The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Greetings to everyone in western Illinois.
I'm a hope'n some of you'ns got a little rain over the weekend. Some did and some didn't. Some crops will be better than others for various reasons, include'n the lack of moisture.
The boys have been bring'n in ears of corn and stalks of soybeans. Some ears of corn are better than others, but all ears appear less than desirable.
Black layer is about one-half way down the kernel on some of the ears, and yet, I'm told a few folk are harvest'n corn already at about 29% moisture, not too far south of us.
The bean stalks have about thirty to thirty-five pods on them and still bloom'n. The ones I see are three bean pods with a ways to go to fill out.
A nice shower rain would help the beans fill out better to improve yields. It would also put test weight on the corn.
We've got a lot to look forward to in a short time now. There's the farm progress show in Decatur, IL, the Labor Day festivities include'n Mount Pleasant Old Threshers reunion, and of course harvest.
I'm a see'n a lot of combines, tractors, auger wagons and other fall machinery out and be'n prepared for harvest, as I travel about.
Some of those machines look shiny new as if'n a few folk used these higher commodity prices to upgrade a few pieces of equipment.
School is a start'n already at various places and all the excitement that goes along with it. It's enterest'n watch'n young folk when their first child climbs on the school bus for the first time. It's just the begin'n of part'n of ways and independence for the young'ns.
Buster Jigs told of an enterest'n event he observed the other day at a farm pond of a friend of his up north.
It seems there was a huge large mouth bass flounder'n around and then listless in the water.
It was easy to capture the big monster by hand and bring him to shore. On close observation it was discovered the big bugger had a large bluegill caught in his mouth.
The bluegill was too big to swallow and yet the bass couldn't spit him out.
The bass's eagerness for a good big meal was almost it's demise. He had bitten off more than he could chew, you might say.
Had he not been rescued and the bluegill pulled out of the bass's mouth with pliers, both would have perished.
As it was, only the bluegill suffered and the bass was released to live another day.
One wonders about our government today, while it may have noble goals, are those goals more than we can chew and eventually cause everyone great troubles?
We were promised change twenty four (24) months ago, some of which appeared quite radical, the boys told me.
Recently they presented some figures on change listed as follows:
January January Percent Source
2009 2011 Change
Ave. Retail price/gallon gas in U.S. $1.83 $3.44 84% 1
Crude oil, European Brent (barrel) $43.48 $99.02 127.7% 2
Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel) $38.74 $91.38 135.9% 2
Gold: London (per troy oz.) $853.25 $1,369.50 60.5% 2
Corn, No. 2 yellow, Central IL $3.56 $6.33 78.1% 2
Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL $9.66 $13.75 42.3% 2
Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. Fob $13.37 $35.39 164.7% 2
Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall 7.6% 9.4% 23.7% 3
Unemployment rate, blacks 12.6% 15.8% 25.4% 3
Number of unemployed 11,616,000 14,485,000 24.7% 3
Number of fed. employees 2,779,000 2,840,000 2.2% 3
Real median household income $50,112 $49,777 -0.7% 4
Number of food stamp recipients 31,983,716 43,200,878 35.1% 5
Number of unemployment benefit recipients 7,526,598 9,193,838 22.2% 6
Number of long-term unemployed 2,600,000 6,400,000 146.2% 3
Poverty rate, individuals 13.2% 14.3% 8.3% 4
People in poverty in U.S. 39,800,000 43,600,000 9.5% 4
U.S. Rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings 5 9 n/a 10
Present Situation Index 29.9 23.5 -21.4% 11
Failed banks 140 164 17.1% 12
U.S. Dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate 89.76 82.03 -8.6% 2
U.S. Money supply M1, in billions 1,575.1 1,865.7 18.4% 13
U.S. Money supply, M2, in billions 8,310.9 8,852.3 6.5% 13
Nation debt, in trillions $10.627 $14.052 32.2% 14
Sources:
(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration
(2) Wall Street Journal
(3) Bureau of Labor Statistics
(4) Census Bureau
(5) USDA
(6) U.S. Dept of Labor
(7) FHFA
(8) Standard &
Poor's/Case-Shiller
(9) Realty Trac
(10) Heritage Foundation
and WSJ
(11) TheConference Board
(12) FDIC
(13) Federal Reserve
(14) U.S. Treasury
Sandy Bob pointed out the last item on the list for an example (the national debt).
In the last two years we have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as dur'n the rest of our entire nation's history.
Buster Jigs sez, metaphorically speak'n if'n you are driv'n in the right lane do'n 65 mph and a car rockets past you in the left lane 27 times faster, it would be do'n 1,755 mph!
Bill Jones sez to him that reminds him of Buster's fish story.
"Our appetite could be fatal. Maybe we've bitt'n off more now than we can chew."
As for me, I'm a just gonna have to dwell on them thoughts fer a spell.
Keep on Smile'n
Catch ya Later
Barnyard Bruke