While I’m still annoyed at the 10 inches of rain in April cancelling my early soybean planting, knocking out our entire corn planting in one stretch into some surprisingly good soil conditions was very nice. Started May 3, finished May 9, 361 acres. On to soybeans Monday.

Me as I sit in a diesel tractor planting a diesel intensive crop reading about how we will run out of diesel this summer. Will I get to harvest this stuff?

I don’t know if we should order more diesel now at the highest price in my life, or wait a few more weeks and then maybe have higher prices or no supply. Uhhhhh

Planted on Monday. The tiniest nubbin of a root is emerging.

I remember when craft beer fanatics in Chicagoland would literally follow delivery trucks around to pick up fresh drops of this beer. It was insane. Went like that for years. Now it’s just on every shelf all the time.

224 acres of corn planted. 135 to go. The biggest holdup has been dad doing tillage work ahead of me. He gets distracted on side quests I think, and then I show up at the next field and he’s still there working when he should have been done two hours ago.

It has finally begun

Maybe I’m being too optimistic here. I don’t know how much further diesel prices will break. $6 diesel is already going to suuuuuuck

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 Corn planting may happen tomorrow. This is an alert 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

Bluntly, there are two farmers around me that I hope actually do go bankrupt this year. They suck as people anyway, and I want to farm some of the land they farm. I’m usually a nice person I swear.

But my crushing student loan debt is a personal failure that should sink me for life.

On Wednesday, after a warning from @gasbuddyguy.bsky.social I topped off my truck at $3.99 a gallon. Four hours later after getting distracted by farm work, I filled up the drone charging generators tank at $4.29 a gallon. Yesterday, prices went up again to $4.49. Are we winning yet?

It won’t stop raining so we can dry out, so zero planting. This is not good

Using very expensive diesel to spread expensive fertilizer (at least we contracted it in December or it would be very very expensive) with a tractor from the 1980s using 2020s autosteering and rate control technology.

It’s amazing that after an hour on the phone with Putin, Trump comes out a dithering wreck—mixing up countries and parroting Kremlin propaganda verbatim, claiming Ukraine has lost—in comments that are remarkable, even by his standards. And now talk of removing troops from Germany?

Motherfuckers

Up 20 cents this morning in SE Wisconsin. I hate this timeline

Definitely an ‘I hate living in this timeline’ morning

More details and this may be underestimated now: bsky.app/profile/gasb...

As an addinitional food lament for the day, a good quick service breakfast burrito does not exist anywhere in this area.

A modest amount of rain overnight and now it’s windy and partly sunny. I can see us starting to plant perhaps on Friday. Maybe get some nitrogen fertilizer spread on Thursday

In today’s pressing questions…..why no English-style fish and chips takeout anywhere near me? Sigh.

The previous administration did such a shitty job prosecuting an insurrectionist that he got reelected as president again. I have no confidence in anything. The Democrats claim they will do.

Has destroyed

This photo should be on the front page of every single newspaper in America today.

Good morning. This tree is pretty about one week a year. The rest of the year I just want to cut it down. It’s kinda in the way.

Okay, I won't be as detailed as possible

Despite….everything, I’m still a space fan. This is a banger of an interview. Big Victor Glover fan. arstechnica.com/space/2026/0...

Breaking: HHS’s ban on gender-affirming care is struck down. Rarely have I read a ruling this sharply worded. “This case is one of a long list of examples of how a leader’s wanton disregard for the rule of law causes very real harm to very real people.” www.advocate.com/politics/nat...

I love zip ties

I just diagnosed a hydraulic problem on my sprayer through use of Claude. I explained the issue, it offered diagnostic steps, I offered results, we got down to the problem.I know it’s cool to hate on LLMs, but this sort of usage for me is very very useful.

Good morning from the farm shop, where this thing is apparently going to sit instead of running in a field, because it won’t stop raining.

Well, we can’t have billionaires in this country without some sacrifice. These citizens just need to understand that.

Pool noodle safety bumper! I hit my head on that spot so many times last year.

Good morning from a man and his pool noodle in a farm machinery shed.

NEW—I got an exclusive excerpt from a USAID whistleblower's new book that made me gasp multiple times. It details Trump's dismantling of the humanitarian aid agency & his team/DOGE's shocking ignorance to public health. 'Into the Wood Chipper' by Nicholas Enrich is out tomorrow. Read excerpt here:

I’m at the point of the drone tender truck rebuild where all the major components are in place and now it’s ’oh, I didn’t envision I’d have to fix THAT’. And for some reason it’s pissing me off.

(Watching Artemis)

Whew

One of those days where I am just very frustrated with myself and feel like I just make wrong decisions and fail a lot. Gah. It’s just life.

Unfortunately, this forecast is not one that suggests we will have an early planting season. At least we got the oats in during that really nice stretch two weeks ago.

Ahhh, okay, taco it is

There is literally no action that I personally can take that will change this outcome one iota. Hell yes, I’m disassociating.

A Reddit user has meticulously kept a diary of Trump’s daily victory claims. It should form part of every historical archive on the planet. Brace yourself, here goes 🧵👇

losing contact with the earth for 40 minutes sounds nice

My new generator shipped today. 22kw of drone charging power.

NEW: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken steps to block or delay promotions for more than a dozen Black and female senior officers across all four branches of the military, according to nine U.S. officials familiar with the process.

yep, this is a case of hegseth wanting a whites-only military bsky.app/profile/nanc...

Super productive morning. I spent two hours getting this fuel tank into this position. It required a cutting wheel.