Merry Christmas!! "Peace on Earth and Good Food for All"

I would like to wish Y'all a Merry Christmas.

   I know all of you are Christians and many of you are not people of faith. I want to wish you a Merry Christmas because that is where I draw my hope and faith. For my Jewish friends, Happy Hanukkah. To those who celebrate Kwanzaa, Happy Kwanzaa. The message of the first Christmas was 'Peace on Earth and Good will to all People." I hope that is still a message we can all agree on.

Food and family are at the heart of many celebrations this time of year. What is it about food and celebration? Seeing friends and family is great, but there are just certain foods we don't have any other time of the year. For example, I only make fudge for the holidays.

   I know our doctors want us to eat our fruits and vegetables and I am not a nutritionist, but I have this theory that if we eat good most of the time we can loosen up once in a while. So I want to encourage you to enjoy visiting family and friends, enjoy good foods from our Valley's abundance.

The message of the first Christmas was, "Peace on Earth and Good Will to Everyone."

Merry Christmas Y'all

Christmas on the Farm

One of my radio bits this week-
[you can here it at http://www.940kyno.com/index.php?c=68]

Christmas Memories

By Paul H. Betancourt
Copyright December, 2011

One of our Christmas memories from when the kids were younger was going to a Christmas tree farm, cutting down a tree and bringing it home.

Decorating the Christmas tree was always a full event at our house. We had Christmas music blaring, hot cider in the crock pot and cookies coming out of the oven. Decorating was a three ring circus, but we knew we had welcomed in Christmas.

I don’t know what your family traditions are, but I hope you have something similar to our memories of decorating the family Christmas tree. Our days, weeks and years are full of endless routines. One of the charms of the holidays is that we stop… and take a moment.

Yes, I know it gets hectic. I wish we could stretch the holidays into January. But, we don’t do that. We cram all the bustle- the food, the presents, the decorations, the parties, faith and family visits all together.

We cherish the time because these truly are special moments in our lives. We might complain about the hassle, but think about what our years would be like without the holidays.

Merry Christmas Y’all.

Bustin' Rocks

I don't know about you, but we have spent most of the week trying to bust rocks. We are preparing some ground to plant almonds next Spring. It has a strong hard pan layer. The rain leaches the minerals out of the top foot of soil and they seal up about a foot and a half down. Even though we ripped the ground two years ago, it was tough. Spent the week breaking ripper points and shear bolts. But, we got 'er done- for now.

We finished watering the first field of wheat. We'll finish the second field next week. We have never been done before Christmas. That feels good. The wheat is already sprouting. We have a long way to go, but we are off to a good start.

Joke of the Week-

I haven't done a joke of the week yet, but this is too funny. I wish I had it a few weeks ago when I wrote about why we continue to farm if it is such a tough way to make a living.

The Montana Department of Employment, Division of Labor Standards, claimed a small rancher was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent to investigate him.


GOV'T AGENT: I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them.
RANCHER:Well, there's my hired hand who's been with me for 3 years. I pay him $200 a week plus free room and board.

   Then there's the mentally challenged guy. He works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of all the work around here.
   He makes about $10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night so he can cope with life.
   He also sleeps with my wife occasionally.

GOV'T AGENT:That's the guy I want to talk to - the mentally challenged one.

RANCHER:That would be me.

I don't know who wrote that. I wish I could give him or her credit.
Ya gotta laugh once in a while. It's good medicine.

I hope y'all have a great week.

P

Independence, Inter-dependence & Dependence

I like the idea of rugged individualism. I think it made America strong. But, I also know I am part of a huge system. I can use a tractor to grow a crop, but I can’t make a tractor. Farmers are proud of mastering multiple tasks like mechanics, welding, hydraulics, agronomy, marketing and bookkeeping. But, no matter how many tasks I master I can’t do it all. I count on other people to make it on the farm.

     Modern civilization is a large and complex system.
     We learn interdependence from biological systems.

I like the idea of rugged individualism, but I am also part of a much larger system and I am OK with that. Independence is good, it is the foundation of our political system. Inter-dependence is part of our complex, modern society. Dependence is what we want to avoid. Being dependent is not healthy.
[you can hear my other radio bits on 940KYNO, or see them on the KYNO website,
http://www.940kyno.com/index.php?c=68 ]

[No, that's not our farm. That is a farm in Germany last Fall. I enjoy seeing how the other guys do it.]
 
Meanwhile, back on the farm...
                    ...it's been another busy week- and windy too.
 
We would have been busy irrigating the wheat, but the irrigation district had to repair the lines. So we had to use the well. As frustrating as that is I appreciate the work they do keeping the system going.
We finished cleaning the equipment. We were also busy working cotton beds, spraying weeds and disking down the cornfield.
 
It got really busy last Thursday and it has gotten cold now. Winter is back in town.
 
We'll keep watering the wheat up. We'll try to get all the wheat watered before taking some time off for Christmas.
 
Hope y'all have a great week.
 
P