Nut House, Stable Boys, Crop Circles

By Pete Burmeister on

News From The Coffee Shop

May 11, 2012 10:07 AM

My wife graduated from the University of Northern Iowa's graduate school this past week. She doesn't like to brag, so I'll do it for her. It was quite an accomplishment. The way she managed a full time job, a toddler, a husband who works and farms, and a graduate program at the same time for 2 1/2 years without being committed to the nut house in Independence deserves an 'at a boy! The graduate ceremony was held on a Friday night. As usual, there was pomp and circumstance surrounding the event along with scattered names throughout the program that I couldn't correctly pronounce. Most were PhD students who were being "hooded" by their major professors. Thank God there were only a hand full. I was able to keep my composer through most of it, but when Wing Sez Winnie Wong hit the stage...... we'll c'mon! We celebrated the graduation by hosting a small party in the shop the next day.

If you've read this blog in the past week, you're aware that Saturday was also the running of the Kentucky Derby. As you could probably tell, I'm a horse racing fan. This year's Derby went down as most do, Churchill Downs and NBC walked away with the lions share of the profits while the stable boys walked away, well... dead. There's a dark side to every sport and the dark side to horse racing happens in the stables. Costas ought to get a microphone in front of the hired help if he wants to sell more TV, I guarantee some good stories would develop there. On second thought, that might be a better job for the folks at ABC. They seem to specialize in smear campaigns (ie. LFTB). There won't be a triple crown winner this year yet again. If Bodemeister breaks well at the Preakness next weekend, nobody will catch him on the shorter track. The Maryland Jockey Club does have a marketing jewel in I'll Have Another though, as they double down on all-you-can-drink-beer and rock concerts at the track on race day in an effort to promote the sport to younger generations. It won't work. The Preakness Stakes will be run on another track in the near future.

We're almost finished with planting season 2012. We actually missed a lot of the heavy rain and were able to be in the field every day this past week. For the record, the ground is working up almost as perfectly as one could hope for. All the time in the tractor must have the old man's wheels spinning. He was talking about planting square fields in circles the other day. My initial reaction was.... you're off your rocker! After talking it through, he's now got me wondering why they don't plant the irrigation pivots out west in circles, which would be the same shape. There would be a lot less turning. Please advise to prburmeister@gmail.com.