New addition, Silent Sunday. Rules are post a photo that recaps the previous week, without saying a word. I’m never for a loss for words so this will be challenging. Here goes, and I’ve already broken the rule.
First Silent Sunday: Is it Possible?
Small Town Living
And the Waving Wheat, Can Sure Smell Sweet
When the wind comes whipping down the plain, Neeeebraska. yup, not Oklahoma., but western Nebraska near Palisade.
Some people consider us a fly over state without much scenery, but I would argue there is something amazing at every turn, if you just know what to look for and why it’s important.
For example after stopping at this field you can hear a rustling sound as wind blows through the dry wheat. There is an illusion of waves moving across the prairie in an endless roll, never hitting the shore.
The wheat may look soft, but the heads and beards are actually quite coarse. Pick off a spike and break off one of the 30-50 kernals, rub it between your fingers and inside is a single grain of wheat. Put it in your mouth to taste the nutty taste. Look out across the horizon at the old abandoned homestead and the clouds rolling by, sigh. It’s peaceful, yet not quiet as the wave roll in the background. It’s soothing.
From this field of over 640 acres comes bushels of wheat which will be made into bread that you will pick up in your supermarket for just one dollar. The farmer was paid less than 0.05 for that loaf.
Other Ag Facts About wheat
America’s Bread Basket
- Each American consumers, on average, 53 pounds of bread per year.
- Assuming a sandwich was eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it would take 168 days to eat the amount of bread produced from one bushel of wheat.
- A family of four could live for 10 years off the bread produced by one acre of wheat.
- One bushel of wheat will produce 73 one-pound loaves of bread.
- In 1997, Kansas‘s wheat farmers produced enough wheat to make 36.5 billion loaves of bread, or enough to provide each person on earth with 6 loaves of bread.
- Farmers receive approximately 5 cents (or less) from each loaf of bread sold.
Want to follow a wheat harvesting family? Head over to Nebraska Wheatie
Related articles
- June Wheat (smalltownnebraska.wordpress.com)
- Bring on the Heat! (nebraskawheatie.com)
- Early wheat harvest is on the way in Oklahoma (newsok.com)
Corn, Knee High by the 4th of July
The old saying “corn knee high” by the 4th of July has been a moniker of farmers for a long time. However, if the corn is ONLY knee high by that time the farmers are in trouble and won’t get much of a harvest.
This corn field just east of Murdock, Nebraska is about chest high on me, almost five feet tall. Granted it has been a very early season in the Midwest, we are about 3 weeks ahead of schedule.
Western Nebraska is not so lucky. Quite a bit of the state is still in drought conditions and if the crops aren’t under a center pivot it is withering and dying. Some isn’t even a foot tall and the leaves are curling and drying up.
The view of the Farmers Co-op might look familiar as it is the same location as my Skyscrapers post a last year.
#18/52: Cows in the Sunset
The grass is belly high, the cow have calves by their side and the sun is setting on the horizon. How I love the Midwest! Angus and “black baldy” cows are the norm around this part of the country and after “talking” to them a little I got their attention.
Editing notes: Used Lightroom 4 to increase the exposure and increase clarity in the grass and the brush to decrease the exposure in the sky. The last thing I did was use the masking brush and open up the the highlights in the cows, their black coloring was hard to separate individuals.
Information about Raising Cattle
A Field Guide to Cows: How to Identify and Appreciate America’s 52
Cattle: A Handbook to the Breeds of the WorldRaising Beef Cattle For DummiesKnow Your CowsThe Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals: Choose the Best BreedsSmall Cattle for Small Farms (Landlinks Press)
- The Female of the Species (cowconversations.wordpress.com)
- Hello, Cows (thepioneerwoman.com)
- An Apple A Day… (cowconversations.wordpress.com)
- Fun Beef-y Facts (fromheelstoboots.wordpress.com)
Choir is Cool
Music in our schools is not dead, in fact it’s cool to be in choir at Elmwood-Murdock high school in Nebraska. The choir consists of 50% of the high schools enrollment and they are a source of pride for the school and community. Yes, this is a small school, but normally only those students who have good voices join the choir, which is normall a small percentage of a population.
However, a good choir director can find the inner voice in a willing student and bring out beautiful music. Below is the result in a piece performed at the 2012 Nebraska District Music contest. Enjoy “The Awakening” by Joseph M. Martin
Music contests are somewhat formal and below is the same song sung at the school concert. I like the below version better as the students are more emotional. Both versions give me chills, but I love the expression on the faces at the end in response to Mrs. Colbert getting emotional and tearing up.
Related articles
- Choir Classroom! (haleykimmusic.wordpress.com)
- Paint the Town Red 2012 (msjaxccc.wordpress.com)
