Well, here is the agenda for the next 36 hours:

--Finish writing checks for year-end expenditures. Mail checks.

-Head to Ohio for basketball. Meet vendor and drop off check on way. Continue trip to Ohio. Whoops, forgot to drop kids off at Grandma and Grandpa’s. Continue to Ohio.

-Watch Rachael work her game (we are both basketball referees on the side). Work my game. Head to hotel around 10 p.m.

-Get up in morning, drop Rachael in time for pre-game at 10:30. Head north 30 minutes to pick up a head cart trailer. Go back to game site, watch game. Head home, pulling trailer. Don’t forget to pick up children! -Triple check year-end calculations. We have to use those theatre passes to a Christmas Carol! Prepare to host guests from Illinois for New Years.

-Somewhere on the trip, spend quality time with the wife. Do you think we could call that date night too? Wait, I have to clean the truck before we can leave. Maybe it would be easier to install a hitch on the van.

Crazy is normal these days

Very little of the above has to do with farming, but that’s taken up time as well. I share this schedule just to show craziness is normal in our household. I have spent the better part of the last few weeks gathering prices then comparing and contrasting programs. We have examined hundreds of field plots, and reviewed spec sheet on variety after variety, hybrid after hybrid. I have read countless pesticide labels. I have made notes, lost notes, and made them again. I have been frustrated at constantly rising fertilizer prices while watching grain prices slide. I won’t tell you I’m convinced there is some price gouging going on. However, not that it means anything until final seed plans and allocations, I am proud to announce the plan is made. For 2017, we have a starting point.

I didn’t even find time to write my annual best of/ worst of blog. Maybe next year!