Saturday, August 1, 2026

About 10 seconds after the Democrats reclaimed the House of Representatives last November, Collin Peterson, the Minnesotan who would lead the chamber's Ag Committee come January, began to think about the 2007 farm bill.

It's a good thing we humans don't get to run the weather or we would be living on one mighty, mixed-up planet.

We Americans are a cheeky lot. We've built this nation on independence, courage and true grit. We're rags to riches, Don't Tread On Me and don't tell us what to do.

With all due respect to Dr. Dolittle, if I could talk to the animals what I would say is this: Dudes, I need my space.

"Down to the cellar, come let us go Where fruit jars like this are lined up in a row Potatoes like this are stacked up in a bin With cabbages so fat and celery so thin.

Regardless of the weather, there is always a need for a reasonable estimate of the price of corn when used for silage.

To think I am being held hostage by a half-ounce bird! Outside the kitchen window, the wisteria vine is headed for the roof, hulls from oil sunflower seeds are piling up, venturing to the trash can elicits a loud scolding, and even filling the bird bath is a challenge.

I can't even get arrested in this town. Well, OK, technically I could probably get arrested, but what I probably wouldn't get is a CNN ticker and headline news.

"Step, kick, kick, cross-back, step, step; repeat, kick, kick, cross-back." I heard my daughter practicing in her room.

If the writing of federal legislation is, as often described, a kabuki dance, then the farm bill passed by House Ag Committee July 19 is only the first, essential step of a complex drama that has two more months of rewrites before its scheduled Oct.