Albin news Feb 28, 2010

Albin News Readers,

My apologies for the lapse in news last week! There wasn’t anything on my Albin News radar and everyone I talked to about Albin News said “nothing happened that I know of!” If anything reportable happened last week, send it along and I’ll report it next week. My general operating assumption is that something is always happening to someone but for whatever reason that someone to whom the something is happening isn’t always forthcoming about the particulars. The thing to do is to call that someone you’re thinking about and get the scoop straight from the horse’s mouth. Now for the news.

In community news, Lyle and Sheila Bowman are selling 25 of their angus bulls in the 2011 Vision Angus sale. They have worked hard to put exceptional genetics into their herd and it shows. You can look at the sale catalogue online by going to www.visionangus.com. The sale date is next Monday, March 7, in North Platte, NE. If you have questions, you can get all the details straight from the horse’s mouth by calling 307-246-3281.

Dixie had this update on Tim:

“Tim had good progress this week, but the highlight was sitting up in bed by himself and using the stairs to walk (with our assistance) into and out of the pool!  He continues to ask God to 'answer' quicker with his progress.  We ask you to pray for the suffering-perseverance-character-hope attitude (Romans 5:2-4) to continue as we all watch and 'wait on the Lord' with Tim's healing and restoration. Continue to pray for strength, coordination, balance as we are ever so close to taking those unassisted steps, for vision and voice quality to continue to improve, and for the full function of his left arm/hands/fingers! Tim set up his own Facebook and learning all about his updated phone as many of you know--the computer time has been great for him--he so enjoys reading the texts, wall posts, emails, cards!  He likes to talk on the phone as many of you also know--thank you for your time with your acts of encouragement and prayer support.  Next Sunday will complete our 9th month on this journey---so we ask you to pray for renewed energy, focus, and strength especially for Tim, but also for us, as we walk with Him day by day! (great song!)”

Cindy had this update on Garrett:

“Garrett, are you going to miss me . . . 'NO' . . . well why not . . . 'YOU'RE COMING HOME WITH ME' . . . where am I going to stay . . . 'IN THE GARAGE'. Sounds like I need to have a chat with my son on how to treat a lady :)
Prayers ARE being answered. Speech worked on rehearsal (remember - told a piece of info & you repeat it over & over in your brain) and writing it down. Rehearsal only works if it is for a short period of time. For longer periods (mtgs, appointments) you would usually write them down in a planner, calendar or notes. G did an awesome job this week remembering names or phone numbers till he could write them. His handwriting is getting better with each passing week. The miracles don't stop there - Fri PT told me I needed to buy shoes AND Sat AM when I walked into the room, of course, G said 'I AM HUNGRY'. I said that we needed to go shopping and buy something, what was it . . . 'SHOES'. He remembered -- That's not a PTL moment, that's a PRAISE THE LORD moment.
Speech shows G a letter and he had to pick any word that started with that letter. He did great till the letter A . . . 'MY BUTT' . . . what . . . 'I DON'T WANT TO SAY IT MOM'S HERE'. Thank you, my son, but there's a million and one A words and that's the one you pick :) He gave me a high five.
Speech asked if I had considered a medical ID bracelet. Thought that was a good idea. Dad was being funny & said ' . . . if lost, please call . . .'
PT/OT did discharge measurements. One example with the forearm (elbow against body) supination (cup of soup) or out should be 90 degrees and pronation or in should also be 90 degrees. Both are refreshing my brain on stretching.
G got his L brace and can only wear it a couple of hours a day, then I need to check foot for red areas. The brace is wonderful and so far NO red areas. I was home for only 2 days and Fri G was walking with PT with no walker or e-stim. He is changing every week by leaps and bounds! Mon, she will walk G with brace by itself and a combination of walker/e-stim. See what he does better with. Did I not say YOUR prayers ARE being answered & No Worries!? God is SO good and this process is, sad to say, kind of interesting!
Family mtg was nothing earth shattering . . . Therapies getting packets ready . . . G does not need any more wake up meds, just those specific in attention and cognitive speed . . . Ripley gave his spill on NO alcohol, cigarette smoke and high risk activities that would cause a second head injury (2ndimpact syndrome) - guess Pro Wrestling or Boxing will have to take a back seat for awhile . . . have a 6 wk follow-up. Ripley gave a good scenario . . . you have a V-8 that is missing 2 spark plugs, it still runs but does not respond as fast as it should - it takes more fuel to get the same performance. As with G, it takes a lot of energy and he tires fast. There is NO pushing because like I said before the brain shuts down. Rest is needed. Getting back to the 2 spark plugs . . . FYI we have a connection WAY UP NORTH pondering the 2 spark plugs. He knows what is best - He will decide if G is perfect as he is OR He might have an extra spark plug or 2 - He said they may be available tomorrow :) :) or we may have to wait a year or maybe longer :) BUT not to worry.
Vision clinic - Scott was there andhe did a great job asking my questions. For whatever reason, G does not have double vision any more so no more taped glasses. Seems strange that he has no double vision since his L is still looking up?! (Oh the wonders of the body) Did ask about surgery to drop the L eye if G would find midline or center better - No. Surgery would purely be cosmetic and could actually make him see double again. The R pupil is still fixed but to wait because that's the last to recover.
What to pray for #1 L leg coming along so beautifully - L arm/hand a little slower #2 R eye will fall with no double vision. I have a handsome son and I know when he comes out of PTA, his eye will bother him and probably want to get it fixed #3 attention and cognition - he IS improving every week #4 PTA #5 3 working days left #6 WEDNESDAY Scott surprised us and came down for the day. Didn't know if he could come Wed or not and asked if I could get everything in my car. That would be a big fat NO - amazing how much stuff you accumulate! Took a pickup load home today. I want to go to AM classes and he has pool in PM. I really want HIM (not me) to have one more pool time. He enjoys is very much and does so well. It won't be till summer when he sees another pool again.”

I know spring time is around the corner for sure now because Cabelas sent me a catalogue showing a guy fishing in a t-shirt and shorts. This surely means that you and I, with a little help from Cabelas, can soon put on our summer clothes back on and go fishing.

Yet another sure sign of spring is the return of Master Gardner Ann Sanchez’s addition to the Albin News! Ann had this to say this week:

“The occasional warm weather is giving me hope that soon I'll be out in the garden. This week I'm setting out my plant shelves and connecting the grow lights to timers. It's also a good time to sit down and plan out this year's garden on paper. Putting a plan on paper saves me money because once I start looking at seed catalogs, I get carried away and order more seeds than I need. Our family loves beans, tomatoes, squash, carrots, and corn from the garden, and of course what would a garden be worth if it didn't have a section of herbs?

My goal for this season's articles on gardening will include a paragraph on my journey of building a high tunnel for gardening in my yard. High tunnels will: give extra hours in a growing season, increase my harvest, conserve water use, and most of all add protection from hail and wind. I know that the NRCS is offering contracts that will help pay for some of the expense of putting up a high tunnel, but because of their guidelines and regulations, I decided not to pursue that opportunity.

Nancy Sundin shared with me a fascinating website called; "wintersown.org." This site offers information about starting plants outside even if your weather is still cold. There is also a wealth of gardening ideas and opportunities on this site.

A fun site for herb enthusiasts is: "All About Thyme: A Weekly Calendar of Times and Seasonings." The author of the website is an accomplished author who has written many novels, including mysteries that feature plant lore, woven into her stories. If you enjoy her site, you may sign up for her weekly newsletter.

Until next week,

Ann W. Sanchez”

In ag news, the multi-peril crop insurance price discovery period for corn and sunflowers is now finished. Corn came in at $6.01/bu, confectionary sunflowers at $35.50/cwt, and oil sunflowers at $30.50/cwt. Winter wheat has already been set at $7.75/bu and soybeans, barley, grain sorghum and canola won’t be set until March 15^th. These commodity prices are the same for both the yield protection and revenue protection insurance options. There will be another harvest time price discovery periods to determine if there is an insurable loss or not. Revenue protection insurance is available for corn, sunflowers (oil and confectionary), soybeans, barley, grain sorghum, canola, rice and cotton. Only yield protection insurance is available for other crops such as dry beans, millet, and sugar beets. March 15^th is also the deadline for changing which type of insurance you want for corn and sunflowers.

Albin news Feb 15, 2011

Albin News Readers,

Mother nature sent us all a message this week that we have turned the corner on winter and spring is in fact on it’s way again. When the first cold snap of fall hits, it’s a great motivator to make sure there’s enough food, fuel, etc to make it through the winter. When the first warm snap of spring hits, we start looking around for the seed catalogues, baby chicks, and any good reason to fall in love again. Speaking of seed catalogues, I just got the third one in the mail. A day like today makes me want to call them up and ask for “one of everything please.” I know this is just a warm snap and we have March and April yet to go but it still get the ol’ blood pumping.

In community news, there will be a raffle to support the senior lunch program at the community center. Tickets are $2/each and the prize is ½ of a buffalo processed and delivered to your freezer. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact Michelle Childers at the Albin Community Center (246-3558).

Also, the community center is getting news doors and new gym lights. Because of the construction, the gym will be unavailable for open gym basketball and other events starting the week of the 21^st of Feb and going approximately two weeks. Aside from the gym, the rest of the community center will remain open and available for normal use.

In Ag news, the ag markets have continued to be volatile, mostly in the upward direction. However, as we move into spring, I think it’s safe to say that daily movements of $0.20/bu or more and $1.00/cwt on cattle will become commonplace. On top of this, farming inputs, such as fuel and fertilizer, have also doubled or nearly doubled. Not only does this volatility make it difficult to know when and how much of our crop to market, it’s also hard to know in what way to market crops (hedges, options, cash contracts, basis contracts, etc). Simply put, it can get complicated. What it all boils down to is what the USDA calls “risk management.” They’ve got a subsidiary of the USDA called the Risk Management Agency or RMA, which is responsible for laying out the ground rules for federally subsidized crop insurance.

In a year like this, when the crop prices can shoot up then drop off a cliff, it’s easy to hesitate on taking a good crop price because it’s so easy to be wrong. However, if farmers don’t take some kind of price protection, they could end up raising one of the most expensive crops ever and find it’s not worth much at harvest time. One of the ways to address this is to make a reasonable estimate of what it costs to raise a crop and then try to set a “floor price” that covers these costs and allows for more profit if the market moves up. Typically this is done using options on the futures market (for wheat, corn, or soybeans) or through a written contract with a processor for specialty crops (organic crops, dry beans, sunflowers, millet, etc). However, the RMA has been offering insurance products that would do the same thing on a percentage of the expected crop.

This brings me to my main point which is a way to approach marketing crops in a volatile year like this using a relatively new tool in the tool box offered by the RMA through your regular crop insurance agent. This year, there will be two basic types of crop insurance offered, “yield protection” insurance that guarantees a certain yield, and “Revenue protection” that guarantees a certain revenue to the farmer. The great thing about the revenue protection is that it costs more, but it essentially sets a floor price for you. To do this, the RMA picks a window of time (usually a certain month) and averages out the closing prices for say corn over that month and calls that the price level at which they’ll over insurance. The idea is that they will do this early enough that farmers can decide if their price protection worth getting or if they want to just purchase yield protection insurance and find some other way to protect the price they’ll receive for their crops. As it turns out, the price for 2011 corn is being set over the month of February and so far the closing prices have averaged out to $6.05/bu!! I’m pretty sure that’s a price we would all like to have for a floor for next year. You can watch this process in action at this RMA website link. http://www3.rma.usda.gov/apps/pricediscoveryweb/CropsInDiscovery.aspx The price for winter wheat has already been set and is at $7.15 for next year.

This brings us to the subject of cost. If a farmer has a yield history of 150 bu/ac and insures at the 70% level, then the total revenue guarantee per acre at $6.00/bu would be a whopping $630/acre. Although I’m a youngster, I can remember when good irrigated ground could be bought for $630/ac. To guarantee this revenue will be pretty expensive. However, take a minute and look at it this way. With revenue guarantees this high, you can more than likely guarantee yourself a profit even with the high insurance cost. This means, you can focus on farming and if prices keep going up, you will still benefit.

A way to cut down on the cost of purchasing revenue protection insurance is to look at enterprise units. As most of you know, an enterprise unit is when a farmer combines farm ground on multiple sections and averages the revenue or production protection across a broader area. To do this, you have to have 20 acres or at least 20% of your cropland in multiple sections of ground. Doing an enterprise unit reduces the cost of insurance by 60%. Some may feel like this reduces their chances of getting a settlement. However, it does what good marketing plan should: reduces marketing costs while protecting revenue for the farm as a whole.

In conclusion, the crops that are eligible for revenue protection and enterprise units are corn, wheat, soybeans, and sunflowers. Organic corn and organic wheat are also eligible. Other crops are only eligible for yield protection insurance. There is a March 15 deadline to request for revenue protection and enterprise units. There is no penalty if you do not end up planting a crop in multiple sections.

Albin news Feb 7, 2011

Albin News Readers,

There was an excellent turn out for the Albin community play Friday night. There was a cast of 11 and they did not dissapoint! Duane Anderson played the main character, Harry Monday. Monday was a private eye brought in by country club manager Billi Jean Hodecker (Jill Lerwick) to solve three murders that happen in the opening scene of the play. The club members were all suspects. Members included the foxy Stella Fontaine (Shawnae Branigan), haughty Cecil Deborus (Michael Lerwick), moon child Glamis Ludlow (Chaurise Anderson), the sophisticated David Soames (Caleb Anderson), ditsy Freida Mae Bristow (Heather Lerwick) and Freida's twin sister Anita (also Heather). Tony childers played Sergeant Brogan, a policeman with a strong dislike of Harry Monday. Other actors were Elijah Childers, Naomi Childers and Wesly Lerwick. Brownies and ice cream were served at intermission. A good time was had by all!

There is still open gym basketball at the community center on Thursdays at 7 pm and open swim on Mondays from 4-8 pm.

Dixie had this update on Tim:

“We have had very good days this week and it has been extra encouraging to see and hear Tim speak of his progress!  We have seen increasing strength from lifting legs onto and off beds, speaking, rolling over onto his stomach, getting on his hands and knees ('all fours') on the floor, and watching his left engage to take a step!  He has drug his left leg/foot a few inches by himself so we are close!! We are excited to see what miracles God has in store for him this week!  I think the biggest improvement is seeing him adjust his head and neck to center which holds his eyes in alignment! PTL!! We thank you all for your continued prayer support--it truly is our 'Daily Bread'.  Pray that we might crawl or step this week!  Keep Praying and Believing!”

Cindy had this update on Garrett:

“PT working on walking. Garrett is changing every week, so PT is having a very hard time trying to figure out what to send us home with. They have been working with me with the FES (functional electrical stimulation). G went to a gait clinic this week - there were about 5 therapists brainstorming - trying different braces. G's L foot is wanting to roll out when he stands so trying to correct that. PT is sure he needs a brace & the stimulation to cue L leg.
Oh remember last week, I told you how G ended up on the floor again . . . PT must have read that because one day we sat him on the floor and they showed me how to get him back up sitting on the bed/couch/whatever. I still like my idea of a NAP!
He had pool therapy twice this week. He even went into and out of the water by way of the stairs. When PT worked on stairs with him, he went down backwards, but with pool, we went down the stairs frontwards. He did very very good. Took time . . . cuing the L leg and repositioning the hands.
'OH MY GOODNESS'  . . . what . . . 'THAT FEELS GOOD'. He said that about a million times during massage therapy.
I am happy to announce that the g-tube is out. Ripley came into the room and, before I could say anything, he said we were going to take it out. I said good but how did he know I was going to say anything about that. He said that he knows me . . . (Now, what's that suppose to mean!?!) We chuckled. It looks like a little bullet hole & it heals very fast. Ripley is also starting to adjust some of G's brain meds. One med he has decreased by half.
Speech still working on computer recalling information. Shows G 2 rows of 4 pictures. Computer then shows 1-2-3 of the pictures and G has to remember what they are. He does good with 2 but on the 3 pictures, he always get the L picture wrong. To correct this, a person can cue him to look L - reposition chair so field of vision is better - or, this is the best, using his internal strategy (G turning his head thinking Am I Missing Something?).
Along with the rehearse/repeat approach with memory, Speech worked a day with note taking. Actually she took the notes, but G could answer any question she asked off her notes. She was asking him an emergency scenario and he said 'DIAL 9-1-1-1-1-1-1'.Perseveration is when you get stuck/repetition of something. To correct this, she told G to #1 tell brain you are done talking or #2 hold hand over mouth. G will persevere periodically when he talks or when he writes, his n's and m's will have about 10 humps in them. Speech told me that some people will persevere when they are brushing their teeth. They will brush in one spot till their gums bleed.
What to pray for #1 G WILL walk out of here. I hope I remember and I'm not in such a hurry and we 'load and go'. It may take us a year and a day to get to our car, but he will walk through those doors. #2 L side movement. More and more it is working. Twice OT had him grabbing/releasing nerf balls with his L hand. Thank you Jesus! #3 speech will become clearer and clearer. He really mumbled this week. And with initiation. If we have an hour before the nighttime routine, we will play Uno or go to the bridge and talk. Twice he has asked me 'WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?' #4 PTA/cognition. He still rates an 8 on the GOAT score. #5 8 working days left. #6 unspoken request - PT is going to try to play a trump card.”

In Ag news, calving is in full swing for the February calving herds. The cold has them tucked in close but as soon as the weather breaks there will be little calves running all over the place. The wheat farmers are glad to have a blanket of snow back on top of the winter wheat especially since the wheat price keeps going up! Also, many of you are thinking of starting plants for next year's garden already. I'll check in with Albin's Master Gardner Ann Sanchez to see if she has any advice on what to start and how.

Albin News Jan 31, 2011

Albin News Readers,

After a few weeks of nice weather, the weather has again plunged below zero. Low temperatures in the area hit 20 below zero with windchills of 30 below. I think we can safely say that the winter wheat has gotten the frost it needs to go into winter dormancy. This of course assumes that you planted less than two feet deep. Hopefully we get some snow cover to protect against winter kill.

Lucille Miller has been transferred to the Davis Hospice Center in Cheyenne.

EMT class in Pine Bluffs is going well. The participants from the Albin area are Alicia Woolington, Tony Childers, Zane Willert and Cord Willert.

Les Smith has been in the Cheyenne Regional hospital for the past week after suffering from complications resulting from a spider bite.

Izzy Serrano is walking around with the use of a walker but has been having some problems with headaches. She has been doing some testing to try to find the cause of this but so far doesn't have a clear prognosis.

In Ag news there are a couple things affecting the wheat and cattle markets this week. South Korea, who has imported 25% of US beef exports so far this year, has been culling millions of cattle to contain a foot and mouth epidemic. The South Koreans are currently culling their cattle and pigs in an attempt to keep the epidemic from spreading to the rest of southeast Asia. On top of this, they found 40 cases of the bird flu in their chickens in January and have culled out 5.5 million chickens.

In wheat, there seems to be a stronger than expected demand for our relatively large 2010 carryover. Wheat prices rose after the Black Sea drought and fires and has stayed strong ever since. The higher cost of bread is part of the reason for the rioting in northern Africa and the middle east. Some of the countries have bought large amounts of wheat to at least stabilize the price and hopefully prevent higher prices yet. It's very possible that these riots could end in disintegration of government and chaos, disrupting the delivery and distribution of commodities to these countries.