Rain, Rain, Go Away!

This weather has to be frustrating for those trying to harvest wheat and put up a hay crop. It is nice to have everything so lush and green going into the hot, dry summer months, but the general feeling from those in eastern Kansas is that we need a dry stretch of weather.

I'm posting a map from one of our computer models that shows the weather pattern will change for next week. It looks very much like a summer pattern taking hold with the stronger winds staying well north of Kansas. The high pressure system will set in overhead and the heat will be increasing across the Plains. In a typical summer, this high pressure system will not break down until late August or early September when strong cold fronts begin to approach from the north. This is also about the same time we can expect the humidity to go away. Feels like Costa Rica around here lately with all of this humidity in the air.

Paintball Anyone?

I was fortunate to have Saturday off this week, which allowed me to try something I've never done before. Paintball! Have you played this sport yet?
It was a bachelor party that led us down to Derby and we spent 5 hours hiding behind trees, brush, hay bales, etc. just hoping to eliminate the other team by blasting them with paintballs. I think I have a pretty high pain tolerance but that didn't ward off the nervousness of getting hit with a paintball. Everyone had been telling me all week how bad it stings when you get hit, so I was skeptical when we arrived. I made it through most of the day unharmed, but on one of the last few courses of the day, I took a bad hit in the neck. I'll have to do my best at covering it with some thick makeup (yes, the guys on TV wear makeup).

It was a nice, very warm, muggy Kansas afternoon with no wind, so the conditions were just right for excessive sweating. The recent rainfall has really helped increase the mosquito population and we witnessed it first hand while hiding in the wooded areas. I know there were two pictures taken on Saturday and if I get my hands on them, I'll post it here. Have a good week.

Signs of the Season

I know the wheat crop this year is less than desireable in many places, but as I drive back and forth from work, I notice the area fields are turning more and more yellow so harvest is very close. There is another sign that harvest time is almost here and it is the lightning bugs that are showing up in the area. We would entertain ourselves in the harvest field by trying to catch them while we waited for a load of wheat to take into the elevator.

Growing up as kids, we enjoyed the wheat harvest because it was a chance to pack our lunch and eat in the field, make trips to the elevator, and of course, ride in the combine. The adults looked at harvest as more of a headache because there was always some sort of mechanical breakdown and of course, you were racing against Mother Nature's impending round of golf, which usually wiped out one of the best crops in years.

Memories were made with cousins and close friends at harvest time and I've attached a few pictures from those days. Yes, a few years have passed since these pictures were taken and the style of sunglasses has changed too, I think. I hope my brother, sister, and cousins aren't upset when they see these great photos on the world wide web.