What is wrong with Nebraska?

This is a personal email exchange but I think it could be interesting to others.

D,

These snow storms and cold weather are completely messing up my tiny terrace garden. Plan A --> Plan B --> Plan C.

Plan D will be give the f up. 

Does the odd weather have the catastrophic effect on your enterprise or are your plants safely tucked in under the dirt? Will they be able to punch through? Have they already? How are you coping?

Cheers
Chip

Chip, For now the drought is certainly over, 2.8 inches rain mixed with snow. Ice crystals on dog's outside water dish AGAIN this morning, always worrisome as the wheat head is now forming inside the stalk. One cannot tell the extent of frost damage until the wheat ripens in July. The frost damaged plants will turn white instead of gold and there isn't any kernel formation within the head. 

I had the wheat sprayed with liquid nitrogen and the ultra expensive chemical named "Beyond" ($548.00 per gallon) just days before the rains came. The plant always suffers a "burn" (yellowing) with the nitrogen unless there is adequate moisture present. The yellowing should subside very quickly now with this abundant moisture. The Beyond herbicide is a very harsh chemical & is designed to eradicate three specific weeds, those being goat grass, cheat grass and rye. Though there isn't any visible damage to the plant, when the plant is weakened from drought or harsh winter conditions, it stuns the plant & sets its growth back by 5 or 6 days or up to 7-10 days depending on the stage of growth when sprayed. 

I was late in spraying because my fields were still recovering from retracting below the soil surface through the winter. Soil erosion from strong winter winds was the most pronounced I have ever seen, drift after drift of "blow dirt," which is as fine as desert sand, some drifts even covering fence posts & small trees. Out of my 23 fields, only one was released by crop insurance adjustors as being a total loss. I hate to say this, but the best thing that could happen now would be a devastating hail storm later in the season so I could just collect on crop insurance as this will be a very low producing yield even if I should be able to harvest it and the cost of harvest will be at an all time high, nearly $100,000 just to combine. 

I sold my remaining bushels from 2012 last week @ $8.00 per bushel (remember, I didn't harvest any wheat in 2013), the storage cost were eating me alive & I dared not wait any longer as the new 2014 Texas wheat crop will soon be harvested & when that grain hits the market the price always goes down. Wheat prices closed down again yesterday & settled at $7.65 so I'm glad I sold @ $8.00 (I missed the high by a nickel, $8.05 has been the high in the last 10 months). 

This morning I am awaiting the County Sheriff as some gutsy thief has siphoned 1000 gallons of diesel fuel out of one of my tanks, finding out yesterday that fuel is not insured under my farm policy unless it was taken out of insured tractors, ugh, so I'm starting off the season with a $3,700 loss. Fuck. The sheriff tells me that two other farmers and a construction site are also reporting fuel theft. I suppose I will have to install security cameras for next winter when I'm absent from the farm. 

My last blood test on April 25th showed "continued deterioration of the kidneys," requiring blood test now once every two months to monitor progression into dialysis and/or inevitable kidney transplant. Needless to say, I'm somewhat depressed these days. D