"Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!"

Do you remember Oklahoma, that 'corny' musical? There's a song in it that I can't get out of my mind the past few days. "Oh, what a beautiful morning...there's a bright golden haze on the meadow...the corn is as high as an elephant's eye and it looks like it's growing right up to the sky!" Until I moved to Iowa, I thought those lyrics were simply creative hyperbole. Then I saw real corn, acres and acres of corn. The corn pictured here is growing in the field across the road from my house. I took this picture standing in that gravel road, looking up at the corn. You can see it's starting to dry and turn brown. Farmers will be anxiously checking moisture content in the next few weeks to determine exactly the right time to harvest it; if they pick too early, they'll have to pay the elevator to dry it down. This will eat into their profits. Soon enough, tho, the fields will hum with the engines of corn pickers and combines bringing in the corn and soybean harvest of 2008.

We don't have many elephants roaming around Iowa, but I think the tassels on this corn would definitely tickle the eyeballs of any passing pachyderm!