World's Worst Blogger

I keep telling myself, I should be good at this. I read people's blogs and think, I should really start blogging again. I have an AgComm degree from the University of Illinois for heaven's sake. But, like flossing, and eating more leafy greens, I just haven't managed to make it a regular part of my routine. For now, I'll blame the tiny twin boys, one of which is chewing on my computer chord, the other drooling on my tab key which I'm sure will render it useless. How important is the tab key really?

Alas, I have committed, at least for today, to give it another whirl. So, be gracious with my inconsistency, my misspellings, my poorly placed pictures, and my paragraphs that aren't properly indented for lack of a tab key.

The sudden inspiration for another stab at blogging came as a result of my husband making another voyage to the farm in Rwanda, this time taking my 62 year old father and another guy that has been working with us at our stateside farm, Collin. They are flying out of Washington as we speak with 400 lbs of luggage including disc blades (weighing in at around 12 lbs each), tractor parts, 2 tents, lots of bug spray, some deer sausage, and most importantly, 6 Nuby sippy cups, for a certain baby friend who is learning to drink like a big guy.  

A lot of exciting things have happened since my last post. We are mid-way though our second harvest at the Mpanga farm and early estimations have us at double what we produced last season. We've added some acreage at that site, so with the improved numbers (which were already about double what the farmers were producing before) we hope to continue to establish ourselves are reliable producers in the country and expand our opportunities even more.

We are in the process of preparing an additional 150 acres in the northeastern-most corner of Rwanda in an area called Nyagatare. Land prep is underway there and Justin's focus when he gets there will be to get this land planted in corn.

Justin's goal will also be to plant beans at the Mpanga farm (where the bumper corn crop is being harvested) and another farm in Muhazi where there is a reported 2400 acres being set aside for the production of beans. Evidently a huge soybean processing plant has been built in Rwanda but, at present, has no soybeans to process as there are none growing in the country. Such is life in Africa it seems, cart before the horse in the most extreme ways.

We are also shipping more equipment which I think is my husband's favorite part and which he is great at. He is constantly in search of a good deal on smaller used equipment that can be refurbished and shipped for use in Rwanda. Right now we are in the process of preparing 2 seed drills, 2 combines, 2 corn pickers, 2 eight row planters, and assorted seed conditioning equipment for shipment. Pictures to come as the process of disassembling and packing this stuff into a container always provides a great source of entertainment for me....and lots of cussing from my husband.

So I will leave you with this brief update with the promise of more to come as the guys land in country and the stories start rolling in of their adventures there. At this rate, I may even find a way to work in kale chips to my diet.