As you may have noticed, my blog frequency if that's an acceptable term has diminished. It is not because I have nothing to report or have lost interest, it is because farming takes amazingly more time this time of year.

Since I have last written. we have finished our spring calving season very successfully. We have nineteen calves on the ground. Our one remaining pregnant cow isn't due until September. We have cows out in our various pastures giving the farm an enhanced pastoral atmosphere. The summer residents are back and they seem to enjoy the animals.

Our community garden is growing well except for some lettuce which might be serving as rabbit food. Along with the blog, I haven't had much time for the garden. Our wonderful neighbors planted our end for us. I certainly appreciate it.

In a bittersweet kind of moment, our big Brown Swiss steer Peter has moved onto a new home. Or rather returned to one of his earlier homes. A farmer from a few roads over came by to see if we would do some contract baling for him. He noticed the steer and asked where I bought him. When I told him, he laughed. He said that he had bought Peter at the sale barn when he was a baby and pail fed him and eventually sold him. He called a few days later and asked to buy him and I agreed to sell.

Jim and delivered him and when we let him out into the field he almost seemed to know where he was. It was nice to see him among cattle more or less his size although he is still the tallest by far. The farmer said his nieces had named him Goliath when he was with them because he was so tall.

The soggy soy bean field only germinated about thirty percent. A week ago Thursday I replanted all twenty nine acres. At least the seed cost less. There is a technology fee charged by the seed companies on the modern hybrid seeds. They waive that charge for a replant. As I write this, the weather radar shows heavy rain will soon be upon us. Hopefully we won't have a repeat washout.

The moisture has helped all our other fields and our beans and corn are excellent.

Jim graduated from high school last Saturday. It's hard to believe he has that all behind him already. Next week, he and Mary are off to Iowa State for orientation. Eileen really likes Nashville and has summer job there. Mary drove down with her and left her the car and flew back. Eileen is well along the road to emancipation and I suspect we won't be seeing much of her for some time.

We have completed first cutting on about 45 acres of hay. The last batch was very hectic as we just beat the rain. We have another big field in the village to do. The weather looks very favorable for next week. I hope we don't get too much rain so the fields will be too wet to hay. As the season progresses the hay looses a lot of its nutritional value and becomes tough if it isn't cut. And, of course, the really tender second cutting can't grow if the first cutting is still in place.

Our small town lost one of it's icons last week. Our village attorney passed away a bit unexpectedly. He has been there for everyone for almost as long as you could remember. He did everything from wills and property transfers to interceding for young drivers who might not yet have understood the ratio between accelerator foot pedal pressure and speed. He was the essence of the small town attorney and will be missed by one and all.

The Fire Department leases a field from us on the main road for horse and tractor pulls as a fund raiser. There is a horse pull tomorrow weather permitting. It is amazing to see the size and strength of pulling horses up close. The strength of their human handlers is pretty impressive also.