had snow hang around for weeks!
A few stray popcorn plants are still hanging around this winter.
Back to School
I was back on campus at Purdue (Soil and Crop Management class of 2003!) for a day this week. I was invited to come speak to a group of people who manage different social media accounts for the school. I talked about what I do online and why, and then took questions from the audience. It was fun, and it’s always nice to be back at Purdue. Campus is less than an hour from home.
I was also asked to come look at some stuff in the horticulture building. While walking through the greenhouses I was lucky enough to see and smell corn pollination! I won’t get to experience that smell again until July!
You Say Tomato….
The reason I was invited to the Hort building was to see some work being done on tomatoes by grad student Michael Dzakovich of the Mitchell Lab. Check out the lab’s LED Tomato page on facbook! The day I visited this greenhouse was being prepped to begin growing some tomatoes with LED lighting. Michael is doing some work to bring better texture and flavor to the greenhouse tomato industry.
Michael was kind enough to send me these photos from a previous tomato crop. Different colors of light can have effects on the growth of plants, and LED lighting also uses a great deal less energy than standard light bulbs.
LED tomatoes at night! Cool!
Oh, Deere
The mower was never washed after the grass quit growing. Now it’s washed, waxed, and has sharpened blades. Ready for spring!
Watch out, 730! 8360R is right behind you! Credit for the great filter on this photo goes to Chris at Small Nebraska Farming.
More to come next week! Probably more grain selling and hauling along with a few other tasks. And just a reminder for you readers to keep up with me on facebook, twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest! See you next week!
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Hi Brian, is your Blog hosted on wordpress.com? I want to reblog it on our german site http://agarblogger.de but I can not find a reblog button.
I’m self hosted now, but run WP on the site. Might be why there isn’t a reblog button. Shoot me an email at thefarmerslife@gmail.com
By the way, nice article and amazing pictures!