You never know what you’re going to see traveling away from home.
I was amazed at the number of jack rabbits roaming around the street and parking lots of the office buildings right near my hotel in South San Francisco. I almost stepped on one when it jumped out from under a bush next to the sidewalk.
This one kind of wandered around long enough for me to get my camera out for a quick shot.
You can now call her Leah Banister. That’s Leah on the right with Cindy in the middle and Tricia Braid-Terry. While you were all smoking and grilling some good meat on the grill and going to the local fireworks, @farmerspice got hitched to First Sergeant Tom Banister in Williamsville, IL.
Cindy and I were there to help take photos and shoot video of the ceremony. We enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with friends and want to wish Leah and Tom many blessings in their marriage.
In case you’re wondering, Leah used to be a farm broadcaster, Cindy is a farm podcaster and Tricia is soon to be a former farm broadcaster. Confused? Yeah. It’s easy to do in today’s new media world.
ZimmComm New Media would like to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July celebration. I thought it would be a good opportunity to borrow some prose from Rick Tolman, NCGA, about energy independence and the role ethanol is playing. Here are some excerpts from his most recent Our View:
Another Fourth of July is upon us and as we prepare to celebrate this nation’s independence it is also a good time to reflect on our dangerous reliance of imported petroleum and ask what more we should we be doing to assure our energy independence.
This Independence Day we should be resolute and re-commit ourselves to making the right choices for America. We can pursue a strategic national initiative that will lead us to energy independence — and put America back in control of its destiny. We can start by looking for ethanol fuel at the pump. It is readily available as a 10 percent blend and E85 is becoming more common – as are the flexible-fuel vehicles that can utilize this clean-burning fuel.
Don’t be fooled by sensational headlines and pseudo-science funded by anti-ethanol factions. Ethanol continues to be as good an idea today as it has always been because of its contributions to our environment, energy security and economy.
Productivity on America’s farms is at an all time high and through technology and innovation farmers are growing five times more corn than they did in the 1930s on 20 percent less land. And this is being accomplished in a more sustainable way, with soil erosion cut more than 44 percent in the last 20 years and fertilizer used to grow a bushel of corn down 36 percent since 1980.
So, at the family barbecue or fireworks this weekend, tell your friends and family to do their part by using ethanol. Ask them to encourage their elected officials to continue to support using increased blends of this proven American fuel.
This was my scene for a while this afternoon. A group of my neighbors and I bought Trimble Lake and have cleaned it, stocked it and cut a trail around it. Actually, they did all the work so far. It’s not a big lake but big enough to fish on and enjoy the scenery.
This was a beautiful place to sit in the shade this afternoon since it’s only about 85 degrees with a nice breeze. That’s far different than yesterday when my car registered 101 degrees and there was no breeze!
I did some fishing but no catching while I was there. Now I need to get a little jon boat to float out on the lake with . . .
This will be my last photo post of the day from the great state of Washington.
Although most of the mountains were clouded over this morning, they pretty well cleared up this afternoon. Here’s Mount Rainier on my way back to Seattle. According to Wikipedia it’s an active stratovolcano. With the cloud lingering at the top it looks like it’s smoking!
Mount Rainier is an active stratovolcano (also known as a composite volcano) in Pierce County, Washington, located 54 miles (87 km) southeast of Seattle, Washington, in the United States. It is the highest peak in the Cascade Range and Cascade Volcanic Arc at 14,411 feet (4,392 m). The mountain and the surrounding area are protected within Mount Rainier National Park. With 26 major glaciers and 35 square miles (91 km2) of permanent snowfields and glaciers, Mount Rainier is the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states.
I’ve been to Seattle many times but never had a chance to get out in the country, especially to the north. This morning I drove up to Lynden, WA which is almost on the border of Canada.
It has been a picture perfect day and I hope this photo is a good example of it. I had a little time to kill on the drive up so I stopped to shoot some photos. This was a little brook off of a side road north of Seattle.
I was once again the Drive Green Utility Tractor Show blogger. I saw a lot of green today in the sunshine at North Washington Implement. You can see the photos online.
This was the scene when I got off the plane in Bakersfield, CA this evening. Pretty cool looking I think. I love sunrises and sunsets. There is an artist who is a lot better than any of us human ones.
I missed out on #AgChat tonight on Twitter but hope to have a review of it tomorrow morning if my sources come through. I’ve already skimmed over some of the posts and I think you would find them very interesting. I especially like the humor that gets thrown in. We need to laugh even when discussing serious topics. I made it through about 23 pages so far but think it’s time to stop for the day. There’s always tomorrow.
I got so busy early today that I forgot to post this earlier.
This is what the sunrise looked like out my window this morning.
I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of sunrises and sunsets. I’m glad I’ve got eyes to see them and hope that if I ever don’t, I’ll remember them all.
When you see this at the start of the day you know it’s going to be a good one!
If you’ve got to work on Good Friday at least doing it in a place this pretty helps. This is just one of the farms in the Oxford, PA area.
I’m on location with the John Deere Drive Green Utility Tractor Show at Atlantic Tractor today. Tomorrow I’ll be at Our Lady’s Manor Steeplechase. I don’t know anything about it but I’m assuming I’ll know a lot more then.
The sun is peeking out now and it’s time to get to work so I’ll be seeing you on and off line today.
It’s a travel day for the agriblogger. I’m heading east for a couple days work on the Drive Green Utility Tractor Show. These stops will wrap up the east/south route and then the big rig heads west through Missouri.
I had to stop off the highway on the way to the airport this morning for this photo. You can also find one I tweeted from my phone here.
I’ll get home on Easter and have a day to pack for NAMA. You’re all going right? Last I heard the trade show is sold out and we’re on our second overflow hotel. If you’re not there then you’re . . .
Remember that when you stop by the ZimmComm booth you can register to win a very cool giveaway – HP Mini Netbook!
I drove through a pretty impressive storm coming home this afternoon. The skies mostly cleared up and the sun came back out. It made for some interesting cloud formations like this one.
I was mostly off the grid except for my iPhone yesterday and today. That’s the way it goes sometimes when the hotel internet is out, there’s a weak AT&T signal and you’re out at a rural country fairgrounds all day or in the car.
So, it’s back in the saddle the next couple days.
This was the morning moon that was staring me in the face when I went outside a while ago. Pretty cool view to start the day so I thought I’d share it.
So, what’s new in your world? Cindy will be heading to Louisville, KY today for the National Farm Machinery Show and I’ll be finishing preparations for my presentation at the Weed Science Society of America convention which will be taking place in Orlando. How come I got snow and ice in Louisville the last two years and Cindy gets a little rain, maybe this year? Probably because I’m going to Orlando (in the 80’s).
Here’s one of the photos from this afternoon’s end of day photo shoot along the river bank near my hotel. I shot a lot of birds too (digital photos) and there’s a couple of them that came out okay. I really didn’t have all my gear here and I was shooting hand held too so it could have gone better.
It’s a nice Texas moon and was shot when the sun was still above the horizon.
I’ll do better tomorrow at the Stock Show so you can count on seeing more photos then. I just got off the phone with Cindy. She’s biodiesel blogging away and just posted this video with Daryl Hannah showing off her biodiesel powered El Camino.
When you think of Texas, you think cowboys and cattle but . . .
On my way back from Childress yesterday I saw a bunch of these off of Highway 278 so I had to stop. They were just grazing around. I can’t say I’ve ever seen a camel farm.
So that’s just one of the unique sights on this trip so far.
Meet Russell Graves, RussellGraves.com. He’s a professional photographer whose work I absolutely love. I’m on a layover in Ft. Worth, TX and he was gracious enough to take some time to meet with me to talk “shop” today.
We’re going to record an interview here in a few minutes for tomorrow’s ZimmCast. The drive up here from Ft. Worth was beautiful. It’s a little breezy today but sunny and warm enough.
We did a little drive around on some property that Russell manages and I got this shot of him there.
More to come tomorrow.
Welcome back to work everyone. I’m almost there. Sort of. Kind of.
Actually I’ll be back to it full time on Wednesday. This morning I got a chance to got offshore trolling for dolphins (Mahi-Mahi) near Pompano Beach, FL. This lighthouse was really lit up by this morning’s sun. It was a beautiful morning on the water.
I see from the tweets, updates, posts, emails, etc. that most of you are suffering through a full day in the office. I was thinking about you as we cruised along. Mmm Hmm. Sure I was.
I don’t think we’re going to have as pretty a sunset tonight as last night. This was the view just before Cindy and I went to enjoy a New Year’s Eve dinner.
I hope everyone’s having a wonderful New Year’s Day. I know posting has been a little light but it’s a quiet time in ag right now. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be picking up though.
I’ll be doing a little R&R in south Florida for a few days starting tomorrow but I’ll be online at times.
It seems like the end of the year holidays are the only time I get to wander back through the woods behind ZimmComm World Headquarters.
We’ve got a lot of cedars and last winter’s ice storm wasn’t very kind to them. I went on a photo shoot this afternoon to see what condition they were in. This one looks like it was just pushed over and seemed to be saying, “Help me, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” I hope none of you have to say that Wednesday night!
Over the next couple days we may do a little looking back at 2008 from an AgWired perspective.
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
In this week's program I interview Linda Tank, CHS, Inc., who is Chair of the Agriculture Council of America, the group coordinating National Ag Day. Learn more about their activities, especially this week in Washington, DC.
