The land we bought is signed up for CRP (Conservation Reserve Program). You know, the government paying farmers not to farm. It was signed up before we bought it and we can't get out of the contract until it expires. One will expire 2009 and one will expire 2010. We'll fence it in and use it for pasture as soon as it expires.

Checks come out in October. After we had signed all the papers to buy the place, DH had gone to the FSA office to change things and sign papers there. The guy there said that I didn't have to sign anything...only DH had to. That was a few months ago. Well, I called to see when those checks would come in. They said that there was a problem...I needed to sign some papers before they would cut my checks. ??? The guy had told DH that we didn't need to do anything else.

So, I drove in to town and signed a few papers. They then explained to me that there were three different contracts on the ground, so each of those have to be paid separately and because there are two of us on the contract each of us would be getting three checks. So, they wasted their time and our tax money to send us 6 checks instead of 1. And all in separate envelopes too!

I have been thinking awhile about opening a store on Cafe Press. That is a web site where you can upload sayings and images and they put them on t-shirts, hats, mugs, etc, and people can buy them. There is a base price and you can add a little (or a lot) to the price and that is how you make your money. For instance, the cheapest t-shirt is $8.99, and you can add a dollar or two to that price and if anyone buys that t-shirt you get that money.

I have 8 ideas right now, mostly just saying that I think are cute or funny. I made two of them and loaded them up to Cafe Press. You can have a "free" store, but you can only have one image on each item for that, or you can pay $7.00 a month and have any image on any number of items (for instance, for free, I can only have one type of $8.99 t-shirt, but if I have the $7.00 per month subscription, I can have any of them on the $8.99 t-shirt).

Has anyone made any money on cafe press? Do you think it is worth it to pay $7.00 a month?

We are cutting our soybeans today. Send good thoughts and prayers our way for high yield, no breakdowns, and a safe harvest!