[AT] "The farmer is the biggest gambler in the world"

[Mark Johnson]

All through high school, when we filled out the enrollment forms in the 
fall, I listed my father's occupation as "Gambler (Professional)." 
Nobody noticed until senior year, when my guidance counselor pulled up 
my file while writing a college letter of recommendation. He laughed for 
hours...knew *exactly* what I meant! [Fortunately for me, Mr. Stone was 
a good friend, in and out of school, and had a really great sense of humor.]

Mark J
Columbia, MO
Indiana farmboy now working at a Missouri university.


On 7/6/2019 8:59 PM, HERBERT METZ wrote:
>
> I grew up on a farm in central KS; I can remember my Dad saying 
> several times "A farmer is the biggest gambler in the world; he 
> gambles on the weather".  Herb(GA)
>
>
>> On July 6, 2019 at 12:59 PM Indiana Robinson 
>> <robinson46176 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, 
>> rain... Then a short spate of decent weather and now hot, hot, hot, 
>> hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. Not just hot but with mega humuggity. Real 4 
>> shirts a day hot and humid kind of weather... Days where every time 
>> you come in you hang your hat on the rack in front of the AC output 
>> so it will be dry for the next time.
>> Getting anything done here (just south-east of Indy) has been a real 
>> battle. The barn that is my farm shop is usually near impossible to 
>> heat but not too awful hot in the summer. Not the case this summer. 
>> That and it is so terribly full of stuff that I can barely move 
>> around in it. Not usually a big problem since I tend to like working 
>> just outside of the shop in the shade of a couple of trees. During 
>> all of that rain the trees leaked badly.  :-)  What kind of trees you 
>> ask? Ash, of course... this will be their last year thanks to the 
>> emerald ash borers.  :-(
>> I'm a little old to expect a tree I plant now to become a big shade 
>> tree for me. I'm still planting trees of course, but now I plant them 
>> for others that will follow. I may get one of those free-standing 
>> steel carports for that spot at the shop door. They are not a cooling 
>> tree but they are fast up and they don't leak as bad as a tree.  :-)
>>
>> Crops (mostly corn, soybeans, wheat and hay) are generally looking 
>> decent in our area. Wheat is at harvest here now and seems OK except 
>> where it has been standing water. I have seen a fair amount of straw 
>> being baled.  Lots of round bales of hay last week but sadly quite a 
>> few I've seen near here are off of old factory lots and there was a 
>> lot of trash in those lots that got rolled into them.
>> About Thursday we were down south-east of here near Cincinnati and we 
>> saw a "lot" of fields that were fresh tilled and planted in the past 
>> few days. They are usually a week or so ahead of us. Straight south 
>> of here we've seen a lot of fields still standing water or at least 
>> 50% or better in water. Here there has been a good bit of replanting 
>> being done.
>> Yesterday Diana came out to help me unload some light fence panels 
>> (she worries about me in the heat) and she almost passed out. I pace 
>> myself when conditions are bad, I learned that after my bypass. She 
>> on the other hand always wants to work like she is killing snakes... 
>> I usually make her sit down often in the heat but I hadn't been 
>> watching her close enough.
>> It's been really close and hot this  morning with the air dead still 
>> and I have been working stop and start. 95 and humid with no breeze 
>> gets tough on old people. I better get back out now since a decent 
>> breeze has come up and it's clouding up a little...
>>
>> Francis Robinson
>> aka "farmer"
>> Central Indiana USA
>> robinson46176 at gmail.com <mailto:robinson46176 at gmail.com>
>>
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>
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