Corn sweating and other life-learning adventures

I’ve lived in Iowa for almost 28 years.

And honestly, I don’t remember ever hearing the term “corn sweating.”

That sounds crazy, especially since I spent 7.5 years working part-time at a seed corn production site.

I know about corn drying down as it gets closer to harvest, but “corn sweating” seems like a new term for me.

I was sharing this news with Debbie the other day and she seemed surprised that I had never heard the term corn sweating.

“Maybe I have; I just don’t remember,” I replied.

According to information on the internet, corn sweating is a natural process where corn draws in water, then releases it into the air through evaporation.

One fellow said, “That is great for the corn, but when more than 90 million acres of the crop across the country sweats, it releases a lot of moisture into the air, and it makes it more humid.”

According to the USDA Agricultural Research Service, sweating corn can contribute between 3,500 and 5,000 gallons of water per acre to the atmosphere over the course of one to two days. A typical swimming pool contains 18,000 — 20,000 gallons of water.

I guess that is the reason that it is so humid in Iowa and the Midwest. It’s all the corn grown here sweating like a hog at the county fair.

That reminds me that I have been photographing hogs at the county fair for 29 years (three times at the Iowa County Fair and 26 times at the Poweshiek County Fair), as of this last week in Grinnell.

Somehow, I pull it off each year and take pride in capturing some great hog photos with the kids and their prize-winning banners through the years.

Some of these 4-Hers and FFA kids spend hours getting their animals ready for county fairs and Iowa State Fair.

I’m so blessed to have the opportunity to showcase these youngsters and their prize-winning animals for my readers.

Back to humidity.

Growing up in Tulsa, it was humid and hot in the summertime.

I remember many summer days when the temperatures were in the low 100s.

The hottest I remember was 109. I think a few years ago I read on the news that it reached 114 in Tulsa.

Toss in the high humidity and that makes for a heck of hot day.

My folks didn’t get an air conditioner until I was about 10-years-old. They bought a 400 BTU Frigidaire window AC.

My mom had a rule when I was a kid that it had to be 92 or higher before she would turn on the AC. It ran most of the summer.

At night, we’d shut the AC off and open the windows. Our house had an attic fan that kept us cool in the evening and nighttime hours.

Sometimes we’d have a blanket on by morning.

Debbie and I took a trip to my native state of Oklahoma in early June to attend a cousin reunion in Tulsa.

She always keeps an eye on the sky and before we got out of Iowa on the trip, she was warning me of possible storms and tornadoes during our stay there.

And that was what happened. Our first night in the motel, she woke me around 1:30 a.m. and asked that I get dressed in case we had to move to a lower floor. It was pouring rain outside and flooding in parts of Tulsa as she watched the storm coverage on the television.

“Where is this,” she asked, pointing to the map of Tulsa on the television.

“Right here where we are at,” I replied.

Thankful there were no tornadoes in Tulsa that morning, just heavy rain and strong winds.

It rained again the second night during our four-day stay. The storm caused the power at the motel to go out for a couple hours.

Lots of towns across the country in numerous states are experiencing heavy rains, flooding and weather events this summer.

North Carolina and Hurricane Helene last fall and the flooding in Texas that caused much destruction and lost lives earlier this month are two of the major weather events.

My prayers go out to all these families affected by these storms and to the many volunteers who are spending countless hours helping folks put their lives back together.

In fact, this week, a church youth group from Montezuma traveled to North Carolina to help with cleanup of storm damage from last fall.

They can all use our prayers and financial support.

I encourage you all in these tough times to look for the positives and find ways to be difference makers in the lives of others.

Prayer is a good place to start!

Have a great week, and always remember that “Good Things are Happening” every day.