Estate planning
“It’s My Money, My Stuff and My Life,” this is an opportunity to learn how to do some estate planning from local experts.
The five-week course has been put together by the Greene County Council on Aging and provides an opportunity to start or continue your planning. No matter your age or level of financial resources, this course can jump-start your plan. We cannot plan for every what if, but we can educate ourselves and make important decisions that will give us some peace of mind & answer nagging questions such as:
This program is presented with the cooperation of local professionals volunteering their time and expertise so we can all have the needed tools to plan for our future and the future of our families.
For information log on to the Greene County Council on Aging website www.gccoa.org or call 937-376-5486 to get a brochure. The program will be held on 6-8:30 p.m. consecutive Tuesdays, Feb. 26 through March 26 in the Xenia Community Center, 1265 W. Second St. Cost is $40 per household. Register by Feb. 18.
Farm leases
The renegotiation of cash farm leases continues into 2019 for many farmers. We are in challenging financial times for most farmers. While we had generally good yields of corn and soybeans in 2018 we are still looking at low crop prices. Trade barriers, over supply and competition with other countries in agricultural commodities will make marketing the crop difficult when the goal is to sell at a price above cost of production. Thus many producers are storing a lot of the crop not already sold on the farm for sale at a later date with hopefully higher prices.
One good source of information in dealing with developing production crop budgets for 2019 as well as coming up with a realistic figure for farm cash rent are the OSU Ext. crop budgets. They show the best estimates on expected cost of production, income and possible cash rent in relation to yields.
They can be found on line at: http://farmoffice.osu.edu. Look under “Farm Management Tools” for information on crop budgets and cash rent. You can plug in your own cost and income prices in many cases in these budgets. Also you might find useful information under “Ag Law Library” for fact sheets on topics like Line fence Law, Oil and Gas Law, Zoning Law and Ponds and Legal Liability in Ohio for starters.
Ants verses termites
Many times the month of February brings the problem of flying insects into our homes. How can you tell if you have ants or termites? A couple of easy ways to distinguish between them is to compare the insects looking at the wings and body type. Ants have two sets of wings but they differ in length and their body is segmented.
Termites have four wings all the same size and their body is not segmented but cigar shaped. In February on days the temperature warms up you may see ants swarming near windows. Do not be alarmed as this behavior is normal as the ant colony is attempting to send the swarmers or reproductive forms out into the world to establish new colonies. Most will die or get eaten by birds etc. but a few will survive.
Knowing which insect you have will help determine your next course of action and how to get rid of the problem. Ants may be drawn by food in your home while termites feed on wood and tend to nest where there is moisture from a leaking roof, window or water pipe. The big black carpenter ants will feed on food in your home but can make a nest in your house in the wood where there is moisture from the sources mentioned.
Precipitation in 2018
We all know it has been wet the last few months in the area in and around Greene County.
In talking with Glenn Harner who keeps local weather data for NOAA – Weather Bureau. I found we had almost 18 inches more rain in 2018 than we normally receive. The total precipitation for 2018 (snow and rain) was 58.65 inches while 2017 data showed 45.18 inches.
This compares with the “normal” 40 inches of precipitation each year. Glenn lives and farms in the Caesarscreek Township area.
