Friday Farm Flicks 4/27/12

Seed beans sitting in the shed. We are currently waiting for some warmer weather and a nice rain before we put these seeds in the ground.

Our biggest surprise of the week. About 28 days ago this Hen took over our Malard Duck's nest of a few eggs and decided to hatch them on her own. She recently hatched these 4 Mallard Ducklings.

Our first Iris bloom of the season

A flower I can't kill!! This beautiful creation and others, made 100% from metal was created by Metals By Marla. Marla has made many creations, from Football team signs to life-size stalks of corn and everything in between. She even makes 100% custom designs. Check her out at http://www.metalsbymarla.com

Our newly designed seed tender. We mounted a seed conveyor on the side of our wagon, which will store seed beans untill its time to plant them. A hitch on the back of the planter allows me to tow the wagon to and from the field where I can load the planter with seed.

Loading our seed tender wagon with Soybean Seed for the first time in 2012. We arent planting yet, but are getting everything ready to go.

Seed beans inside our seed tender wagon. Yes, Soybeans are actually Yellow, however most Soybean Seed comes with a Crop Protectant applied to it to help give it a great start when planted. The blue color comes from a dye mixed in with the seed treatment.

Soybean seed emptying from the seed box and filling our Seed tender. Each box contains enough seed to be planted over 50 acres.

This is our sprayer tender (nurse tanks). I am currently redesigning this tender to make it more efficient. In this pic it's currently under construction, by next weeks Friday Farm Flicks, it will hopefully be done.

A great sunset is developing!

Sitting idle, waiting for some warmer weather and rain to put moisture back in the ground before we begin planting soybeans.

Our first field of field corn (planted over a week ago) is beginning to emerge.

My little mans School Project. The goal was to make something, anything, out of 100% recycled materials. He wanted to make a Robot. A pizza box, 7 water bottles, a milk jug, a paper towel roll and a MC'ds drink holder later, we have a new life-size Robot complete with a bobble head and hat and he can stand on his own!

Farming Truly a way of Life. Thanks to Ranch House Designs for this pic.

Yesterday, the Department of Labor backed down from creating legislation which would regulate what a Child (under 18) both could and couldn't do on their own and other Family Farms. If the DOL would have proceeded and passed the new regulations, a person under 16-18 years old would not be legally allowed to do even basic chores around their own farm. The DOL found much opposition on many fronts to their proposal and backed down yesterday.

This field was planted over a week ago. If you look closely you can see the Corn starting to emerge.

This week has proven to be an interesting one here at Boucher Farms.  New life has arrived in the form of Ducklings and Corn alike, proving Spring brings a new beginning.  Thank you for stopping by Off the Cobb and God Bless!

Matt

Friday Farm Flicks

Any of you who know me well, knows that I have 3 main things in life which I love.  First and foremost, my Family, then Farming and Photography.  It may be reasonable to say my family is tired of me taking pictures of them, and I have also been accused of taking pictures of everything (Which I will admit to being at least a little guilty of).  Anyhow, I’ve decided to put those 3 loves of mine together in a (hopefully) weekly update to my blog called Friday Farm Flicks.   The pics I post will be mainly related to the farm, nature or other outdoors type things we have done either as a family, or on my own, throughout the week.  For the most part, each picture will have a brief explanation under it explaining what is going on in it and may even include a why as well.   From time to time I also may include some other pics I’ve found interesting which are taken by others, but proper credit will be given to them.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I will. Thank you!

Todays posted pics come from the last few weeks that lead up to and through the planting season.  Enjoy!

A great morning sunrise over our farm before the 2012 Planting Season Begins

Prepping the planter for planting the 2012 Field Corn Crop

Updating the Planter Monitors Software (via Laptop and USB Drive) with information which will allow us to plant more seeds per acre on higher potential yielding acres and less on lower potential yielding acres of Corn

Patiently Waiting for Warmer Weather before Plant '12 can start

One of two kittens given to us my a neighbor. We are bottle feeding them because they lost their mother at 2 weeks old

Our very Curiuos Pug, Copper, keepin a watchfull eye on the kittens, Cubbie and Sox

Seed orders sorted, stacked and ready to go. The Black Boxes contain enough soybean seed to be planted over 50 acres and are 100% reusable, therefore reducing the impact of paper packaging on the environment.

Leveling off the Chisel Plowed Ground to get it ready for planting. It's not normally this dusty, but things are really dry this year

Starting out planting in our first field for 2012. If all the planter (yellow) boxes were full (except for the large ones in the middle which we use for soybeans) we could plant over 50 acres on one fill of Seed Corn. If we were to fill the big boxes as well we could go another 230 acres (or 270 ac/fill) between fills.

Wrapping up planting in our last field of Field Corn for 2012 with my little helper. (hiding in the cab)

After completing Corn Planting for 2012, Dad is vaccuming out the planter so we can switch to planting our 1/2 acre of Sweet Corn.

Thank you for stopping by and checking out our pics.  Check back in the fridays to come for more!  Thank you and God Bless!