MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH

The barley crop is terrific, running 90 to 115 bushels per acre--so much product that the storage bins are filling and the barley plant is so busy that it takes most of a day to get one truck unloaded--all that according to Mavis and Dad on the phone yesterday. The beets are looking good too, and soaking up all the water that the system will pump, so maybe (assuming no hail) it will be a year of bumper crops. Great news!

It was 101 degrees at 1:00 pm yesterday, and likely hit 105 in the later afternoon(while we suffered at 83 in Tucson! In fact, we have had 8.5 inches of rain in the past week, more than fell all of last year!! The desert is lush and beautiful, and the rivers are overflowing. It is quite amazing to see.)

Will and Trista are settled in their new home in Cartwright, although Will is spending most of his time in the cab of the combine these days. Mavis also reports that Abbie, Luke and Tara's new baby, is very cute. Couldn't be any grandmotherly bias there, of course.

Dad says he gets out walking to survey the crops, and stay healthy, whenever it isn't too hot. And, he says he feels pretty good for a 92-year-old! Amen for that!

So, it sounds like the home base is functioning very well. Always glad to hear that!

Bill