Last week was a hard week.
My DH came down to the south house to work on the living room with me. He came down Wednesday night, he worked on painting Thursday during the day while I was at work, and then when I got home, I helped. We worked all day Friday painting and then all day Saturday finishing up the little stuff. It looks good (I think it does at least).
Before:
After:
And final kitchen shot...we added the curtains that were in the living room and got new ones for the living room:
We got a phone call on Thursday night saying that our wheat got hailed out. I was freaking out. We have been spending a lot of money in the past 5 months (a LOT LOT LOT), especially last month with filling up the 600 gallon diesel tank (on the credit card) and buying new belts for the baler, and selling the wheat was going to allow me to pay that card and put some money back for the upcoming months.
His dad called first and said it looks pretty bad, but we might be able to cut it with a pickup reel. We have hail insurance, but only for $4000, which would cover our contract, so basically, we wouldn't owe the coop money for the contract, but we wouldn't make any money if we couldn't cut it. He said that because it wasn't quite ready yet, it didn't shatter as much as some of the other wheat that got hailed.
His brother called later and said it basically looks like crap. Our neighbor called to say the same thing. I was just totally freaking out.
We didn't get home until late on Saturday, so it was almost dark. We went out Sunday afternoon to look at it. It does look like crap. It was about 3 feet high and now it is broken over at about 1.5 feet. But, most of the heads still have the berries in them. So, if we can cut it close enough to the ground and use the pickup reel, we might be able to salvage some of it. And, the insurance agent is supposed to come look at it...we may get something out of that.
I feel better after seeing it, but still am nervous. The credit card is due July 6 and even though DH should be getting paid for the work he did in June, I won't be able to deposit it in time to pay it. Usually the wheat is in the bin by now, so this is hard to plan for. This will be the first time in about 5 years that I will have had to pay interest on the CC.
Working on the bathroom now. In fact, I shouldn't have been lurking around here for the past hour and should have been painting.
Oh yeah, we had an open house on Sunday. That is why we worked so hard on the living room (we worked until 6 in the morning on Friday, then got a few hours sleep before starting again). My RE agent sucks. She doesn't advertise. Only one person came, and that person had just been wandering the neighborhood. That person wasn't interested. The RE agent gave me a list of excuses as to why the house hasn't sold yet. She said the contract is up on July 2, and if I want to resign with her, she would be happy to sell it for me! Whatever. I called the agent that I used when I bought the house, and she is going to come over sometime to look at it. I told her some of the things my agent had been saying and she just laughed, like "what an idiot" (about the other RE, not me, I hope). She is with a bigger company, she said she has sold about 6 houses in the small towns around here in the past few months. I need to get the first agent to give me a copy of the contract, and if it really isn't over July 2, then I need her to release me from my contract. Cause she sucks.
So, that is why my week sucked last week. Hail on the wheat. No sale on the house. Credit card due next week and no way to pay it now.
I called my mom and told her about the hail. I was expecting some sympathy or encouragement or reassurance. I got "that's farming". Well, yes, I know that, but geez, a little empathy would be good. She called back the next day and it was better. She said their first year their wheat had mosaic in it, and only yielded 10 bu/acre (which sucks) so she knew how I felt. That's better.
Last thing. I sold my couch and chair on craigslist (I think I blogged about that already...it was for $350) so I bought a newer couch for $350 that fit better in the south house and north house living room. Ok, that would have been better to the CC. But I am trying to stage this house. No furniture looks terrible. And the old furniture looked terrible in this room. So, no, I'm not going to feel guilty about that.
And, I started my diet today. I'm doing Atkins. I went to the doctor yesterday and about fell off the scale with shame. I told the Dr about my situation (working 10 hour days, the commute, stress of living away from my husband, stress of trying to sell the house, the knee surgery that put me on my back for a few months so I got off the working out habit) and she said, yes, that is common, but you aren't too far gone yet. Ok, I can do this.
Oy vey
July 2nd, 2008 at 02:08 am
July 2nd, 2008 at 03:36 am 1214969774
I remember my dad watching the weather reports and cursing. The corn needed the rain, it was bad for the oats (if the heads were turning yellow rain can produce a rot), and the alfalfa hay was cut and it needed three days of sun in a row. No matter how the weather played, it wasn't good.
July 2nd, 2008 at 04:27 am 1214972838
One good thing about the hail is that we had milo planted in the field beside the wheat and it got hit too...but that is good for it! It got knocked back a bit, and now it will spool out and should produce at least two heads instead of one on the same plant! If the rains keep coming, that will turn out ok. And, as soon as we cut this wheat we are going to bale the straw and go in with soybeans right away because we have a lot of moisture right now.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm 1215002455
Your room does look much better!
July 2nd, 2008 at 03:43 pm 1215013425
July 2nd, 2008 at 03:49 pm 1215013761
July 2nd, 2008 at 07:52 pm 1215028372
July 2nd, 2008 at 08:04 pm 1215029048
I wish I could help with the hail. Can you send some of it to No Cal? We need it!