Exploring never gets old for me. It was Saturday afternoon and time to get out of the house. Making my way through the smoke from Canada’s wildfires and the really strange streets of the Tangletown neighborhood in Minneapolis, it was time to find the Washburn Water Tower.
It’s long walk to the top but worth it! (Photo by Chad Smith)
The first observation was Tangletown is the right name for that neighborhood. Whoever put those streets together maybe had one too many drinks with dinner. Nonetheless, it was time to find the tower, and for a good reason.
It looked like a structure you’d see somewhere near a castle in any one of the Lord of the Rings movies. But let’s delve into a bit of history first.
The 110-foot concrete cylinder was constructed in 1932 and sits at the top of a hill in Tangletown. A book titled “Secret Twin Cities, a Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure” was the perfect exploring manual. It points out that if you aren’t within a block of the structure, you’ll never see the tower because it’s hidden by a combo of dense residential areas and tall trees.
Look at how intricate that carving is! (Photo by Chad Smith)
The reason for preserving the old structure was the intricate details builders put into constructing the tower, which is no longer used to supply water. Encircling the top of the tower are eight-foot tall, five-ton eagles with spread wings that look ready for takeoff.
A bit further down the cylinder, it looks like knights are standing guard outside the walls of a castle. Closer to the base are 18-foot tall, eight-ton “guardians of health” holding a perpetual vigil with swords. At a time when Minnesota was in the middle of a deadly typhoid outbreak, the guardians were symbolic protectors of a clean water supply.
Photo by Chad Smith
The tower had a capacity of 1.35 million gallons of water, which it faithfully supplied to the neighborhood until the 1990s. Three men from the neighborhood designed and engineered the structure John Daniels was the sculptor, William Hewitt was the project engineer, and Harry Wild Jones was the lead architect.
Get out and get to exploring. The massive medieval tower is located at 401 Prospect Avenue in Minneapolis, and there’s no charge to get up close and personal with the “tower guards.”
“The Eagles have landed!” (In my best Merry and Pippin voice from LOTR!Lonely sentries guarding the Washburn Water Tower
San Francisco, California, traffic in the afternoon can be a bit much, especially if you’re from a small town in the Midwest. However, Dustin Little, a native of Castlewood, South Dakota, makes the trip twice a day to and from work. The small-town native recently finished his fourth season as the Head Athletic Trainer for the San Francisco 49ers.
Life in the NFL is known as a “grind” for players and coaches, but trainers put in a whole lot of time taking care of those million-dollar athletes. While taking over the team’s training staff was a little overwhelming at first, Little says he’s much more comfortable in the leadership role.
“I’ve had the chance to work with John (Lynch, General Manager) and Kyle (Shanahan, Head Coach) for four years, and I’ve had my stuff in place that long as well,” Little said. “Being able to implement many of the things the staff wanted to do when we first arrived is a big help.”
As the leader of the training staff, Little has gotten a lot of enjoyment out of seeing the members function as a unit. It’s important to work well together because the training and performance staff spend a lot of time on the job. As the Head Trainer, Little outlined what a typical day looks like during the season, and his days start early.
Long Days
“Most days, I get up around 4 a.m. and head in to work out for around 45 minutes,” he said. “I’ll get to my desk between 5:30 and 6:00. I’ll spend some time making sure things are lined up for the day and figure out what we want to accomplish that week too. We’ll usually meet as a performance staff around 6:30 a.m.”
Treatments begin bright and early at 7 a.m. before the players head off for meetings. Long-term injury treatments begin at 8:00. Little will also sit in on certain meetings before giving injury updates to San Francisco G.M. Lynch and Coach Shanahan.
After that, they begin pre-practice work before joining the players on the practice field. Once practice is done, they’ll do post-practice treatments before a final player meeting. After that, the day ends with even more treatment work.
‘The week starts on Monday, the day after a game, so right away we have to get a handle on the injury stuff, including imaging and communication,” Little said. “Tuesday is the players’ day off, which is a lesser day for us. We’ll do a lot of treatment that day and set up the schedule for the rest of the week.
“We have practices Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, so those days are pretty similar,” he added. “Saturday is the day before a game, and it’s a little pulled back. We usually stay with the team at the hotel before game day on Sunday.”
Game Day
Sunday afternoon NFL games are some of the most-watched television programming in the country. If one of the million-dollar athletes goes down with an injury, Little and his staff are suddenly among the most important people in the stadium. He says that realization never really hit him because game days are different for the training staff compared to anyone else.
“We’re watching the game like other people, but we’re doing it for an entirely different purpose,” he said thoughtfully. “I’m looking at the players in a broad view rather than watching the ball. If I see a guy that doesn’t look right, I’ll make a note and follow up with him on the sideline.”
If a player does get hurt, Little said a lot of processes take place between the athletic staff and the team doctors. They talk about things like diagnosing an injury, the possibility of getting back into the game, or concussion protocols. They also have to communicate the status with the coaching staff as well.
The medical tent on every NFL sideline can get a lot of TV time if there are multiple injuries during a game. As viewers watch players get taken into the tent, Little said the main goal in there is to get the player evaluated as quickly as possible.
“It’s to help the doctors, the players, and me do what they need to do without the camera being on them,” he said. “We don’t do a lot of treatment in there. It’s more about evaluation and making decisions.
“Game day is different for me and my staff,” Little said. “If I want to actually watch the game, I’ll go home and check out the condensed version of the game on TV to see what happened.”
Working with Pro Athletes
National sports media have shown fans some of the worst behavior from professional athletes. While the NFL does have its share of divas, Little said that doesn’t truly apply to most of the NFL’s athletes.
“Most of our guys and other players across the league are pretty respectful and down-to-Earth good dudes,” Little said. “They make a lot of money, but most of the San Francisco guys are normal people. Guys like (tight end) George Kittle, Nick Bosa (defensive end), and Christian McCaffrey (running back) will all stop into my office for a cup of coffee and have a conversation.
“Pretty normal stuff,” Little added with a laugh. “We’ll sit and do a crossword puzzle the night before a game. It’s not as crazy as some might think.”
On the Road Again
One of the more difficult things about life in big-time sports is the constant travel. While going to some of the nation’s biggest cities might sound glamorous to many, it does get to be a grind, especially when traveling from the west coast to the east coast.
“When we’re heading to the other coast for a game, we’ll be out there for the entire week. It usually happens a couple of times per season,” he said. “My staff’s been together a while, so we know what we need to pack and bring along on the trip.
“The interesting thing about travel for us is we get police escorts to get to our planes,” Little said. “We drive right up to the plane, hop on the stairs, and climb aboard. They’re all San Francisco charters when we travel, and you can get very used to those things. We’re not going through the normal security that everyone else does.”
Now that he’s just wrapped up his fourth year, Little said he and his staff know what to expect when they get to each stadium on the road. While it might seem like fun to travel to different cities, Little doesn’t get much time to sightsee.
“I told my wife that I don’t actually travel to other cities,” he said with a laugh. “I just travel to the insides of different hotels. We usually get about two hours on a Saturday afternoon to look around. When we were in Philadelphia for the playoff game with the Eagles, we were close to a few interesting things to check out.”
Most of the time, Little says he’ll use those few hours to himself to work out and call the family back on the west coast. “I will say, the cheesesteaks in Philadelphia are especially good,” he added.
Come a Long Way from the Midwest
Little leads an extraordinarily busy life, as you can tell by now. However, he does get a chance to reflect on how far he’s come, starting in the tiny town of Castlewood, South Dakota (population 690) and moving on to Denver, Colorado (pop. 711,400), and then to San Francisco, California (pop. 815,000).
Dustin and wife, Bailey, with (l to r) Mason (9), Lawson (4), Landon (8), and Lauren (6) (Submitted photo)
“Once in a while, I do get a chance to think about starting out in a small town before heading through Denver and arriving in San Francisco, and who I get to work withsiou,” he said. “But my mindset growing up was I had a goal and a dream and didn’t put any limitations on myself.
“I remember being a Physical Therapy student and working with a guy in Sioux Falls, South Dakota,” Little recalled. “He asked me what I wanted to do after school, and my answer was to work in the NFL as a head athletic trainer. He was a little surprised at first but recalled that I never put any limits on what I wanted to do.
“He’s telling that to other PT students now,” he added. “Go all-in on what you want to do, put a plan in place, and make good decisions along the way.”
Spring weather is always a fun conversation across farm country, whether in the local coffee shop, after church, or during a sidewalk stroll down any small-town street in America. I came across a recent article from the National Weather Service saying that March might have above-normal temperatures and was intrigued. So, I got on the phone for an assignment from the National Association of Farm Broadcasting and began digging.
My first phone call was to Dennis Todey, the director of the Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, Iowa. As far as the March forecast goes, the veteran meteorologist says it depends on one thing: location, location, and location.
“The farther north you go, the less chance you have of being above normal during March,” Todey said. “But we should begin to rebound fairly quickly after the recent cold stretch that brought snow into parts of the Upper Midwest.”
Dennis Todey is the director of the Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, Iowa. (photo from climatehubs.usda.gov)
What you may not know is most of the cold that covered parts of the Upper Midwest was originally supposed to stay well to the north, especially up in Canada. Some of that cold worked its way into the North Central U.S., but it’s been limited mainly to the areas with snow cover.
As you go further west in the Northern Plains, there is less snow cover, so the temps haven’t been quite as cold. “The probabilities are not big, but the possibility of some warmer temperatures is there,” Todey said.
Looking out beyond March to the spring weather forecast, again, it all depends on which location you’re referring to. Out in the Eastern Corn Belt from Central Illinois and further east, they’ve had several storm events move through the area. The outlook in that location continues to look wet there.
“Planting delays are definitely on the radar in that location,” Todey said.
It’s the opposite in the Central and Southern Plains, where drought conditions have steadily grown worse in recent months as it’s been a dry and warm winter. The big question is whether the area is going to get any moisture anytime soon.
“It’s going to be interesting in the eastern Dakotas and parts of Minnesota,” he said. “They got some moisture late last year and recently picked up some recent snow as well.
“Places like Missouri and Iowa are more of a mixed bag right now,” he said. “Iowa still has some carryover dry soils, and then we have some dry soils in parts of Wisconsin in areas that keep missing out on moisture events.”
Speaking of dry weather, a good-sized part of rural America is short of moisture. The shortage in the plains begins in Nebraska and stretches to the south. It’s dry to very dry, but the lack of moisture doesn’t stop there.
“Parts of Iowa and Wisconsin are quite dry,” Todey said. “It’s quite dry in northern Illinois, which is a carryover from last year. Depending on which part you’re talking about, parts of the Dakotas had moisture while others didn’t get enough moisture for runoff for ponds and dugouts from a livestock standpoint.”
The winter wheat crop is really struggling because of the dry weather. The spring weather forecast hopefully has some moisture in it to help the wheat crop to at least somewhat rebound from the poor conditions.
As winter begins to wind down and spring gets closer, Todey has noticed an interesting trend in recent years when it comes to winter weather. Up here in Minnesota, we were able to take the dog for a walk in short sleeves or light jackets into November of 2021, which is almost becoming more of the norm rather than the exception.
“Winter has been showing up later than normal in recent years,” he said after some thought on the matter. “Let me frame this climatologically for you.
“The 90 coldest days on average for most of the Upper Midwest are typically December, January, and February,” Todey said. “That’s based on looking at data over the last 30 years. We’ve seen some of the coldest events of the winter occurring in late February.”
While late-winter snow isn’t uncommon, the larger events have been coming later and later, so “something is going on that’s a little different.”
Planting questions abound here in the late stages of winter. How many acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, and other crops will get planted in 2022? The acreage battle is a hot topic of conversation in the markets and in coffee shops across rural America. This year’s acreage battle is far from over and actually began last year.
That’s the opinion of Joe Vaclavik of Standard Grain in Nashville, Tennessee. The long-time market expert says this has gone on for months for a variety of reasons, led by fertilizer issues.
Joe Vaclavik is the founder and president of Standard Grain in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo from mobile.twitter.com)
“Even going back to last fall, the market was very aware of upcoming fertilizer challenges,” he said on the phone from his Nashville office. “It was widely known that fertilizer prices were rising rapidly and would have an impact on this year’s acreage mix.”
He said for a moment in time, they saw the ratios and new-crop prices seem to favor corn. It appeared the market was trying to buy corn acreage back because of the potential of losing acres due to fertilizer prices. The fact of the matter is no one has a clue what the crop rotations are going to look like.
“There are several well-respected analysts like the University of Illinois that had an estimate of 96 million corn acres,” he said. “That would be an increase near 2.5 million over last year.
“And then, Farm Futures did a customer survey and came away with an estimate of 90 million acres,” he added. “The difference between 96 million and 90 million acres in terms of pricing implications, balance sheets, and fundamentals is phenomenal. Those are two totally-different markets and totally-different worlds.”
In any given year, Vaclavik says trying to predict or estimate what the acreage will be is a near-impossible task. Occasionally, someone will predict accurate numbers, but no one is consistently accurate. There are always “curveballs,” and this year will feature more curveballs than ever.
“This uncertainty doesn’t just apply to corn and soybean acres,” he said. “You have another bunch of crops that also make money for farmers. Spring wheat makes money; oats make money; small grains make money.”
The “other piece of the pie” among the planting questions is that principle crop acreage has trended lower for the last 7-8 years. Things are in a state of flux, and he feels the unknown might actually be more supportive than not for the markets. The fertilizer question and its impact depends on where you’re located.
“I’ve talked to people who have their fertilizer needs covered, and they feel good about the situation,” Vaclavik says. “The thing is that most farmers really don’t want to change their rotations. I did a survey of my customers a while back and most said they’re rarely in favor of switching rotations, if ever.
“If they can stick to their rotations, that’s what they’ll do,” he added. “But it still could be tricky.”
Even a farmer who’s already locked in their fertilizer for the 2022 season can still run into fertilizer problems. Actually, getting the physical delivery of that product could be a different story because of serious supply chain issues.
Lots of interesting discussion surrounding what crops might be going in the ground during spring planting this year. (Photo from YouTube.com)
Corn is also a more input-intensive crop, so farmers can’t have their fertilizer not show up when it’s time get moving on spring planting. While not everyone is going to struggle to get fertilizer, there is still a risk going into springtime. Consequently, fertilizer will be a major deciding factor in answering those planting questions.
Small grains could be an interesting topic in the spring. Vaclavik says he would not be surprised to see more spring grains in the acreage mix. One thing that people might not be talking about a lot is some of the northern United States and even into Canada are still experiencing drought.
“Things are still dry in the Dakotas and over the border in Canada,” Vaclavik said. “They are still in a drought, and that will be an additional factor when it comes to acreage. It all depends on what farmers are comfortable planting into the dry conditions. I know it’s not as bad as last summer, but there is still a drought in that region.
“I haven’t seen a year like this in recent memory where it’s so hard to predict the answers to the planting questions that we’re asking,” he added.
Harvest 2021 is proceeding along at a good pace. Mike Zuzolo is the Founder and President of Global Commodity Analytics in Atchison, Kansas. He took a deep dive last week into the crop progress numbers and found a lot of variability in the results.
“Comparing the pace of the corn harvest 2021 versus the pace of the soybean harvest suggests that the corn yields are indeed a little more variable than beans,” Zuzolo said. “I hate to say lowered because of the issues that we’re seeing with the yields coming in. We’re seeing very good, very top-end yields coming in down in Kansas and Nebraska.
Mike Zuzolo is President and Founder of Global Commodity Analytics in Atchison, Kansas.
“My business clients and subscribers say strong yields are coming in through certain parts of Illinois,” he added. “However, my question is whether they’re top-end yields. Probably 90 percent of the producers I work with throughout Nebraska and Kansas would say ‘yes,’ we have top-end corn yields, and we’re close to wrapping up. However, central Illinois and central Indiana are probably around 50 percent complete, by comparison.”
Illinois and Indiana farmers are probably close to 75 percent done with soybean harvest 2021, but recent rainfall has slowed them down a bit. His clients in both states are saying they have top0-end yields in just 25 percent of their corn, but everything else is above average.
He thinks the numbers are showing the corn yields are more variable, especially because our corn and soybeans both have low moisture content. Six of the top 18 corn-producing states are at 50 percent or greater on corn harvest. About 29 percent of the national harvest 2021 is done compared to 24 percent at the same time last year.
“Those kinds of numbers are completely upside down when it comes to the soybean harvest,” Zuzolo said. “Just two of the 18 major soybean-producing states are at 50 percent or greater on harvest pace. The national soybean harvest is at 35 percent compared to 34 percent at the same time in 2020.”
Here’s a walking tour of the Graves Farm at Bend in the River Park near Rice, Minnesota.
Abandoned farm. Two words guaranteed to get my attention. I was doing some Googling (still one of the dumbest words in our dictionary) and came across the Bend in the River Park, home to the refurbished Graves Farm that dates to the late 1800s. It’s about 60ish miles north of the Twin Cities near Rice and so worth the drive.
The outbuildings at the Graves Farm, located in the Bend of the River Park near Rice, Minnesota. (Photo by Chad Smith)
Here’s the link to my complete Facebook photo album:
This is the part of the article where I run through the history of a particular site. However, I just can’t find much in the way of available information.
The Park map says, “Little is known of the individuals who acquired territorial lands grants for this property before Minnesota’s statehood in 1858, but by the 1800’s it was a working farm owned by George Wolhart. Its most recent caretakers, the Graves Family that gives the site its name, bought the place in 1912.
The Graves family then maintained it through many decades, with the property sold to Benton County in 2002.
The Graves House was built in the Queen Anne style but much thinner, such as the houses you’d more likely see in urban locations. (Photo by Chad Smith)
According to the sign on the refurbished Graves House, the structure replaced a log house that was first built on the property. The house still contains the original doors, molding, tongue-and-groove flooring.
By the way, the place wasn’t just a working farm. Carlton Graves used the entire basement for his veterinary practice. Do you think the guy was a busy person?
The house might have been a little different than what some people expected to see in the country back then. According to the description on the sign, the two-story, lap-sided house was slimmer and more vertical, such as those placed tightly together on urban housing lots. The house was built in the Queen Anne style, a long-popular style commonly seen on Minnesota farms of the period.
The back of the barn and the silo at the Graves Farm. (Photo by Chad Smith)
There are so many interesting buildings to see on the old site. I’d encourage you to hit the road this summer and make it one of your adventure stops!
A peek inside the machinery shed… is this a rake or a tiller of some kind? (Photo by Chad Smith)
The interior of the corn crib, built in the early 1900’s. (Photo by Chad Smith)
The front of the barn and silo at the Graves Farm. (photo by Chad Smith)
Bend in the River Park… a great place to visit! (Photo by Chad Smith)
Fort Snelling is quite the place to go exploring, especially if you head to the upper post area. There are some good-sized abandoned (for now) buildings, which includes office buildings, houses for the big shots, and a LONG barracks building.
Here’s a quick video of what I saw at the Fort Snelling upper post. It’s easy to see that there’s a lot of work ahead for the construction company doing the refurbishing. (Video by Chad Smith)
After doing some research, it looks like those big buildings got abandoned around 1997. An MPR article from 2018 points out that the place was considered the “military capital of the Dakotas.” Those once-stately buildings have fallen on some hard times.
The abandoned military buildings in the Fort Snelling upper post were once a hotspot for urban explorers. Now, they’re getting a facelift and being turned into affordable housing. (Photo by Chad Smith)
I’ll be completely honest here; you know I like to explore in places that I’m sometimes not allowed to go. However, even if I’d been able to get in those buildings today (more on that in a moment), I told a fellow explorer that a big guy like me at 260 pounds might find himself in the basement without even walking down the stairs.
Speaking of getting in there: fellow explorers, you can’t. Don’t even try. The military put up a pretty solid chain link fence close to the buildings. Now that refurbishing work is underway, there’s a second chain-link fence set up several feet outside of the first fence. And there are security cameras up there too.
The upper post at Fort Snelling in Minnesota has fallen on hard times. The one-time hotspot for urban explorers is getting redone. (Photo by Chad Smith
Substreet.org says Fort Snelling was first sold off in 1858, a long time after Minnesota lost its status as a frontier state. However, the Civil War and conflicts between settlers and the Dakota meant a military post was needed in the Twin Cities. In 1861, the fort was called into action again as a muster and command station, sending northern troops both to the east and west.
Shortly after the Civil War ended, the Army redesigned the upper post at Fort Snelling as the “Department of the Dakotas.” The Army then expanded the complex in 1879 with a new headquarters and officer’s quarters. A long brick infantry barracks building sprang up about ten years later.
But the development didn’t stop there, as it continued through 1907 with more stables, more barracks, warehouses, a hospital, workshops, and other support buildings. The post was a place to train new officers and where the wounded could heal. In fact, Substreet.org says it became known as the “Country Club of the Army” after they added a golf club and a hunting club.
The old barracks building at Fort Snelling sits abandoned at the fort’s upper post. After several years of debate and trying to find funding, Weis Builders has begun to update those buildings that have fallen into disrepair. (Photo by Chad Smith)
I found at least two articles over the past three-to-five years that mentioned plans to turn the old buildings into affordable housing. At least one deal was signed before it slowed down. There’s a sign saying Weis Builders is doing the work to get the old buildings into livable condition.
USDA assistance is now available for producers who were hit by natural disasters in 2018 and 2019. Lord knows there were enough of them to last most farmers a lifetime.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) today announced that signup for the Quality Loss Adjustment (QLA) Program will begin Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. Funded by the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020, this new program provides assistance to producers who suffered eligible crop quality losses due to natural disasters occurring in 2018 and 2019. The deadline to apply for this USDA assistance is Friday, March 5, 2021.
“Farmers and livestock producers nationwide experienced crop quality losses due to natural disasters in 2018 and 2019,” said. Bill Northey, USDA Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation. “We have worked diligently over the past couple of years to roll out meaningful USDA assistance programs to help alleviate the substantial financial loss experienced by so many agricultural producers, and are pleased to offer quality loss assistance as added relief. Many of the eligible producers have already received compensation for quantity losses.”
Eligible Crops
Crops eligible for USDA assistance include those for which federal crop insurance or Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program(NAP) coverage is available, except for grazed crops and value loss crops, such as honey, maple sap, aquaculture, floriculture, mushrooms, ginseng root, ornamental nursery, Christmas trees, and turfgrass sod.
Additionally, crops that were sold or fed to livestock or that are in storage may be eligible; however, crops that were destroyed before harvest are not eligible. Crop quality losses occurring after harvest, due to deterioration in storage, or that could have been mitigated, are also not eligible.
Losses must have been a result of a qualifying disaster event (hurricane, excessive moisture, flood, qualifying drought, tornado, typhoon, volcanic activity, snowstorm, or wildfire) or related condition that occurred in calendar years 2018 and/or 2019.
Assistance is available for eligible producers in counties that received a qualifying Presidential Emergency Disaster Declaration or Secretarial Disaster Designation because of one or more of the qualifying disaster events or related conditions.
Lists of counties with Presidential Emergency Disaster Declarations and Secretarial Disaster Designations for all qualifying disaster events for 2018 and 2019 are available here. For drought, producers are eligible for QLA if the loss occurred in an area within a county rated by the U.S. Drought Monitor as having a D3 (extreme drought) or higher intensity level during 2018 or 2019.
Producers in counties that did not receive a qualifying declaration or designation may still apply but must also provide supporting documentation to establish that the crop was directly affected by a qualifying disaster event.
To determine QLA eligibility and payments, FSA considers the total quality loss caused by all qualifying natural disasters in cases where a crop was impacted by multiple events.
Applying for QLA
When applying, producers are asked to provide verifiable documentation to support claims of quality loss or nutrient loss in the case of forage crops. For crops that have been sold, grading must have been completed within 30 days of harvest, and for forage crops, a laboratory analysis must have been completed within 30 days of harvest.
Some acceptable forms of documentation include sales receipts from buyers, settlement sheets, truck or warehouse scale tickets, written sales contracts, similar records that represent actual and specific quality loss information, and forage tests for nutritional values.
QLA payments are based on formulas for the type of crop (forage or non-forage) and loss documentation submitted. Based on this documentation FSA is calculating payments based on the producer’s own individual loss or based on the county average loss. More information on payments can be found on farmers.gov/quality-loss.
FSA will issue payments once the application period ends. If the total amount of calculated QLA payments exceeds available program funding, payments will be prorated.
For each crop year, 2018, 2019 and 2020, the maximum amount that a person or legal entity may receive, directly or indirectly, is $125,000. Payments made to a joint operation (including a general partnership or joint venture) will not exceed $125,000, multiplied by the number of persons and legal entities that comprise the ownership of the joint operation. A person or legal entity is ineligible for QLA payment if the person’s or legal entity’s average Adjusted Gross Income exceeds $900,000, unless at least 75% is derived from farming, ranching or forestry-related activities.
Future Insurance Coverage Requirements
All producers receiving QLA Program payments are required to purchase crop insurance or NAP coverage for the next two available crop years at the 60% coverage level or higher. If eligible, QLA participants may meet the insurance purchase requirement by purchasing Whole-Farm Revenue Protection coverage offered through USDA’s Risk Management Agency.
More Information
For more information, visit farmers.gov/quality-loss, or contact your local USDA Service Center. Producers can also obtain one-on-one support with applications by calling 877-508-8364.
All USDA Service Centers are open for business, including those that restrict in-person visits or require appointments. All Service Center visitors wishing to conduct business with FSA, Natural Resources Conservation Service, or any other Service Center agency should call ahead and schedule an appointment. Service Centers that are open for appointments will pre-screen visitors based on health concerns or recent travel, and visitors must adhere to social distancing guidelines. Visitors are also required to wear a face covering during their appointment. Our program delivery staff will continue to work with our producers by phone, email and using online tools. More information can be found at farmers.gov/coronavirus.
“Fish all Fifty.” It might be an understatement to say that’s a rather big goal, sort of like trying to actually shoot the moon.
Two 18-year-old Virginia men have embarked on the mother of all road trips. With their secondary education plans sidetracked by COVID-19, Luke Konson and Daniel Balserak of Virginia hit the road with the lofty goal of catching the state fish of every state in America. Instead of sitting in front of computer screens, they’re staring through the windshield of a “commandeered” family minivan as the miles go by on their “Fish All Fifty” trip.
The buddies graduated high school in June, and they were planning to enroll this fall at Clemson University in South Carolina. However, because the year started with all online education, they didn’t want to spend any more time sitting in front of computer screens. Because they’d taken the last couple months of their senior year online, Luke Konson said, “We didn’t love it.”
Luke Kolson is pictured here after catching a walleye, the state fish in Minnesota, as a part of his “Fish all Fifty” trip with fellow Virginian Daniel Balserak. (Contributed Photo)
“We both decided to defer our admissions to the fall of 2021,” Konson said on the phone from Mississippi. “We were trying to decide what to do in the meantime and didn’t want to sit at home for a year. Travelling was a little more difficult because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“While we were trying to make that decision, I happened to be fishing with my family in North Carolina,” he recalled. “So, fishing was on our minds at the time. The idea hit us to travel to all 50 states and, because we love to fish, we wanted to catch every state fish. As far as we can tell, no one has ever accomplished that task.”
Their most recent conquest was catching the Mississippi state fish, a largemouth bass, and the duo was halfway to accomplishing their mission. He says several of the state fish they’ve caught so far were challenging.
“We had to catch a muskie in Wisconsin,” Konson said. “That’s a seriously cool fish, and it’s hard to catch. One of the things we do is if we’re in a state trying to catch a fish that we aren’t familiar with, I’ll go into Facebook groups to tell people what we’re doing and get some advice. The interesting thing is we often get people reaching out to us and offering to take us fishing.”
Daniel Balserak of Virginia is pictured here after catching his own walleye on the Minnesota River near Belle Plaine. (Contributed photo)
The variety of fish has been an especially-interesting part of the trip. The boys caught Atlantic Salmon on a road trip to Maine. Several states feature Brook Trout as their state fish. Konson says anytime they’ve gotten to catch a fish they aren’t familiar with was a “really cool experience.” They each caught a Guadalupe Bass, a fish found only in Texas.
They’ve been fishing in the Midwest as well. Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas all named Channel Catfish as their state fish. It’s one fish the duo knows a lot about as they go after catfish in Virginia. They caught walleye on the Minnesota River near Belle Plaine, Minnesota, and Channel Catfish on the Racoon River in Iowa.
“Our first road trip was a loop through the Northeastern states,” he said, “including Maine. We wanted to grab an American Shad in Connecticut, but it was out of season, so we’ll head back there to get one of those. We also hit New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.”
Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa were next on the list, through the Midwest states, and then into Texas. While on the phone for this interview, Luke and Daniel were traveling through the Southeastern States.
Balserak, pictured here with his channel catfish caught on the Raccoon River in Iowa. He and Luke Konson are busy with their “Fish all Fifty” road trip around the country. They’re trying to catch the state fish in all fifty states. (Contributed Photo)
While they don’t usually do the “tourist things” on their trips, one of the best parts of the “Fish All Fifty” road trip is the places they fish in are some of the most scenic areas in the country. “For example, we went fishing for Brook Trout in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and it’s beautiful up there,” Konson said. “Fishing for salmon in the wilderness of Maine was amazing.”
They do intend to do a little more sightseeing when the pair heads west. Konson mentioned seeing Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, as well as the Grand Canyon.
While the price of gas might be as low as it’s been in years in many states, it still adds up quickly when road tripping through every state in the Union. Combine that with food and other incidental costs, the price tag adds up quickly. The next logical question is how they’re financing an adventure like this. While they had a little money saved up for college they didn’t want to burn through, the boys turned to the generosity of others.
“We set up a GoFundMe page, which is where most of our funding is coming from,” he said. “People have been supporting us on GoFundMe, which has been super helpful for us. A lot of those people on GoFundMe, as well as the people we meet face-to-face, tell us the trip is a great idea, and they wish they’d done it themselves.”
Virgina natives Luke Konson and Daniel Balserak are holding their channel catfish caught in Iowa. It’s a part of their “Fish all Fifty” road trip before they begin school at Clemson in the fall of 2021. (Contributed photo)
With a laugh, Luke said, “I think a lot of people are living out the trip they wanted to take through us.”
The biggest surprise of the road trip so far? “I don’t think we were quite ready for the cold when we headed north,” Konson said. “Six inches of snow fell on our first day in Minnesota. That’s not something we deal with an awful lot where we live.”
Two 18-year-olds likely don’t set a big goal like this without support from their families and friends. However, that doesn’t mean family members weren’t a little skeptical of the idea when they first brought it up.
“It took a little convincing at first,” he said with a laugh, “but we got it done. I think they’re happy for us because we’re getting some good life experiences and learning a lot of things through our travels. We’re seeing a lot of things and meeting a lot of people we likely wouldn’t get to know while sitting in a dorm room watching online classes.”
Their tentative plan is to be home a couple of weeks over the Christmas holiday. They may squeeze in a quick trip to the Carolinas and Georgia, which aren’t too far from home.
Here’s the link to their Go Fund Me page if you want to chip in for gas to help the boys complete what really is a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
The Sugar Bowl looks much more entertaining than the other half of the College Football Playoffs. 35 points between the two teams and we aren’t quite to halftime yet. In fact, there’s more than ten minutes to go to the break.
I saw multiple surveys on who the fans thought would win the Sugar Bowl. The results were 70-30 in favor of Clemson.
I do have to ask a question: why is Etienne returning kicks at this point in the year? He took a long time getting up after that last return and I’m not sure there should be another one.
I like what Ohio State is doing. It looks like they’re calling plays with the specific intent of getting Clemson defenders going the wrong way. The Tigers obliged on that third Buckeye TD by calling a line stunt that went in the wrong direction. Might want to play a little more straight up from now on.
Clemson might wanna pick up the pace. OSU came to play tonight.
Justin Fields is playing much better football than the conference title game.
The Buckeyes are bringing something against Clemson that the Irish couldn’t bring against Bama: speed, plain and simple speed.
Am I the only one who thinks Clemson looks disorganized? They’re having trouble even getting lined up defensively before OSU snaps the ball.
It’s no longer a shootout right now. The interesting thing is Fields is now hurt. He’s looking to avoid contact, which tells you he’s hurting worse than he’s letting on.
Are you hearing those pads popping through the microphones? These kids are hitting hard and the injuries are piling up a bit on both sides!
Please disregard said title of the post. OSU came in with a chip on their shoulders and they are clobbering Clemson at halftime.
400 yards of offense for the Buckeyes at halftime. That’s a great GAME on any other night. If they keep going at this rate, the final score might turn obscene.
