cash on the barrelhead son

The title of this post refers to a old timey country song about someone who has to pay cash for things, and I suppose back when the song was written, barrelheads were in the stores. 

At any rate, I thought I would talk a little bit about a farmers cash flow. Last season/fall 2008, I harvested about 175 acres of soybeans. Since I was farming on the halves with two landlords, I got to keep or sell half of the beans. I sold my share of about 45 acres in 2008 and had the rest put in storage, or delay priced everything else. So far in 2009 I have sold all of my DP crops and have been keeping careful records of my income  and expenses. So far I have grossed over 55,000 dollars, and spent over 15,000 paying fertilizer bills and other ag related expenses. My income has been greatly helped by a 20,800 dollar check from the crop insurance company, which is very out of the normal. I have used most of the insurance check paying off my truck and putting a down payment on my house. 

Being a farmer is quite the risk, as you have no guarantee that your expenses will be less than your income. If the ag markets fall way low, you can be out of all kinds of money. Crops can fail from drought or flooding, or any other act of weather. 

I would also like to talk about some of the events of today. I went and seen The Hangover today with my ex girlfriend. The movie was funny, but I was expecting more. The ex and I are trying to be friends but she still wants to moan around about not having a chance. We dated for a year and she thinks because the breakup was so sudden, she deserves another chance. I disagree, but like having someone who I can talk to everyonce in a while on the phone who is not my family. She is still hoping to get back together and confides in me that she does miss me and thinks about me all the time. I need to tell her that she should have spent more time doing that when we were together.