Ian & Val Plagge's Blog (48)

Happy National Pork Month everyone!…

Wow!  Time has been flying by since harvest has begun on our farm.  Between driving the tractor with catch cart, running farm errands, trying to keep my house presentable, and going to weddings or wedding festivities, I haven't had very much time to blog.  Sad to say, but when I have been home, I've either wanted to just sit and relax or sleep!



Harvest has been going pretty good so far.  We started with corn harvest a few weeks ago and decided to take out our down…

Last night for supper we had our first pick of sweet corn and it was sooo good!  

Last week my family and I kept busy because our local Franklin County Fair was being held.  There was only one day last week that between My Farmer and I, we didn't have to be at the fair - We joked around that we can only imagine what are fair schedule will be like when we have kids in 4-H!  Overall we had a great time and the weather was great for it.  Here is my Top Five Franklin County Fair…

It has been a fast paced week here on the farm.  Besides keeping busy with loading hogs and spraying fungicide on our corn, we've also been participating in several things at our local county fair this week.



My "backyard" is starting to show signs of stress due to a lack of rain but yet, I remain optimistic about the crop.…

My Farm Friday post is coming a little later this week, or should I say last week, because My Farmer and I were at the Iowa Farm Bureau's state Young Farmer Advisory Committee's meeting all weekend.  This was our last meeting on the state board; we finished our three-year term at the meeting.…

This week on the farm we have been busy hauling corn to the ethanol plant.  We also have been busy making sure our hogs stay cool during these high temperatures and triple digit heat indexes.  The pigs in our building currently are around 100 pounds, this means we like to keep their houses at 68 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  When the outside temperature is higher than our ideal conditions we have misters or sprinklers automatically turn on to help keep the pigs comfortable.  When hogs are…

Being a pork producer and a huge fan of bacon I just had to try Burger King's new Bacon Sundae!  So a few days ago LP and I were in a town with a Burger King and we stopped in to try it.

When we ordered the sundae I asked the manager how many they had been serving…

This week on the farm we finished spraying our soybeans and now have moved onto finishing up several little jobs on the farm.  We also have started working on some large projects that have been on the to do list since spring started.



The big thing that has happened this week was that is RAINED!!!  Last Friday night we received 2 1/2 inches of rain on our home farm and then on Wednesday night we received an additional 1 1/2 inches.  We have been…

This week on the farm we finished spraying Round-up on corn, as well as side-dressing corn.  We also have started spraying our soybeans with Round-up and Assure II herbicide; the Assure II kills grass and volunteer corn.  Besides doing all of this field work we have been praying for rain.  Things are extremely dry in our area and we'd love a good soak or two!



Despite the lack of rain, the corn and beans keep on growing. …

Happy Friday!  This week on the farm we have been spraying different fields, crop and weed scouting, and praying for rain!  We haven't had rain for a few weeks now, so we are hoping for a nice rain fall this weekend.  It is funny to think how at the beginning of the month we were wishing for the rain to stop because it was slowing down our planting pace.  And now we are wanting rain so the crops can grow.  Across the Midwest, drought maps indicate dry conditions to even moderate…

This week's Farm Friday is getting out later than I normally like to get it out because things have just simply been busy around here today, and really, this week.  We finished planting corn on Monday of this week and then finished planting soybeans last night!  It feels good to have everything in the ground.  Now that we are done planting, My Farmer has promised to get my garden tilled!  I usually have a goal of getting this done by Mother's Day, but the farm comes first.  I figure…

I received a lot of attention and comments from my Rules of a Farm Wife (Spring Edition) blog post last week.  After My Farmer read it, he figured he needed to write one for all the farmers out there.  Just like the rules I wrote, these are meant to be fun and at the same time give helpful hints to have a happy spring or harvest.  These too can be used for both farmers and non-farmers.…

I can't believe that it is already Friday!  It has been a busy and fast week.  We got into the field on Monday night, had a little delay on Tuesday from rain, and have been going steady ever since Wednesday.  There is a slight chance of rain tonight, but we're hoping it misses us so we can finish planting our corn.  We are about 80% done planting corn and then we'll move onto planting soybeans.…

I thought about doing a blog for a couple years before I actually started.  One of the main reasons I thought about doing a blog was to share my thoughts and ideas on how to survive the planting and harvest seasons with other farm wives.  Today, I'm going to do just that.  I'm going to share five "rules" that I try to follow, especially during the planting season.  These are meant to be fun and at the same time give helpful hints to have a happy spring.

After being out of the field for almost a week due to rain and wet conditions in the field, we officially got back into the field last night!  My Farmer, LP and I did some spring tillage and I couldn't help but take some photos as the sun set on us.

The forecast looks good…

This week we have been loading in and out several loads of hogs and trying to get some planting done between rains.  Due to the rain, we have only been able to be in the field two days this week.

One of my favorite hobbies and interests is cooking.  I know I've shared about cooking a little in my blog before and today my post will be about a recipe I created.  I produced my "Cardinal & Gold Cream Cheese Burger" by modifying and coupling a couple other of my burger recipes together.  I created the burger for a Pinterest contest for Iowa State Athletics.  There contest is called Cy's…

Since spring field work is in full swing this week, I figured I'd start up my Farm Friday segment to give everyone an update on what we are doing on the farm.  I'm going to continue to give a Farm Friday update throughout the rest of the growing seasoning and one feature I'm going to do is show photos of the field around our acreage each week.  This will give everyone an idea on how the corn is progressing.…