Flood Resources

Despite the threat of severe weather ebbing for a time, the flooding in Gibson County has been widespread, continues to be widespread, and will likely be a threat for the near future.

To ease the burdens of those dealing with flooding, emergency managers and organizations in the county are mobilized. To ease the troubled minds of any in the county, Purdue Extension has ample information (the best way to fight fear) on mitigating flood damage or cleaning up after the damage has been done.

For paper copies of any publication, please call the Gibson County Purdue Extension Office. One of the better resources we have to offer is called "First Steps to Flood Recovery," and this publication is currently available in our office, at the Red Cross office in Princeton, the USDA offices of SWCD, FSA, and NRCS in Princeton, and at the Gibson County Heath Department. A web link to the information is available at this address: http://www.extension.purdue.edu/floodpub/.

The Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) is the main source for extension materials on natural disasters. By going to http://eden.lsu.edu/Topics/Hazards/Floods/Pages/Default.aspx, you can prepare yourself.

If you've been watching any of the broadcast meteorologists, you've heard the grim report that, despite all the tornadic activity in the Southeast and Midwest thus far, May is the month when most tornadoes occur, on average. Please prepare accordingly: http://eden.lsu.edu/Topics/Hazards/Tornado/Pages/default.aspx.

Should versus Am

Well, it's muggy, humid day in Gibson County. Still a little wet from some light rain this morning. The South Annex is pretty comfortable on floor one, but cool air sinks.

What I should be doing for the remaining three hours until the Farm Bureau meeting tonight: Catch up on climate change research, go through about 12 soybean rust articles, and get to work on formatting a newsletter.

What I will undoubtedly be doing: Glued to weather.unisys.com and weather.gov, I will impatiently watch for radar updates and soak up as many different forecast discussions on the possibilities of severe weather this evening. In the end, this cold front that is setting up ever so slowly will probably arrive after dark, ruining convective instability. The front will also probably wait until I'm already in bed to produce an unspectacular thunderstorm for the sole purpose of robbing me of sleep.

Maybe both shoulds and wills get done this evening. One can always hope. Either way, farm visits tomorrow should restore my normal unwavering positivity.

In Need of Rainy Days

I spent two years over in Orange County from 2008-2010 serving in a split 4-H and Ag position with Purdue Extension. Now, during that time, in a county known mainly for woodlands and cattle grazing, contacting farmers was not too difficult. Everything was put on hold to cut hay, but everyone tended to have a slightly different schedule for cutting hay. Only a handful of farmers had enough tillable acres to really be off-the-grid during planting season. Gibson County is nothing like Orange County. Anhydrous tanks are on the move, sprayers are burning down weeds, and I cannot really contact ANYONE unless precipitation is actively falling. Allow me to amend that last statement: I feel awful attempting to contact ANYONE when this much is happening around the county. Farmers are some of the more outgoing, cordial folks around. Very few will intentionally skip or screen a phone call. Which compounds the sense of guilt I feel by asking them to take time out of their day to discuss plans for researchers to scope out their fields. Important business, but none-too-urgent when knives full of anhydrous are going into the ground. So, this is a great time of year to wait for rain while building a newsletter email list. For updates on Gibson County and surrounding area agricultural and natural resource news, send an email to hschmitz@purdue.edu. Newsletters start going out in May.

Now, where was I again?

Campus specialists south of 40 always make me extra-wary to be on my best behavior. Bob Nielsen, a fine human being and corn extension specialist for Purdue University, is on a roadtrip through Gibson, Posey, Spencer, and Jackson counties in Southern Indiana this week. If you missed him in the far SW IN, you still have time. But not much.

In other news, I'm pretty proud of the fact that I can flex time the first two hours of my day out, stroll into the office at 10 A.M., and still be completely confident that I'll be doing some form of work for the next 12 hours. They only call it flex time until you break.

Master Gardener classes are going strong. The third week here in Princeton starts in an hour and a half, a nice little Plant Disease number led by yours truly. Well, it's the internet, so yours falsely seems more appropriate.

Now, I have a little soybean survey to finish up for Orange County and the wonderful folks over there. They had a little problem with Sudden Death Syndrome this past year, but I won't hold that against them.

Busy Busy Busy

The Gibson County Community Foundation's annual farmer meeting is today, with none other than Max Armstrong (http://www.tribuneradio.com/max.htm) as the keynote speaker. Over the weekend, it's Farm Life Family Day at Angel Mounds in Evansville and the Beef Preview Show in Princeton. All the while, I keep my eyes on Egypt, where the true power of peaceful opposition has exhibited itself in a wonderful way. What wonderful times in which to live!

For those of you that know me, such optimism is scarce. I justify it here by observing that when the underdog wins, and the status quo is rejected fiercely, pessimism must take a quick hiatus to celebrate iconoclasm.

Area Corn and Soybean Day

I'm excited. Sure, there is a lot going on before the end of this month, and a lot that I get to feign responsibility for. But, then, on Jan. 28th at the Gibson County Fairgrounds, I get to relax a little bit and listen to Hans Kok, enjoy a great meal, and let someone else lead the PARP (pesticide applicator's recertification program). Plus, it'll end out what has already proven to be a rather stressful month. Stay warm out there...and the Area Corn and Soybean Day is open to the public, so join me, won't you?

Next Week in Gibson County

Master Gardener class sign-ups are underway, and one application is already in and accepted. We're hoping for a 12-16 person class this year, and we may just reach that goal.

Farm Winter Workshops continue Monday night (Jan. 10) at GSHS with Andy Lowry discussing the current state of beef genetics, AI, and sire selection.

From my end, I'm in the middle of preparing a funding proposal for climate change education, as well as developing a flyer for an Indiana state youth dairy leadership program.

I've also been admonished earlier today at the dentist for my level of coffee intake. I maintain that the level of caffeine intake required for sanity continuance cannot decrease.