Another Busy Sunday

It seemed like we had just gone to bed, when the radio came on to wake us up this morning. It had been a short night, but it was time to get going again. We drove down to Menno from Ponderosa Falls RV Park in time to take a quick trip up the hill to check on how the newly planted winter wheat on our ranch was doing. You could see from a distance that there was definitely a greenish cast to the hillside --

As we got closer and could look down the rows, we could see that it was all pretty well up and doing well --

I realized this week when I was talking to some folks that many people don't understand how we raise wheat in our part of Washington State. This is dryland wheat in an area of the state that only averages 7-9 inches of rain per year. Therefore we raise a wheat crop on half of our ground every year. The other half of the ground lies fallow (not in crop) to gather moisture for the next year's crop. Wheat is planted right after harvest on the ground that had lain fallow the year before. It is planted in deep furrows (4-5 inches deep), deep enough to get into moisture that is sufficient to sprout it. We then hope that it won't get rained on until it sprouts and is up. That way the ground won't form a crust which won't allow the tender shoots to come through.

Those nice green rows will spread out (stool) some before winter and develop a good root system. It then goes dormant in the cold winter -- hopefully with a nice snow cover -- and doesn't start growing again until the following spring.

Before the Mennonite settlers brought the winter wheat seeds with them when they came from Russia, Americans only raised wheat that was planted in the Spring. If they didn't get sufficient rain, which often happened, the crops failed. The winter weed varieties are what made America a "breadbasket for the world."

This year the fields around Menno Mennonite Church were in crop and what you see are the fields of stubble left after the wheat was harvested. These stubble fields will be tilled later and then left to lie fallow until next year.

After church we went into Ritzville and had sandwiches and bean and bacon soup with an 85 year old friend. It was a delight to spend a couple of hours chatting about everything and anything with Earl. He has recently published a memoir, A Pebble in the Water, which details much of the history of his pioneer family.

We arrived back at Ponderosa Falls just in time to watch the last day of bull-riding in Tampa, Florida. It was another good but busy day.