Crops, Kayaks and WOWO
There’s a Little Red Barn on a Farm Down in Indiana
The morning sun burst above Hoosier Hill, heralding another bright blue day of cloudless skies. Some of the grass, especially those spots not shaded by the big trees, has browned. Even though the temperatures have been quite reasonable we’ve now gone for almost a month without rain.
I looked it up on the Weather Underground website. We had a quarter of an inch on August 31, and about a half inch spread over several days in mid August. The last significant rain was August 6th. But the Michigan and Northern Indiana crops look good, actually, and the U.S. crop as a whole looks very good.
The Ohio corn and bean crops, not so good:
Much of Ohio missed those beautiful summer rains that swept north across Michigan and northern Indiana in July. [If you are interested in the crop report, the USDA has an excellent website, which is where I got the charts above.]
There are two things you learn to talk about growing up in the small towns and countryside of the Midwest: Crops and Weather. If your crops are good, you never admit it. Don’t want to jinx it or brag, or get punished by God for being proud or talking too soon. Once the harvest is in the bin then you can mention how you did, but only if asked. Never brag, never boast, never bring up the subject yourself.
And if the crop is bad, never ever complain. But there’s a patter and a pattern of “crop talk” that I just loved to hear. I miss it. Those were my people.
My guess is that most of the farmers have quit hoping for rain by now. Too late for it to do any good. If anything you want to keep the crop drying out and get it off before the rain comes back.
Everyone used to listen to WOWO back in the day for the weather and crop report. 1190 on the AM dial. The farm report was sponsored by the Andersons in Maumee, Ohio.
The Little Red Barn program was on most radios in the kitchens, milking parlors and egg houses across the Midwest featuring Bob Sievers and the 50,000 Watt voice of WOWO! Link to audio clip: “There’s a little Red Barn on a Farm down in Indiana, Gonna lay my back on a stack of new mown hay.” You could hear the chickens clucking in the background as they recited the latest prices for everything from cattle to corn.
Checkout the range! You could pick it up on the cheap Japanese transistor radios that everyone had and listen to the hockey game at night with the radio under your pillow.
The only other station to listen to was CKLW. But that’s another story…
Sometimes of course the weather can be really really bad for the farmers. I remember one year, I think it was 1973, the year we got married. It rained for the whole month of October and even into November. One farmer had his combine so stuck in the mud that he hired a helicopter to pull it up. The combine broke in half. Sadly the farmer took his own life. It can be a tough business, although now there are government programs that provide protection with crop insurance and price supports.
Speaking of rain, we’ve been watching it come down in Europe with some concern as the rivers rise. They’ve really been getting flooded in some areas. Less than six weeks until we hopefully take a cruise down the Danube.
I wasn’t thinking about the crops or the Danube this morning as I paddled out for a last kayak ride before driving back to Detroit. The water was smooth as glass and I had the lake to myself.
I scared off a pair of bald eagles who apparently had spent the night atop a big tree on Feick’s Point. They calmly rowed across the sky and over the trees. They reminded me of that Emily Dickinson poem where she describes the Bird as rowing itself softly home. I’ve always loved that analogy.
And indeed I almost felt like a bird as I paddled across the clear water with no waves or wind, floating along almost effortlessly. I love her analogy of the sky as water, with butterflies and birds swimming in the atmosphere.
The one thing I am enjoying about this kayak is that it seems to be designed for casual paddling. If you try to go too fast you really end up fighting yourself. But a regular calm pace makes the boat move effortlessly and, I hope, seamlessly.
Arethusa, my kayak, is deflated and in the back of the truck now. I’m hoping to get her out on some of the great lakes and rivers in Oakland County Michigan and enjoy the fall colors. The trees are starting to change, with some of the Sugar Maples already turning red and the yellows just coming in, but still mostly green.
And the crops in Southern Michigan look very good. The beans seem to be getting ready for harvest early this year, and some of the corn has been cut for silage already.
We stopped at Zingerman’s Roadhouse for a great lunch on our way back, and made it home in time for a nice long afternoon nap.
We have the last race of the year tonight so wish us luck! We’re gonna need it!
How do the crops look in your neck of the woods? I’d love to hear about it! Did you listen to WOWO? I know some of you did for sure~! Sing along: … “There’s a Little Red Barn on a Farm Down in Indiana….. Gonna Lay my back on a Stack of New Mown Hay….”
Thanks so much for paddling along. So glad you’re here~!
Bonus:
You were right to (almost) refer to my home as a desert for that is exactly what it is. From the Sierra Nevada and Cascades to the Rockies, it is high desert sagebrush sea with pinion/juniper forests to the eastern part. Carson Valley is cow country with vast pastures of grown and mown grass hay and alfalfa. Lately, though, the ranchers have been expanding their options. One is planting a huge orchard of, we think, apples. Another has cleared the grass for a row crop, perhaps garlic, potatoes, or onions. It's a hard place for anything that doesn't like the dry cold climate. But with beef, potatoes, onions, garlic, and rye grass for whiskey, what else does one need, right? (Oh, and there's still one sheep rancher left in the Valley for a luscious bit of variety. Can't keep a self-respecting Basque down!)
O yes for sure.. WOWO was always on in the milk barn. Crop reports, cattle and hog markets, and some scientific reports from a land grant college on how to grow crops more efficiently. Boy David you nailed it on how to communicate by “ farmer speak”. There was one more group though, the farmer whose crops were always 15% better than anyone else’s …. the braggers… and everyone knew who the braggers were. 😂