It appears something happened with the video that I had copied to my previous post. It was THE reason I wrote that post. So, here it is and it’s worth your time watching!
Tag Archives: farmers
Spring? or Summer?
It’s 2 degrees short of being HOT today in Eastern NE. The past three days the temp has reached at or near 90 degrees. Although I am loving this heat, the flowers that I have waited for a year to return are not. When it’s spring, the flowers like the cool weather so much better. With the past three days of heat and wind, the flowers are suffering. The crabapple trees, cherry tree, apple tree and the redbuds are nearly done gracing us with their beauty. There’s been previous years where the flowers last quite some time before drying up and blowing away.
A few of my most favorite flowers are beginning to “pop” – the iris. The miniature guys are first to show their beauty and the intermediate are beginning to sprout their bloom stocks.
Wheat Harvest Preps
Well, as I’ve mentioned in prior posts, our family seems to view the year by events rather than days on the calendar. The harvest convention is nearly a month ago and Easter is right around the corner. The weather has been stupendous and our little piece of the world is beginning to take on colors – green trees and grass…yellow/red/pink and purple flowers are in the mix throughout the yard. My very FAVORITE season!! I love driving through the countryside and watching the baby calves run, jump and play with each other. The winter world is waking up in full force this year – about a month early.
The past couple of days I’ve heard a noise that I haven’t heard since last fall…lawn mowers. Jim’s mowing our yard as we “speak”. USUALLY, we don’t even think about mowing until Jenna’s birthday (April 23). The last sign of spring that I am oh so anxiously awaiting is the distinct sound of the house wren. When I hear her shrill song (which sounds more like scolding than singing) I know spring has arrived!
Along with this kind of weather comes the beginnings of the wheat harvest preparations. Jim is done working his “real” job and is now spending time thinking about what needs to be done to the trucks and combine in preparation of the 2012 harvest season. Trucks will start showing up in the yard and it will become a “mini” farm/equipment dealership. We don’t farm and we don’t own a shed of our own so it’s a lot easier for Jim if his equipment is right outside the backdoor. Unfortunately, when it rains, there’s not much he can do and the day is spent doing other things. How I wish we would have just bought some land and built a shed 20 years ago. Life happens too fast!
Our “summer cottage on wheels” has been purchased and is in the process of being built. It should be coming off the line around April 10… hopefully. Somehow, I have a feeling we’ll still be biting our nails wondering when it’s going to be in the driveway so we can get it packed. Am I anxious? YES! Harvest is always something our family looks forward to each year. We’re ready to go – but for now, the daily preparations and the beginnings of pre-harvest stress are about to begin. Stay tuned…
What in the world I’ve been up to
It’s been quite some time since I posted. Been a LITTLE BIT busy! The US Custom Harvesters convention was last week (March 1, 2, & 3) and turned out to be an exceptional event! Hmmm….was I really there or was it just a dream? What an OUTSTANDING bunch of people involved in making everything happen – from the volunteers, to members of the Board of Directors, to the vendors, to all the members of the association! If you were there, you know what I’m talking about – if you weren’t…there’s always next year! Go to the website www.uschi.com to view the pictures and some video (actually, I don’t know if the 2012 pictures have been uploaded yet). There are pictures on the USCHI Facebook page.
I got really excited when I walked outside just a couple of minutes ago and wanted to share that excitement with you. Spring is here!!!!
See what I found:
I’ve always said, “The best part of winter is spring”! It’s all uphill from here (don’t forget to set your clocks and watches and “spring” ahead tonight) There’s a daffodil that is nearly ready to bloom, too. This just makes me smile!
Now, on to something a little more serious. Jim and I don’t have to hire employees so what I’m about to talk about next doesn’t apply to us. The country has a Temporary Guest Worker program – H-2A, H-2B and J-1 – which is in dire need of a fix! Last month, I went to DC along with other members of U.S. Custom Harvesters to attend the National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE) annual meeting. Sometimes, the best way to learn about something or how something works is to jump into it head first. When you do this, expect to learn way more than you really want to.
Agriculture and the custom harvesting industry are being regulated more and more all the time. This scares me. Why? Because the government and the government agencies are going to regulate us all right out of a job. When this happens, where will your food come from? How will you know how your food is planted, grown and harvested? Frank Gasperini, Executive Vice President of NCAE says this:
“Our food WILL be grown, harvested, processed and prepared by immigrant’s hands – the important question for the future of America is whether we will find ways for this to be done LEGALLY in America or whether we will allow our food to be supplied from foreign countries? It is distressing that a federal program designed to assure American farmers sufficient and timely labor to plant, tend, and harvest seasonal and perishable crops; many of which feed the American people each day, has become so complicated, confusing, and unpredictable that farmers and even professional H-2A agents are routinely forced to hire lawyers to help them get through the process successfully. This is not what Congress intended when the program was instituted.”
Could this really happen, you ask? Yes, it could! H-2A, H-2B and J-1 visas allow foreign employees to come to America and fill the seasonal jobs that most people in this country either don’t want to fill or can’t. Employers submit applications and pay high fees to bring these foreign employees to do the jobs that can’t be filled. The government is working overtime at denying applications and making it nearly impossible to allow these workers to come to this Country. They reason that because of the high unemployment rate agriculture should be able to find suitable labor. Great idea – but it’s not working so well. “State work force agencies referred 36,000 domestic workers to H-2A employers. Only 5% worked through the contract period. Of the 20% of domestic workers who began work but did not work through the entire contract period, 59% quit, 15% were terminated for cause, 7% failed to produce acceptable work authorization documents and 16% left for misc. reasons. Only 3% left because there was no more work to be performed”. (This was taken directly from NCAE’s 2010 survey of H-2A employers)
No workers means food is left rotting in fields and on trees and custom harvesters are unable to find enough qualified employees to run their equipment.
Don’t get me wrong – I am NOT a believer of illegal workers or amnesty!!! As a matter of fact, that just “torks” me! Being here illegally is a crime and as far as I’m concerned everyone who crosses the border illegally needs to be caught and sent back. This country needs a Temporary Guest Worker program that works and will allow all guest workers to work in America legally. “Without dependable, predictable, and willing agricultural labor, there will be little domestic food production; leaving our nation’s food supply in the hands of a merciless global marketplace. Sound agricultural labor policy benefits growers, workers and the American public”. (NCAE)
Tomorrow afternoon, I will be packing my bag again and heading back to DC with two other members of the US Custom Harvesters’ Board of Directors. Our purpose for going this time will be to TRY to make our Legislative members on “the hill” understand how the deterioration of the H-2A program is affecting the custom harvesting industry. The USCHI motto currently is “We Harvest the Crops that Feed the World”. We’re hoping that it remains that way and won’t have to be changed to, “We Used to Harvest the Crops that Fed a Now Starving World”. Wish us luck!
Boredom produces old harvest picture gallery
Grandpa & Grandma Hancock (not sure of the date)
I finished getting my numbers together for the tax man. It was too early to go to bed, I didn’t want to clean my house (yet), and it was too early to pack for the US Custom Harvesters convention. So…now what? Hmmm, let’s go through this “old memory” drawer. The “old memory” drawer holds little keepsakes my Grandma gave me before she passed away. I found some loose old pictures and decided it would be fun to go through them. These were pictures she had saved in a wooden cigar box. When I started looking, it made the ‘ole tears start. The first few I saw were of Grandma as a young woman. She did so many things and went so many places! I am in awe of all she did. She was definitely not scared to go on her own. She was 19 in the following pictures. She took a train by herself to California to stay with her Uncle in San Diego. While there, she visited Tijuana, Old Mexico. This was in 1938
Now I know where my love for fishing came from.
Then I started seeing old harvest pictures and decided I needed to share.
It was in this combine and in the corn field that I remember standing in the cab with Grandpa and “helping”. I was little enough I would take a nap on the ledge behind the seat.
Notice who’s “helping” on the header? Yep, that’s me. 🙂
And this very skinny young man is the guy I later married.
Me and Grandma posing for a newspaper article while in Lodgepole, NE. She looks a whole lot more excited about doing it than I do!
In 1989, Jamie, Jenna and I visited the harvesters in Lodgepole, NE. Jamie would have been 3 and Jenna 16 mos.
Our first year on the road as Zeorian Harvesting & Trucking. 1990 – Lodgepole, NE
Jenna helping her Daddy.
Another yearly event is about to come and go. The US Custom Harvesters convention is next week. As I’ve said before, our family counts down events ’til harvest rather than months and days. So, we’re nearly through them all. After we’ve celebrated Jenna’s birthday, the next thing to do will be pack the trailer to get ready to head south. When the convention is here, harvest is right around the corner! Are you ready to follow the adventure?
A Random Re-post
I’m in dire need of something that reminds me of summer. Eastern Nebraska has had a WONDERFUL winter as far as severity. Maybe a little too nice. We’re in need of some moisture and it sounds like it may be on the way starting Friday. For now, though, I’m really missing summer and the harvest. I started this blog late in the 2011 harvest season so I don’t have a lot to choose from. I know I have fun reliving the crazy days of harvest: Click here to read Finished with Winter Wheat in Jordan
P.S.
P.S. There were no noisemakers coming from this house last night. I think the day has come before I was ready! However, the new year still made its way into our world. Happy January 1, 2012!
Now, for a little interesting information to pass along. I have been posting since August. Yesterday, WordPress sent a note to inform me of the top rated blogs since that very first one. I thought maybe this would be of interest to you – my dear, loyal readers:
#5. “And I wonder why it takes me so long to get back in the groove!” – September 2011
#4. “The visible results of the 2011 Missouri River Flood” – November 2011
#3.” When can I breathe?” – October 2011
#2. “My first posting on my brand new blog” – August 2011
And the #1 read posting goes to:
“On the road…again“- August 2011
So…if you’re really bored today, check them out and see why so many read these particular posts. Have fun! 🙂
I. Am. Tired!
So, in my last posting I told you I would be heading to Hutchinson, KS and then to Washington, DC. For anyone who thinks the last few days have been a vacation…I’d like to say YOU ARE SO WRONG (yes, I AM yelling)! The meeting in KS went well and it was great seeing the rest of the team (USCHI Board of Directors). It’s always good to get together with people from our industry when it’s not in a working atmosphere. Building relationships is the best thing a person could do for themselves – my thought any way. From KS, we flew to DC. We’ve had two FULL days of constant walking and talking on “the hill”.
To be honest with you, I was definitely not looking forward to this trip. I had fallen into the negative trap of “this isn’t going anywhere”, “they say they listen but they really don’t”, “you’re not making a difference”, etc. etc. However, we started yesterday morning and things just started falling into place. It went from one good thing to the next. Each one of those “good things” fell into place just as they were meant to. Contacts have been made and when it appeared that it would be hard, it got easy again. Today, we learned more and even got to visit with two members of Congress – Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and Ohio Congressman Bob Gibbs. I shook hands with Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson last night. He happened to be in the same restaurant as we were in. It’s a BIG deal when you actually get to shake the hand of one of our elected officials and give them the opportunity to have a conversation with real people. It’s fun to see them and their staffers actually loosen up and they themselves turn into real people. I can only hope the time I and the others have sacrificed will make a difference for our organization and for agriculture. It definitely has not been a vacation. One of these days, I’m coming to DC to see some of the wonderful historic sites and will be staying away from the “hill”!
Looks like a few tax dollars are being spent on some repairs.
The Christmas tree in front of the Capitol.
Heading for our first appointment-ready to change the world 🙂
Inside the Cannon Building.
Railing inside one of the House buildings.
I feel so left out with my “dumb” phone!
Inside the Senate Hart Building.
Waiting…waiting…waiting
Senate offices in the Hart building.
We were able to poke our head in the Library of Congress on our way back to the hotel when our day was over. Beautiful!
Kansas ornament on the Christmas Tree in the Library of Congress. I couldn’t find Nebraska’s.
The visible results of the 2011 Missouri River flood
The water has receded and the interstate is open for traffic again for the first time since the first week of June. Who would have ever thought the Mighty MO could wreak such havoc in this part of the country for nearly five months! I started hearing about the flood warnings before we left for harvest last spring. The anticipated flooding was supposed to continue for a couple of months. A couple of months?
On Friday, Plan A for the day went to Plan B when we found out our friends from the Sioux Falls area wouldn’t be making the trek south. We sat around most of the day staring at each other. Taylor and Callie had the day off of school due to teacher in service and we were bored. It was a beautiful day so I suggested we take a drive to Nebraska City and hop on the interstate just to see what we could see. What we saw was devastation in a huge way! Where fields used to be, there was now sand, mud, logs and debris. It was like nothing I have ever seen. The homes are still vacant and there are visible signs of the high water level everywhere. The countryside was NOTHING like I remembered.
We drove north of Omaha and got off the interstate at the Blair exit. On our way back south again, we took a tour of the area that Jim USED to haul propane to. The river communities are no longer there. What’s left is a mess. A mess that is so extensive I can’t imagine how it could ever be what it used to be. So many lives have been changed.
I’m not sure who’s to blame for the amount of water that raced from Montana to Nebraska all summer long. I hear the Army Corp of Engineers are being blamed. I hope the flood of 2011 has been a learning experience and flooding of this magnitude will never happen again.
Department of Road employees were taking down the wall of sand that was put there to help spare the town of Hamburg, IA.
The levee that was built around the town of Hamburg, IA.
Signs of harvest. The pile of corn was pretty impressive!
These grain bins looked like they just fell into a hole. I’m not sure if this is where they were prior to the flood. The running water just created a large hole around the three. This was right along I-29.
The most visible raging water damage along I-29. You can tell it wasn’t a peaceful flow of water right here.
The railroad tracks are suspended in the air because the water washed away the soil.
I took this picture because you can see how high the water level was in the trees and bushes.
The Mighty MO back where she’s supposed to be!
We started down this road that was familiar to Jim but couldn’t get very far.
We did make it down one road that was open to a river community that he hauled propane to just last winter. This is one of many pivots with its tires in the air.
Jim said this was one of the nicer homes in this community.
The sand looks like snow drifts.
As quoted by our 34th President:
“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from a corn field.” Dwight D. Eisenhower (9/11/1956)