We have entered the fourth month of 2025. It is 26 degrees at 5:30 a.m. My husband Joe and son Benjamin have both left for work. I have lots and lots of laundry to wash today so I thought I had better get this column done first thing this morning.
The monarch butterflies that were born here in Ohio late last summer and early fall, have spent their winter in the mountains of Central Mexico. As of the first week of March, all of them have left their oyamel fir forest sanctuaries and are headed north.
I don’t remember much about third grade during school hours, but after school I do remember my first cigarettes. Both of my parents smoked, as did a lot of adults then. I was already old enough to carry the trash from the house to the backyard burning barrel and use matches to light the fire.
Three years of national survey results have now been collected on farmers who no-till. No-Till farming magazine recently shared these 2nd half results. Farmers use a lot of different equipment, different brands, and different sizes. A major change has been the switch to larger corn planters. No-till and probably most farmers are switching to 16-row (40 foot) corn planters 31.2% up 3.9%, 24-row (18.2%) while 12 row planters have fallen from 28.4% to 23.7%. While farmers have less money to invest due to lower prices and weather concerns, equipment is always a major expense on every crop farm.
The sun is shining brightly and the temperature is in the upper twenties. The wind makes it feel colder than that. Twenty-one years ago we moved from our Indiana home to our home here in Michigan in March. It was cold with snow on the ground that year (2004). It doesn’t seem possible that it has been that many years ago. Daughter Lovina was born three and a half weeks early and arrived before we were all unpacked. Son Kevin was born the next year completing our family of eight children. Life has brought many changes during those years.
As our part of the world wakes up from winter’s slumber, we see wonderful signs of it all around us. The plants, animals, birds, and insects make their presence known both visually, and in some cases, audibly. Their behavior changes as they transition into spring.
November 1991- As we went to church this morning, is it just a habit of going? Most people go to church on Sunday and some have the habit of going to church at other times. If anyone tells you religion is just a habit, we’d answer them that’s better to have that habit then not have it at all.
Here’s a column from Kylee Baumle from March 26, 2018 with some good tips for gardeners.
Three years of national survey results have now been collected on farmers who no-till and use crop crops. No-Till farming magazine shared these results recently. Around 80.5% of all no-till farmers use cover crops which has been steady, although slightly less than the peak in 2023 at 83.2%. Weather, especially dry weather in the fall and getting a crop established could be part of the reason for a slight decrease in cover crop acres. Also, as finances get tight, sometimes cover crop acres are easy to cut.
We are having beautiful spring weather lately. It sure gives a person spring fever, although it’s really not too long before the calendar says “spring begins”. Yesterday I took advantage of the lovely weather and washed a lot of the bedding along with the usual laundry. It dried so nice and the wind made the bath towels so fluffy for being line-dried. The temperature reached sixty-five degrees and the sun was out all day. The time change made all the clocks jump an hour ahead on Sunday so the nice weather at least helped make the change a little easier.