I ran out of space last week to tell you about our recent trip to Madrid, Iowa, for the marriage of a great young couple — the bride is the daughter of our friends Nick and Tanna deHyde.
Ol’ Nevah and I overnighted on Friday with our Platte City, Mo., friends Canby and Mae Bea Handy. Then we headed for Iowa Saturday morning, with the wedding being that evening.
The couple selected a great spot and setting for their marriage — the Snuz Winery east of Madrid. The winery has been established since we left Iowa and now it has a sizable acreage of grapes. There is a wine tasting room and a large banquet hall on the premises.
The pre-wedding party of hors d’oeuvres and a selection or Snuz vintages wuz great and the post-wedding meal was sumptuous.
Sunday morning — a beautiful fall morning — friends and family, plus the bride and groom, enjoyed a mid-morning brunch. Soon after we headed back to KC and the Flint Hills.
We had a great time visiting with old Iowa friends and catching up on all the community news.
We did hear about a funny one-liner spoken in school by Nick and Tanna’s kindergarten-aged grandson, Royce. His mother is the librarian at Royce’s school and one day the kindergartners were playing with Lego blocks. As the class neared the end of the play period, the teacher commented that the only thing they had to do was finish the Lego wall.
At which time Royce piped up, “Is Trump going to help us finish building it?”
And, we adults think that little children don’t pay attention to what’s going on around them? I call them “intellectual sponges.”
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If any grain farmer is thinking there’s even a remote chance of grain prices rising anytime in the near future, I’d like to dispel that thinking. On our trip, about every grain elevator, co-op, or grain handling facility we passed — from right here at home in Chase County all the way to mid-Iowa — has an immense pile of corn in temporary outdoors storage, plus many have build huge new grain storage bins.
The corn and soybeans yields in Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa are superior and of good quality, but they are weighing heavily on the markets.
Cheap grain is once again leading the way to cheap meat and protein prices across the board. Cattle prices are about half of what they were a year ago and this year’s monster harvest hasn’t even been counted yet.
Heck, yesterday in Emporia I saw a supermarket with a sign at the street advertising large eggs for 39-cents a dozen.
I guess the ethanol producers and stockholders are expecting a banner year.
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I had a sad duty to take care of yesterday. My old Brittany bird dog, Annie, came to the end of the line and went to that great bird field in the sky. She wuz more than 12 1/2 years old, which made her 87 years old in human years.
“Annie Oakleaf” wuz her registered name and she wuz a great dog. I got her as a 7-week-old puppy a few months before we moved to Iowa in 2004. Just she and I kept Interstate 35 hot with our trips back and forth to Kansas from Iowa during our move.
She had a great nose for game birds and wuz nearly infallible in finding dead birds and retrieving them to hand.
I’ve had many Brittany bird dogs in my days. Honestly, Annie wuzn’t the best, but she wuz good and one of the most loyal and lovable.
I started raising Brittanys in Stillwater, Okla., in 1967, and have had one or as many as six hunting age Brittanys ever since. I’ve raised was more than 100 pups. But, now I’m down to just one — the rambunctious young Mandy. Truth be known, Mandy stands a good chance of out-living me, so I just may have out-lived my last bird dog. Only time and circumstances will tell.
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Speaking of pet animals, I saw on TV just yesterday the problems that airlines are having with so-called “comfort” animals riding in the not-so-friendly skies with their inconsiderate owners. These comfort pets include such critters as Great Dane dogs, meowing cats, a turkey, a turtle, a kangaroo, a pot-bellied pig, a parrot, etc.
I ask: just how stupid and inconsiderate have we become as a society? I have nothing against unusual pets and I “get” how they can “comfort” some folks. But, riding in an airplane with their owners is a bit much. Don’t the owners have any consideration of their fellow passengers who have already endured a head-to-toe pat down by the TSA? Wake up, people.
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An Iowa friend just emailed me some “Maxine” cartoons. With full credit to Maxine, here’s some of her comments that I loved: “Voting is like choosing your favorite mosquito in a swarm.” “Personally, I think conservatives and liberals should move towards the middle of the road. Makes it easier to run ‘em over.” “The economy is so bad, Exxon-Mobile laid off 25 Congressmen.” “They hold elections in November because it’s the best time for picking out a turkey.” And, “I’m starting to wonder how bad four years with no president would be?”
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Time to visit the pumpkin patch for your Halloween decorations. Go visit a local one, like Nevah and I did. They’re great folks providing a great product and service. Have a good ‘un.
