Input Costs

This is for all the "ethanol haters" and people who think that us farmers are just cutting the fat hog. On Wednesday, Jason order a tanker load of diesel. This is red (actually it looks more pink to me) fuel and it is not legal on the roads. It has always been cheaper than gas. Well...... the price on Wednesday was $4.22 a gallon, by today, when we actually got the load, it was $4.32 a gallon! It went up .10 cents in 1 full day!!! My bill was $17K! What in the world is going on?!? And Jason and I are small farmers compared to a lot of people, so you can only imagine their fuel bill. Fuel is always one of our lower costs as well, but, you know, these farmers are just getting so rich with these high corn prices. Did I mention that Jason and I aren't even growing corn.

This is a shout out for all of you Aggies. In the Farm Futures magazine there was a report on study done by Texas A & M. The study found the high oil prices, not ethanol, is the driving force behind higher food prices. The TAMU study dispels the food-vs.-fuel debate. I knew that I liked A&M!

I don't know how people farm who are not Christians. There is not a day that goes by that I don't find my self "on my knees" casting my anxieties upon God. Besides our input costs going through the roof and praying that we will be able to pay the bank back, the weather has been strange. The last 3 days we have had wind up to 50 mph, which is very hard on little chile that is trying to grow. We are behind anyway due to the cold weather this spring, and we have already lost some of our crop to the wind. Last night it started to hail, not a lot, but it made it hard to sleep. I'm not sure at this point how the chile survived, I'm afraid to ask!

A few days ago, when I went on that field trip, it was about 96 degrees. Today we have reached a high of 64 degrees, the wind is blowing, and it has been sprinkling on and off all day. We did get about 1/2 inch of rain, which wasn't a bad thing because, luckily, Jason decided not to cut our hay until Monday. Sometimes the only thing that brings me comfort is knowing that God knows our needs, and He is going to take care of us. It may not be how we have planned, but He is still in control.

On a little happier note, I did discover a very cool cleaning tool today! I used Pledge with lemon on my shower door, and it removed the soap scum like you would not believe! So since it worked so well on the door, I used it on the whole shower. It removed all the soap scum that I have tried to remove with a number of different cleaners. Also, it's kind of like giving your shower a "spot free rinse" like at the car wash. My hope is that it will help keep my shower cleaner, longer! You should try it!

For Janette, this verse is simple but I like it.
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me."
John 14:1

My First Field Trip

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a fourth grade field trip! My friend, Jayne, invited me to go along with the class to the Cochise Stronghold. Her, Janette, and I have "run" the particular trail that they wanted to hike, so Jayne thought that I would be a good addition to the adults. However, I did not realize that I was going to be leading this expedition!



Yesterday just happened to be the hottest day of the year, 96 degrees. So we head out about 10 am, I think, and we get started along. I guess in my naivety I thought that fourth graders could handle a 2 mile hike up to the Half Moon Dank and back. Well...... not even a 1/2 mile into our hike, I started noticing how red most of the kids faces were. We did stop and rest for a few minutes here and there, but by the time that we made it to the 1 mile mark I was a little concerned. Two boys that were close to me we really red in the face, and when I asked them if they had water, of course they said no. So I ended up sacrificing my water so that we would actually make it back with some of the kids still alive.



We rested about 10 minutes, asked the teacher if we should turn back or go on, and then we preceded up the trail. I don't think we had hiked 5 minutes, when I realized that half of the group had turned around. So are now small group continued on. It was HOT and by the time we got to the the Half Moon Dank, there was not much water between all of us. I hadn't had any. We rested 20 minutes and headed back down, which is so much easier and faster. I felt fairly confident that we would all make it back down since everyone had survived the trip up. Wrong.



Two or three kids fell as we were heading down. Nothing major, just a few scrapes, and then about 3/4 mile back down we stopped to rest and poor little Katie was so hot and thirsty, and out of water. I was carrying a water bottle for another little girl so I let Katie have a drink of hers. Boy, did I get some dirty looks!! But I just looked pleasantly at her, thinking that she had met her match! Katie drank a little, then the little girl, THEN she passed it to the boy behind her who said that he was thirsty. HA, who won that one?!? We finally made it to the 1/2 mile maker and waited for some of our group to catch up. When the teacher finally came she asked if I could run (and I do mean run) back down to camp and get the father of the boy who was about to pass out!



So I took off, soon realizing that I myself may pass out because I had become very, very thirsty! I prayed the whole way down that God would give me the strength to make it back. (Again, the hottest day of the year!) I ran most of it, but the last part of the trail is mostly sand so it was difficult. However, I made it back to camp, grabbed some bottles of water, and we headed back up. The boy didn't pass out, and they were walking back down by the time we got to them.



But poor Katie, she had gotten over heated and was sick to her stomach. I felt so bad! I guess only having 2 kids get sick isn't too bad. I guess that I'm not a very good guide. I wonder if they'll invite me back next year?

It's A Goldilock's World!

I was reading one of Jason's Farm Future magazines and I came across an article by Steve Ford titled "More mouths to feed". If you are at all interested you can go to www.FarmFutures.com to read the whole article, which I would recommend.

But I want to quote some of what he said, becuase it is exactly our feelings as well.
"I still can't get over how critical our society is of farmers. When we aren't being accused of harming the environment, we are targets of those who think we make too much money and consequently need no farm programs. There are others who think we do economic harm to the world's poor. A few years ago our critics argued that government programs were causing us to overproduce, depressing world food prices and hurting small farmers in the developing world. Now our critics say that biofuel subsidies result in world food prices that are too high, hurting urban poor in the world."

He goes on and asks the questions, do we have a moral responsibility to feed the world cheaply? Does that responsibility outweigh the need for a renewable and domestic alternative source of fuel? The food vs. fuel concern is very real. However, US corn production has expanded much more quickly than the ethanol use for corn, BUT (this is for everyone who blames ethanol for high food prices) prices have remained high DUE TO INCREASED FOREIGN DEMAND for US grain, meat and dairy exports!! It gets so old to hear people complaining about ethanol and our food prices, how about our demand on exports and the price for crude oil?

There is "talk" about the government stepping in and cutting corn prices, which is all fine if the cut crude oil prices as well (which they won't). The input prices to grow any crop are unbelievable and cutting corn prices won't change the cost of food for the better, but will cause food prices to go up because farmers will not be able to produce corn and survive! My uncle put it best the other day when he said that one day the rational people of this country are going to have to take over! Unfortunately, I don't see that happening anytime soon.

In the words of Mr. Ford, "It is as if farmers are the three bears and we live in a Goldilock's world, but one where there is no porridge that is just right."

Road Trip

Last Wednesday my mom and I left AZ and headed to Sanger, TX. It was 1pm before we actually left Cochise, so we decided that we would try and stay in Big Spring, which is about 8 1/2 hrs from our house. When we made it to Big Spring, there were no rooms. So we continued on to Sweetwater, and luckily found a room on our second try. (Just a little plug for the hotel we stayed at. The Best Western was very clean, and the people were very nice! So if you ever need a room in Sweetwater, that's where I recommend!) By the time that we got to bed it was 2:30am. At 5:30am I got up and by 8am we were on the road again. This a picture of my mom texting my dad. I just think it is so cute that they text each other!


We made it to Sanger, exchanged pickups, and then mom and I hit the antique stores. We ended up spending several hours "antiquing", and eating lunch in the Tea Room of antique store in this picture. We do not have antique stores like this in AZ, so we had a blast! And I found an old wagon wheel that I am going to make a table with. Very excited about that! We also passed by the Texas Motor Speedway, so mom had to get some pictures of that for my dad.















We passed this rig 3 different times, but just wanted to show everyone how "wisely" our politicians spend money! This is a Mercedes-Benz.







We had a really great trip, and I enjoyed showing my mom Texas. She just couldn't get over how green everything was. And I was sad that we didn't have time to stop in and say "hello" to everyone, but it was one of those, get there & get back, trips.

2 Vets, 1 Day!

OK .....here goes my first post! Thank You, Allison, for the beautiful design. And thank you, Jennifer, for the encouragement!

Today has been a rather lively day, and it all started yesterday. Yesterday my mom, sister, and I went to Phoenix to attend my cousin's graduation from Grand Canyon University. We left Tucson at 9am and returned to Tucson 9pm. I was so tired that I decided just to stay at my parents' place for the night instead of coming home.

So this morning, my mom, sister, and I went to a local nursery to pick up some flowers. And with over an acre of flowers to choose from, it takes some time. By the time that I arrived home it was 12:55pm, and I had to have our dog, Cash, to the vet by 1:30pm. He had a run-in with one of our local javalenas a couple of weeks ago, and he needed to have the 8 staples above his eye removed. I think that we arrived around 1:40pm, which I thought was pretty good, and we were back home by 2:10pm.

(This is Cash when I brought him home from the vet. He has a mangled ear, and, lucky for him, he still has his eye. The vet said today that his scares shouldn't interfere with his social life!)

From home, Jason and I left and headed down the road to go and check on our friends' horse that had hurt his hind leg. They are gone to CA right now, and asked if we would be "on call" basically while they are gone, which we are more than happy to do. I received a call today; they left yesterday. After we had washed and examined the wound, we couldn't decide whether or not it was a snake bite or if he had just hit it really hard on something. The swelling was pretty bad, and he was having some trouble walking. So now the tough decision, do you call the vet or not? After talking with Dan & Kristel several times, we decided to go ahead and take the horse to vet. We hooked up to their trailer and then after a few tries we had the horse loaded. (He is only a yearling & I think he has been in a trailer twice). Long story short, it was a bad bump. He now is resting at our house so that I can give him his antibiotics and clean his wound everyday.

Now, I'm going to bed!

The little colt not only had a hard time getting in, but getting out proved to be challenge also!