Benefits of Flame

The Upper Basin Chronicles

Chapter 17

Benefits of Flame

" Alexander, good morning! This is Ruthann," Alexander Murphy was toasting the 6:00 a.m. sun with coffee when his neighbor, Ruthann Garcia called.

"Hey, Ruthie, what's up?"

"Myron Jorgensen called this morning to ask if Rick and I want to see a propane flame weeder field demo about noon. Rick has a watershed meeting in Postville, and can't make it. Myron asked me to call you. Want to go?"

"Sure, as long as you think people won't talk about us," Alexander kidded her. Myron Jorgensen sold a variety of implements from his farm over toward Charles City.

"The talk's about you and Laura, so I'm not worried," she responded.

"Oh, great! You can tell me all about it on the way,"

"Glad to fill you in, Mr. Murphy. I'll pick you up at 11:30," Ruthann offered.

"Sounds good. Bye," Alexander hung up. With breakfast table kisses for Grandma Teresa, Rose, and little Lucy, and a hand on the shoulder for his father, Owen, and a tousling of the hair for Michael, Alexander headed for the machine shed. He needed to set up his rotary hoe for beans. From there, it would be back in the corn saddle for cultivating again for the morning.

"Happy Wednesday, all," he said, "Have a great day at school, kids. Almost vacation!"

"You, too, Daddy! See you tonight. Bye!" they chorused. The screen door hissed closed behind as Burt, the old collie, bounced Alexander's hand on his nose as they walked toward the barn. The morning announced one of those rare golden June days with low humidity and a faint northwest breeze. Not even a cirrus cloud marred the blue, high pressure sky.

Later, Alexander washed cultivated dust from his face and neck at the old pump near the back steps. They didn't drink out of that well anymore, but the water was cold and great on dirt.

"Hey, Neighbor!" Ruthann greeted him from her pickup window. He settled in for the 20 mile ride to Jorgensen's place. Alexander's truck was nearly repaired and repainted after the storm damage. He'd have it back in a couple of days.

After listening to the WHO-AM weather and markets for a few minutes, Murphy spoke, "So, you've got me curious, Ruthann. What are folks saying about Laura and me, anyhow?"

Ruthann laughed. "This bothers you?" she asked.

"No, well, I mean, I just wonder. You brought it up."

"Don't worry," she said. "Everyone I talked to think you'd make a nice couple, except some folks wonder about where she goes to church."

"She'd probably go with me to hear Father Norbert, if I asked her," responded Alexander. "I think she was raised a Catholic, but she might be a Buddhist, too."

"Buddha's not a bad guy in my book," said Ruthann. "Plus, I've never heard that she chants in the classroom. It's not a big deal, really, to most people. Don't worry about it. You two'd make a nice picture together, if you ask me."

"Thanks for the notice," said Alexander, wondering where this was headed. "She say anything to you about her plans for the summer?" he asked.

"She said something about a green mapping project, some workshop in New York City," Ruthann said.

"New York!" yelped Alexander, "She didn't mention that to me."

"Oops," said Ruthann as she turned into Jorgensen's drive. "Here we are!"

A surprising number of cars and pickups were already at the Jorgensen place. The propane truck from Garvin's Gas was parked in the yard. The LCW from one of Daniel Mundt's churches, Trinity Lutheran, had a concession trailer set up. Not a bad turnout for a midweek event on a good work day, Alexander thought. He put down a $5 bill for a paper plate of hamburger hot dish, baked beans, jello fruit salad, carrot and celery sticks, a lemon bar, and ice tea.

Alexander walked over to the edge of the crowd where Myron was expounding on the benefits of flame weeding. He noticed a few of the county's organic farmers there. They would be interested in something that offered weed control without herbicides. He figured they had to be cultivation timing fanatics. He also knew that more than one farmer in the county with organic ideas had lost soybean crops to weeds the first year out of CRP. Dirty beans. Yet, you could understand how those guys didn't want to be exposed to ag chemicals year in and year out...

The company's brochure showed best results for corn flamed early at about four inches, and beans at 10 to 12 inches. One or two applications seemed to do the job, and without cultivating, too. Made sense for a dry year, Alexander thought. Myron had a six-row unit hitched behind a Deere, and the parts of a four-row kit all laid out on a tarp with the assembly book.

He followed along as Myron started the John Deere and drove the unit over to some late corn, just four inches high. There were quite a few "popcorn" and "creamed corn" jokes as the six burners lit up. The machine began moving down the rows with the crowd close behind. The burners shot flame right at the corn stems without apparent damage to the crop.

Alexander stepped over to the rows Myron said he'd done yesterday. Sure enough, the small weeds were wilted, and with very few exceptions, the corn looked happy as ever. The flame weeder with its low burner roar and the intent crowd moved on down the rows.

The demo looked pretty good, but his attention was elsewhere. Alexander checked his watch. He had cultivating to do.

New York? Why didn't Laura tell me about this? Come to think about it, what will she be doing all summer when school lets out?

"There could be another flame to tend here," he said to himself.

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Next week... "Happy Farming!," Chapter 18.

The Upper Basin Chronicles, Chapter 17 was written and edited by John Gabbert.

Resources:
Flame Weeding for Agronomic Crops
Flame Engineering, Inc. Agricultural Flamers
Green Map System

Comments? Email feedback to The Upper Basin Chronicles, Chapter 17

The characters presented here are purely fictional, and neither bear resemblance to persons living or dead, nor represent the views or opinions of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.