I was hoping that August would bring cooler temperatures, but instead it has been warmer, even hot! I am convinced that the heat is a bigger influence on crops than the dry weather.
Soybeans are certainly suffering in the heat and with corn drying down, the harvest may begin by the middle of the month. Some silage is being harvested and I don’t believe that I have ever seen it this early. The extent of the dry weather on soybeans is hard to assess but a shower this week of 3/10’s of an inch of rain will help.
Beautiful spring weather has allowed farmers to make excellent progress in planting. As of Friday morning I would estimate that 90% of the corn is planted in Franklin County. This spring is unlike any that I remember. Some may be asking what is a good spring from a farmer’s point of view? I am glad that you asked!
Corn planting is certainly in full swing in the eastern and southern sections of the county. Planters are have been running since Monday and some farmers are near the 50-percent completion point as of Friday. Yet there are areas in the northwestern part of the county that are still too wet.
I know that we have been very fortunate in Eastern Township in that we are able to work areas in fields that last year never dried to the point of planting. It is always better to plant when dust follows the planter than in wet conditions.
As spring progresses, we turn our eyes to the skies because thunderstorms become a concern. Lightning reportedly kills an average of 67 people each year in the United States.
There are several important points to keep in mind to prevent a lightning strike.
During U of I Extension Week, April 18-24, you’ll find some unique learning opportunities at your county U of I Extension office in Benton. For details about any of these programs, call 439-3178, or visit our Web site at franklin.extension.uiuc.edu.
Spring has arrived, and the sun is starting to stay out longer. “This extra sun may make us happier, and it may also make us healthier,” says Jenna Hogan, University of Illinois Extension nutrition and wellness educator.
Our bodies make vitamin D, known as the “sunshine vitamin,” when the natural light hits our skin.
The main weed control problem in ponds is algae, that greenish, slimy stuff in many forms.
“The key to controlling algae is to start in early April while the water is cooler and the algae is growing slowly,” says Mike Plumer, University of Illinois Extension natural resources educator. “The safest herbicides are copper-containing products like copper sulfate or copper chelates. Just make sure you read and follow all label directions.”
Almost all field work, along with all picnics, has been cancelled due to rain and winter-like conditions. Any corn that is planted had better have thermal underwear around it for conditions are not good above or below ground. The calendar indicates that warmer weather will arrive as July 4 is getting closer.
Extension Week is April 18 through 24, and there are several opportunities that may interest you.
Afton Danielle Ferris, 19, formerly of Cheyenne, Wyo. was in Franklin County court again on Wednesday afternoon with her attorney and public defender Eric J. Dirnbeck. He was appointed to the double-homicide case on Nov. 16 and stated he was not ready to proceed with the defense on Wednesday.
It seems that good news, as far as the weather is concerned, is non-existent as rain continues on an almost daily basis. Even those that are not involved in farming are looking forward to better weather days.
As the calendar moves further into October, the opportunity for wheat planting becomes less likely but weather conditions can change rapidly but that is less likely as we move closer to winter.
Some limited harvesting occurred on Monday and Tuesday and ground conditions were not as bad as feared. The weather for the remainder of this week does not look very good.
Did you wake up feeling any different (or is it differently?) Wednesday morning?
I still had that familiar dread of getting out of bed that I experience on most cold winter days; The Weather Channel crew confirmed my fears a few minutes later when I took a look at the TV screen and saw that the temperature outside was a mere 17 degrees.
Aside from that, I had a slight sense of — dare I say it? — optimism ... even though it’s a Wednesday, and I’m still dragging a bit from the holiday-day-off start to the week.
Benton will never be the same.
Sparky Choisser’s fingerprints are on every facet of this community. He was totally involved in every cause, every project and every campaign. Sparky was not only a doer, but he was an accomplisher. He didn’t waste the vast amount of energy he expended as he hurried about from early morning until late at night. Be it Ranger basketball or Benton city government, Sparky always covered the scene in a very special way. He was energetic, yet disciplined; hurried, yet directed; intense, yet measured. Sparky was one of those most unusual characters — the kind a Rockwell might draw or a Hemingway might describe. He was Benton … through and through.
When I was in high school, I was involved in all kinds of extracurricular activities.
Band, tennis, basketball, student council, scholastic bowl, the school play — I even helped build a few Homecoming floats and decorate some gymnasiums in my day. You name it, I was in it — or in on it.
Have you ever experienced a Seinfeld moment?
It’s one of those situations in life that could have come directly from an episode of “Seinfeld.” I have Seinfeld moments all the time — so many, in fact, that my best friend tells me, quite often, “You watch TOO much ‘Seinfeld’!”
By now the Christmas trees are brightly decorated, inflatable Frosty snowmen adorn the lawns, outside lights twinkle, the poinsettias are in place, children’s programs have taken place in church and at school and we are settling in to celebrate Christmas 2008.
Usually, I tend to be one of the biggest procrastinators around. I have to wonder: Why do today what I can put off ’til tomorrow — hoping all the while that, somehow, whatever task I was/am putting off might somehow get canceled, forgotten or, in the best-case scenario, completed by someone else?
(Also, there’s always the possibility that the world will end tomorrow. That’s a little bleak for my generally optimistic outlook, obviously, but it fits in nicely with my procrastinatorial tendencies.)
Earlier this week, our parent company, GateHouse Media, informed all its newspapers that employees were being required to complete online training courses in “Code of Conduct” and “Preventing Workplace Harassment.”
My sister got me hooked on the Beatles when we were in grade school.
Granted, by the time we started playing songs by the Fab Four, they had already broken up. Paul McCartney was probably performing with Wings by then, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were no doubt staging sit-ins, and as for George Harrison and Ringo Starr ... well, who knows, really?
Debra and I were blissfully unaware of the split, and we played her Beatles albums over and over. We even turned the dolls from the Star Trek collection that my father had given us for Christmas into Beatles figures, making them guitars and drums out of cardboard. (And, oh, as a “Boston Legal” fan now, what I wouldn’t give to still have that seven-inch replica of a young William Shatner/Denny Crane!)
By now, most everyone has made up their mind on who they are going to vote for in the upcoming election. We have choices in some races and others are unopposed — or as my friend and former Benton Mayor Charlie Smith would say, “They found a bird nest on the ground.” While we have spent a considerable amount of time looking over the candidates and making our choices, there are a couple of ballot issues that need to be looked at.
I didn’t have the luxury of growing up in Benton, so I can’t claim to have known the excitement of a Benton-West Frankfort Turkey Day football game. Nor do I wax nostalgic over Twin Oaks.
However, I have seen plenty of thrilling games between the Rangers and their arch-rivals — including that Saturday afternoon game back in 2002 when Benton knocked off the previously unbeaten Redbirds 23-20 to move on in a somewhat unexpected drive to the third round of the state playoffs.
