Bump

That is a term (*bump*) that they use on one internet discussion board that Lou and I follow, when a new topic is stuck on the back pages and they want to bump it up to the first page so more people see it. The more responses, the quicker they move them, apparently. I notice that I am on the bottom of the blog links that the kids have to the side of their blogs, so it feels like it is my turn to write something new here. And it has been over a week ...

In the grand scheme of things, there isn't much new happening -- normal farm and business stuff -- but if I wrote every day (Like Lisa Hesse does -- thanks Lisa!!) there would be a paragraph or two each day. Maybe I need to become more disciplined and try it every day; maybe that would bore you all to tears. I am not in the New Guinea countryside treating medical cases...

After Christmas, January becomes "budget month" because the farm operating loan comes up for renewal on Feb. 1st. But first, I had to finish Christmas ... I finally got Jason and Rachel's gifts sent off about the 15th. I knew it was going to be a little late, then after Dec. 25th I breathed a sigh of relief and tried not to think about Christmas anymore, so it took me a couple of weeks to get back to it, unfortunately. I will do better next year.*

And so, that package finally in the mail, I turned to the farm budgeting. Lou used to do this but it was stressful for both of us and it's all in the computer anyway so it makes sense for me to just do it, and after 10 years I am pretty good at it. I turned it in last week and it was approved the next day -- some sort of record, I think, since it often takes 2-3 weeks. Maybe I just beat the other folks who renew at this same time. If we can follow that budget, it was an easy one to renew, showing a nice profit margin again and Chris had done a bunch of ratios already in his end of year summary. They renewed it for three years this time, which will save us 2 years' renewal fees, so I guess we're finally on their "good side" again. It has been exactly 10 years since ABT and a bad crop year almost sunk us.

I have also been wrestling with sending out W2s for our employee(s) and doing the 1099s. Only doing this once each year makes it hard every time to remember what needs to be done and for whom... we pay equipment payments as family rents and corn as wages sometimes, none of which fits the way Quickbooks assumes it would be done but all legal. This makes for some remembering and finnaggling that needs to be done before printing them, and some IRS rules that go counter to how one might think they would go, so a few extra emails were sent to Chris this week for advice and clarification. I think I am done finnaggling now and plan to print soon. They need to be in the mail this weekend.

Last weekend (Dec. 17-18) we went to a hockey game in Seattle and visited the Halls -- Shane blogged about that some already. The hockey was the excuse to go over there, and then I got the date wrong and we missed our 'free game' on Friday, but found one Sunday night. That actually gave us more visiting time so it worked out just fine.

On Friday Ben spotted a large diesel fuel tank on craigslist that interested him. Fuel prices doubled last year between January and when they were doing the majority of their usage while chopping, so buying ahead and in bulk (another 20 cents/gallon discount) would have saved money last year and should save money over time even if we don't get so high on prices this summer (which I hope we don't!). Since the tank is located 50 miles from Vancouver, WA, Lou thought we could go buy it (so nobody else got it -- they are sort of hard to locate) and continue down to Hillsboro since we didn't make it there in December. It was a quick trip -- they always are, it seems -- but a nice enough visit and church on Sunday at St. Peter's. Sorry we didn't get to see anyone else this time. It is getting harder and harder to be away from the farm for more than 2 days anymore; maybe I am just becoming more of a homebody. Lou will be gone all of next week but Kit will be here for 1/2 of that to help Ben out with pig stuff. Speaking of pigs, apparently they got out on Saturday before we left for the fuel tank at noon -- Lou was moving a batch and told Ben about them. Ben discovered a couple hours later that some were out and rounded them up, but on MONDAY, after about 16 returned on their own, they went looking for more and found about 100 that had spent 2 days out and about -- they were clear out at 'Hellengone' about a mile north of here -- and it took most of the day to get them herded back to Denver and loaded on a truck and back home again. They had to have been out for a lot longer than 2 hours to have gotten that far away. They just seem to know when Lou's gone and love to harass Ben in this way. They'd better be careful; the prices aren't too hot right now and we might decide to send the whole lot of them to market!!

*please don't quote me on this next Dec. 26th