Sunday, July 4, 2010

Fields of Gold

The crop has progressed rapidly and we find ourselves preparing for harvest.


This is a picture taken a short time ago of our wheat at the farm at Beltu, Ethiopia



The wheat kernels look good so far.

Shelley and I are soon to return to Ethiopia where we will be harvesting our first crop. We have had the crop attacked by army worms and a fungus called rust, and it has taken a toll but we should still get a decent crop of seed wheat.


As the crop in Ethiopia has been maturing I have been busy dividing my time between Morrell Agro Industries and my personal family farm here in Idaho, trying to hand over the responsiblities to my brother and son in-law as Shelley and I take on the this adventure in Ethiopia for the next couple of years. I didn't realize how many responsibilities I had accumulated over the years that needs to be handed off and its hard to let go, even though it is is for a short term.

Our spring in Idaho has been cold and wet. We have not been able to plant our grain easily between storms. In fact we weren't able to finish planting until June 14 which is very late for us. Despite the late planting our Idaho crop looks good so far.

It has been a challenge trying to help manage duties in Ethiopia while waiting for their national elections to run its course over the last two months. Fortunately the elections were peaceful this go round.

Wes and Alyssa chose to stay in Ethiopia along with their son and five other children they are trying to adopt. They helped being the eyes and ears of the farm as his main responsibilities are to be the project director and complete much of the infrastructure on the farm. I have recieved pictures and comments from our good helpers on the farm Natnael (Nati), Nahom, and Haile. They have done a good job managing tasks of spraying the grain for pests and other necessary task that come up.

Bracken, his brother Dex and I took the five Dodge pickup trucks from Idaho down to the port of Houston, TX last week which will be shipped over to Ethiopa.

Two 5500 Dodge Rams pulling gooseneck trailers which carried two 2500 pickups and one 2500 pulling an enclosed tool trailer.  We traveled about 1,800 miles to get there and we enjoyed the drive and secenry along the way.  These pickups should turn some heads when they get there because they don't have pickups like these.

Shelley and I will be posting a little more often after we return to Ethiopia so we can keep all informed of our experiences. 

1 comment:

Air Coupler said...

Hello,

Now farmers also try to transport their goods through trucks, it is safety to provide some tips about the mechanical parts of it. Thanks a lot.