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Ehmke Diaries December 7 Up for Sunday School and choir at church. Then on to the grocery store where Layton and Marit picked out our tree! I think we will also look for a good tumbleweed to put lights on for another room in the house. At noon Marit and Layton played piano and guitar at the Methodist church dinner in Dighton. Great to visit friends there. Then back to Scott City for the Christmas program practice plus decorating of the church. It was great fellowship and fun. Marit gave a Barbie doll to the growing stack of items to give a needy family. That was hard to do because she wanted to keep the doll!! There still is snow on the ground so it's cold outside. Great cover for the wheat. December 8 Busy day for Louise as she hammered out a letter for the contributors for the Festival of Breads baking contest for April. Also spent time catalog shopping and that takes a long time too!! Marit and Layton had piano lessons and then to prepare for 4-H--get our exchange ornament. We met at the hospital--about 15 members. Had our meeting then caroled around the long-term care area. The residents were glad to hear us. Then on outside we walked to a village of older folks. The snowball fights along the way were the main attraction and recreation !! December 9 After
discussing our cash flow and land tax payment coming up as well
as a land loan to pay down, we sold milo and corn at the elevator.
To do that we call the elevator office, they quote us a price
for milo/corn based on the commodity futures traded today. Then
we tell them how many bushels to sell. The office personnel
write the check. Out of that sale price they will deduct so
much per bushel for storing the milo since harvest. I think
it is about 1 cent per bushel. This morning a representative from a chemical company called to interview Louise about women in farming. There's going to be some radio and print specials featuring women in farming and their role comparing it to years ago. Louise spent lots of time with Vance coming up with some ideas and good quotes!! It was a fun interview. Louise told her all about Wheatmania too!! Louise is trying to churn out Christmas cards/letters. Plus prepare for the dairy meeting tomorrow night. That will take planning. December 10 Marit is sick--swollen tonsils and stuffy nose. Prepared for the dairy meeting by running off lots of articles, projection analysis for the directors to review. This will be a critical meeting to decide to go forward or not. Louise also made phone calls concerning some upcoming AAUW meetings--that is American Association of University Women. We will have a quilt show in January. Vance is working on a story so he too is on the phone running down sources. It's beautiful outside with the snow cover. Our dairy meeting went well inspite of the weather turning bad--road became icy with new snow. We have an excellent group of people who are gung ho, willing to take a serious look at a closed co-op concept to build an 1800 head dairy here in Lane County. Our next step is to take a tour of a dairy in Cimarron and talk to some more experts in the field. There's lots of preparation to do and investigation. We did get a site committee going. December 11 Due to hazardous roads and more snow, school was closed again! Layton gave the mules an extra ration!!! I worked on cards. Marit sounds miserable. Sounds of the guitar were heard from the basement all day. Vance worked on books some more and mainly on the loan papers we must complete due to buying this ground. In the afternoon we spent 2 1/2 hours with our accountant looking at how the year is ending. Looks like it has been a good year with crops and OK prices. But we also know that there are the very lousy years due to weather so we need these good years to offset the poor ones. Heard a lot of jokes!! December 12 Worked more on our letters and cards. If you want to get them, you gotta send them!! We really enjoy hearing from our family and friends all over the states and world. It is also time to prepare for Kansas Day celebrations for January 29. I made several calls. Our museum does Kansas Day and this year Louise is the chairman. We will focus on products of Kansas especially byproducts of agriculture. The news today is that wheat price is down again as is milo/corn. We don't like to hear that and are now wishing we would have sold more!! Famous last words of a farmer. On the Market to Market show on PBS commodity prices for the near future don't look too good. So we should have sold!! Vance was at wheat meetings in Great Bend all day. Wheat in the morning and the 21st Century Alliance Board meeting the afternoon which is the closed co-op that looks for added value opportunities for farmers. December 13 It's Santa Lucia Day!! We will celebrate when all the brothers are home plus Marit was feeling terrible. So we will make Lucia buns next week and dress up next Saturday with red/white and candles. Layton will attend the big basketball tournament. And Louise will clean house! Sunday she leaves for a milling and baking short course at Kansas State University.
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