by Mary Anne
Barton County WIFE

October 1, 2001

Monday, October 1^st – What a day to keep a daily journal for Kansas Women Involved in Farm Economics!  It’s wheat planting time – one of the busiest times of year for us.  It’s critical that the wheat be planted just right in order to have a good crop to harvest next June.

However, Dean’s in Denver at a board meeting for the National Association of Wheat Growers!  Originally, the board meeting was scheduled to be in Washington, D.C. but it was changed after the events of September 11^th.  It’s not the best time of year for a wheat growers’ meeting but Congress was to be discussing and voting on provisions for a new farm bill.  Anyway, while Dean’s away, it’s a mad scramble to keep everything going – both farm and family.

John, our full-time employee, has been out on the tractor since early this morning.  He’s field cultivating – not going in too deep, but pulling out the shallow-rooted weeds and volunteer wheat that came up after the last rain, as well as leveling the ground.  He wanted to get finished on the one field and get moved to another field and have that opened up so that Dean’s dad could run the tractor while he (John) fixes the drill that broke last night. 

After John found out that the chain that he need to fix the drill can’t be found anywhere close, Amy, his wife, made a parts run to Millberger for it.  The kids are off to school, the orphaned baby kittens are back outside after spending the night in the utility room, paychecks have been made out for the first of the month, and laundry started.   Then the phone starts ringing!  First, it’s the neighbor who says there is air in the water, indicating there’s been a problem overnight at the water district’s pumphouse.  Since Dean’s gone, I refer the caller to another neighbor, the President of the water district.  The next phone call is something about the Hoisington Gun Club, which will have to wait until Dean’s home. 

Dean’s dad is on the tractor.  John’s gone to Susank to check out the water for the cows in the pasture there.  His dad looked over the cows in the pasture near Beaver and said there is a heifer that needs to be looked at but Amy has a sonogram scheduled for 9:30 so John won’t make it to Beaver this morning.  While they’re gone to the doctor and I’m getting ready to pick up our son from school and take him to a different doctor, the owner of the grocery store calls in a panic.  The grocery store complex and the Dairy Queen were all destroyed in the April 22^nd tornado.  They’ve started work on building back the grocery store and Dairy Queen and are hauling in dirt to build up the site.  The contractor needs to borrow a tractor to run the packer, packing the dirt down after it’s spread out.  I’d love to help out but I can’t commit anything until talking to John, who is at the hospital with Amy. 

Luckily, just as I’m taking off to pick up Wayne and run him to the doctor’s office, I hear John talking to Dean’s dad on the radio.  John’s going to stop by the construction site and talk to them about using one of our tractors if they still need it.  While he takes care of that, fixes the chain on the drill and starts drilling wheat again, I’m with Wayne at the doctor’s office.  The building containing the two doctor’s offices was also destroyed in the tornado. For the time being, they’re in two separate temporary mobile clinics set up on the hospital grounds.  The hospital itself is in the midst of a big expansion and modernization so there’s lots of construction activity on the outside of the hospital building.  We end up having to go over to the hospital for x-rays on a finger that Wayne injured in the middle school football game at Claflin last Thursday night.  It turns out to have a chip broken off the bone – he’ll be able to finish out the season but needs to “buddy tape” it for practice and games.  He’s missed lunch at school so we head to the Pizza Hut for something quick. 

Back home, I realize I need to print off some pictures for the 4-H’ers to use to make National 4-H Week posters to put up in the schools next week.  They’re meeting at 3:30 at the city library so I don’t have much time.  While I was gone, Dean called and left a message on the answering machine that they had left Denver and would be back at Russell earlier than we’d expected.  Julie will be judging at the novice debate tournament in Ellinwood after school so I won’t need to check in with her but I need to figure out a way to get Wayne home from football practice since I’ll be on the road to Russell right when he gets out. 

Dean’s dad calls on the radio and is finished with the one field and will be bringing the tractor and field cultivator home.  I assure him that I’ll be here to give him a ride back to the field – and his pickup.  He’s here before I know it but I have another sheet of 4-H pictures ready to print while I’m gone. Dean’s dad stops by the farm to pick up some wire on his way over to one of our pastures.  The cattle have been walking across the cattle guard so he’s going to put one wire across to stop that.  This time of year, it’s hard to keep the cattle in the pastures.  The milo is very tempting and the grass is always greener outside the pasture.  Luckily, we’ve had some good rains and have had grass in the pastures this fall. 

John’s gone to Great Bend with his father on family business for a couple of hours.  He’s put another load of seed wheat on the wheat truck so he’ll be ready to get after the drilling when he gets back.  I’m scurrying to get pictures printed off and the pages cut up, load up the poster board, and get to town before 3:30.  Dean and I are community leaders for the Eureka Homesteaders 4-H Club and Wayne & Julie are both members.  I meet Michelle, the other community leader, at the library and give her the pictures but she’s going to take charge of this project.  The past few years, the kids in our 4-H club have made posters for each of their schools for National 4-H Week, using pictures of themselves and our club’s hayrack ride, Labor Day Parade Float, swim party, and other activities. 

While in town, I stop at the drugstore to get a prescription filled, the post office to mail some things and get stamps, and football practice at the Middle School to ask Wayne to catch a ride home with one of the neighbors after practice.  The mosquitoes are so bad at the practice field that I have several bites before I can get back in the car.  No wonder Wayne’s legs are all chewed up even though he has bug spray in with his football stuff!  I do drive by the site of the grocery store and Dairy Queen and our tractor is at work.  I watched a semi-truck of dirt pull in, dump the dirt, and head out for another load – all in less time than it took for me to drive around the block.  I’m glad it worked out that we had a tractor they could use.  I am ready to be able to stop in the grocery store and pick up what I need, without planning an out-of-town trip or just doing without. 

I’m barely back home – haven’t even had time to check the answering machine for messages – when Dean calls and they’re an hour or less west of Russell.  So, it’s back in the car again, this time headed for Russell.  It’s perfect weather for wheat planting and there are drills going everywhere.  It’s really a beautiful day – sunny and warm in the afternoon but not too much wind and not too hot. 

My timing is perfect – the guys haven’t been waiting over 2 minutes!  We need to fill up the car but gas prices near I-70 aren’t any cheaper than those at home.  Another mile into town, and it’s 14 cents a gallon cheaper – which really adds up when you have a 40 gallon gas tank! 

Dean is full of news as we head home.  It was a quick meeting – he’s only been gone 50 hours and 12 of that was spent driving to and from Denver.  At home, he’s barely had a chance to greet Wayne and change clothes when John calls on the radio and needs help moving equipment to different fields.  He makes a sandwich and heads out to work – ends up drilling wheat until after dark. 

As he’s heading out the door, a friend calls about cattle out on the blacktop.  Her house in town was destroyed in the tornado so she’s new to our neighborhood and didn’t know who owned the pastures or who to call about the cattle.  Since there are 5 different pastures right in that area, I hope I gave her the right person to call! 

As I’m trying to catch up on all the things I had planned to do while Dean was gone, one of the 4-H mothers calls to make plans for the 4-H club’s hayrack ride and wiener roast next Sunday.  For the first time in 9 years, it’s going to be at someone else’s farm!  It will be lots of fun and she’s going to send out the letters so I won’t have to do near as much as some years. 

Dean has just barely gotten in the house when Julie comes home.  She’s full of debate news – both from the tournament she judged at and last Saturday’s debate tournament in Dodge City, which she and her partner won! Wayne’s been talking on the Internet to a friend from McPherson and making plans to meet her in Great Bend at her volleyball tournament tomorrow – after football practice!  I uncover Saturday’s mail on the coffee table in the living room, only to find out that I’ll have an Extension Council Executive Board meeting tomorrow night.  It will make getting Wayne home from Great Bend a little trickier but we’ll manage. 

Julie’s news helped lift Dean’s mood.  The auger that we use to fill the drill with seed wheat broke last weekend and he thought he had it fixed.  But, it’s broken again and this time, it won’t be fixable.  The guys will probably end up having to shovel the seed wheat into the drill to finish out wheat planting.  It will take a lot more time and definitely be harder on their backs!

Wayne brings the kittens in and they are ready to play!  They’re little survivors – having been born in loose hay in the back of a wheat truck in the machine shed (and found when the truck was taken to the hay field to be unloaded).  Dean and John found the mother dead in the machine shed when they were taking the 4-H club’s float apart after the Labor Day Parade.  The first few weeks, we kept them in the utility room but I soon got tired of that so Dean and John put chicken wire around the bottom of a portable dog’s pen and put it down below the deck.  The kittens are getting big enough now to be out of the pen (and fast enough to run back in if threatened by one of the dogs) but we still bring them back in at nights.  Our blind house cat is starting to warm up to them, even playing with them.  Watching the little balls of fur race around the house or fighting with shoelaces is a good way to finish off a hectic day!