Planting Season Finally Finished

We finally finished!! Sugar beets, Soybeans and Corn trials are all in the ground!! Here are some pictures of our last day of planting.

Jeff, the best tractor driver ever

Old Blue and Todd planting

Done!!

Done!!

We are all so tried from this crazy planting season.  

Buck's Visit to Colorado

It was so great to spend some time with our good old friend Buck. He came at just the right time to help us with our planting season, and what a big help he was. 

Todd and Buck on the planter with Jeff driving the tractor

Buck and Beth building trial boxes

Buck on the planter

Buck showing me how to carry two tape measures and a soil probe. 

the boys

Buck mixing the soil samples


We spent the days planting and then played in the evenings.

Todd ate too much pineapple

Dinner at Rodizio's!! 

The boys ate so much food they had to unbutton their pants at the dinner table. How embarrassing!

All smiles checking the buffer seed

Buck caught a Colorado small mouth bass before his flight back to California.

Thank you Buck for all your help! It was so great to spend some quality time drinking coffee and visiting together. We miss you already!!

The Challenges of Planting Season

Our planting season has been a bit of a challenge this year. We have had some crazy spring weather and planter issues making it very difficult to get the seeds in the ground.  Almost every day of May we have had some kind of weather; thunderstorms, rain, hail, flooding and snow. To top it all off our planter had it's own set of issues. We had a guy drive out from Iowa to help troubleshoot but he found nothing wrong with the planter.  

Todd said "At this rate, I hope to have this all planted by August."

Seeds, seeds and more seeds! Planting season is here.

Here are some sugarbeet varieties that I started the season off with.  Lots of packaging for me this year

This is what we put the seed into.  Each packet represents a two row plot.  We calculate the amount of seed and then run it through the seed counter.

Here is a picture of corn being counted.

This is our precision planter.  It is computer run and can be programmed to plant an exact number of seeds per row.  We program the computer with an entire trial and the the planter then plants each plot to your desired population.  Todd sits up top and dumps each packet into the planter.

Easter 2014

We had a relaxing Easter day. We ate lunch, hunted for easter baskets and eggs, went to church, ate again and played.

Levi

Moose

The Easter Bunny (Todd)  left some carrots

The boys found their Easter Baskets 

The boys in Uncle's Truck

Dying Easter Eggs

Dying Easter Eggs was so much fun this year. Levi and Moose truly enjoyed it as much as the adults did. Levi spent the whole time tasting the yellow egg dye while Grandma tried to keep it off his clothes and out of his mouth. Lets just say, we did not get many yellow colored eggs. Moose, on the the other hand, was a pro at dying eggs.  We ended the evening with a yummy steak dinner.

Estes Park Getaway

Todd and I went on a little relaxing getaway before our planting season begins. We headed to Estes Park to our favorite little cabin for three nights. We did our best to not do anything, but eat good food, sleep, soak in the spa, and read in front of the fire. It was a blast!! 

Dinner at Stanley Hotel

We saw a lot of wildlife on our trip. Here are some bighorn sheep.

Todd made Cioppino one night for dinner, it was bomb! 

We had our fire so hot that we had all the windows in the cabin open. 

This is taken from our cabin. We also saw elk and turkeys outside the cabin.  Estes Park never disappoints!