Planting is over

Much of the pressure is off now so I find myself with a little time to add to the blog.  We are happy to report that the planting is over.  We had a hard time getting the ground cleared fast enough in a short window of time so we were only able to seed about 1,500 hectares (3,705 acres).   Not too bad considering we have only been able to utilize half the equipment we expected with only one disk and one drill.

Here are some views from the air as we were all flown out to have a weekend retreat mixed with business to Lake Langano, ET thanks to Paul

 A good view of the camp.  Can you believe all this was nothing but trees and brush last January

 Vern was kind enough to hand over the controls for the last half of the flight, very nice.....

 Some of the view along the way.  These pictures don't do it justice

The pilot Vern Bell and me.  

An interesting thing about Vern is that he was Ethiopian born who's parents were Christian missionaries.  It's very impressive to hear a white guy speak fluently in their native tongue.

 The view from our room

 The lobby of Hotel Haile

The Next day was a Morrell Agro sponsored field day to help promote the wheat and barley varieties we are introducing into their country

It was complete with the ceremonial handing out caps and everything (except there were no door prizes)

We had a panel discussion on dry farming practices and varieties of grain

A trip out to the fields

A small field of Teff which is what injera is made from

Morrell employee, Mekonen giving his spill and playing a major role in the success of the event

Then came the big feed.  One of the few things I recognized  were potato chips at the bottom of the picture,  Bon Appetite!

The next day we went to church at a small branch in Awassa.  It was nice to attend an official church after being so far away for all these weeks.  

Then we were soon off in land cruisers to Goba (about 4-5 hrs. away) where the next day we were to meet with some VIP's from John Deere 

A view from a mountain pass along the way

This is a hotel that Chombe, the Ethiopian John Deere dealer, owns and the stage for the big meeting.  On top of the VIP list was Dave Everitt, president of region 1 & 4.  (Google him for further information) There were many others in his entourage from South Africa to Des Moines, IA  This was quite the treat for local farmers to have such representatives from John Deere.

We unfortunately didn't get to have much time with them due to time constraints.

We were spared the miserable 6 hr. ride from Goba to the farm on rough roads by being able to fly from nearby Robe.  Before that Clair and Bracken departed from us to travel to Addis to ready themselves to go back to the USA.

Things here at the farm are a bit more peaceful now.  We are preparing to spray the grain which is growing rapidly.  Soon after we are looking forward to the visit from our daughter Morgan and her husband Andrew and our two precious granddaughters.