Brrrr!

The roller coaster ride that is our weather continues ranging from 90's to 60's with lows in the 40's. We have not had a frost yet, but it is not too far off. I prefer 60's to 90's any day, but waking up in a chilly camper sometimes makes me rethink that. I could turn on the heat, but I am too stubborn. 

Peas, done. Wheat done. Canola done. I cannot say that things are going smoothly, but we are getting there acre by acre. Flat tires, broken gear boxes, burst hydraulic hoses, rocks, shear bolts. Many obstacles getting thrown at us; it seems like we have not had a trouble-free day yet. What have I contributed to these obstacles? A few, but I am saving them for my last farm post so I can take all the ridicule and harassment at once rather than spread it over a few weeks. I will mention this one right now however as it was pretty intense. Farmer was combining canola when he smelled smoke.

Smoke+Combine=No good. So, he booked it over to the service truck, got out and found smoke pouring out of the back end of his combine. Over the next hour and a half, we fought embers that were burning throughout his combine. Residue and chaff build up everywhere as you go through the field and somehow about 20 spots throughout his combine were smoldering. We don't know if it was an electrostatic charge, or one hot ember started all the others, but it was intense. The embers we got off the combine landed in the field catching that on fire. Eventually we got everything out and we were whooped. He went home to hose off the entire combine and was back a couple hours later to finish the field. 

Next up, chickpeas, roughly 200 acres or so. Why God created chickpeas (also known as Garbanzo beans) I will never understand. 

chickpeas

I have never had anything with them in it that tasted even halfway decent. Oh, Barb loves her hummus. Probably because it is one thing she does not have to share with me: gross. Falafel? I don't think I have ever had one, I am a Scandinavian boy from the Midwest, meat and potatoes for me. 

Up until this week, I have pretty much just been trucking from the field to the farm or the field to the elevator. When you first "open" a field, we park the trucks just inside the approach and load there. As the combines get further and further out in the field, we move out there with them. If you have a minute and 15 seconds in your life that you just don't know what to do with, you can watch this video of me driving the semi out in the field. 

Surprisingly smooth. Often times you arrive at the field just as the next truck is loaded, so you just switch trucks and carry on back to unload. Truck, after truck, after truck all day long and well into the night. 

We are down to 5 people right now with Bob S. going home for a few weeks before coming back up. As a result, I switched jobs from trucking to carting. As many of you know from previous years, carting is the process of taking the grain from the combine and putting it into the semi. 

I sit and wait for the combine to fill up. There are lights that start flashing once the combine is getting full alerting me to the fact that they will need to be dumped soon. A bit longer, they will put out their unload auger telling me it is time to unload. I have to approach the combine from the left side staying within 2-3' of it so the auger is over the cart. See that combine header? That is just a few feet off the back track of my tractor. It is worth more than most people make in a year, and you certainly do not want to hit that! Beside the fact that it would bring harvest to a standstill. 

Once the cart is about halfway full or so, I make my way over to the semis and dump into one of them for the driver to take to the farm or elevator. 

This is probably my favorite thing to do up here. Maybe not, I do like trucking too and other tractor stuff. I guess I love multiple things. I just haven't had much of an opportunity to cart the past two falls so right now it is my favorite thing to do. 

It does provide me the opportunity to take a few pictures and this little video while I wait. This video is only 41 seconds. I think it is mesmerizing how these combines gobble up the field and spit everything out except the grain. 

There was a farmer harvesting in the field next to ours one day and I sat there watching him I could not help but feel sorry for him. He was doing it all himself. He would combine until his hopper got full, then he would drive it over a 1/2 mile to his truck and dump into his truck before heading back out into the field and harvest some more. Once his truck was full, he would park the combine, walk over to his truck and take it to his farm to unload it. No additional help whatsoever. 

Even with all the help we have here 10 acres/hour/combine is about all we can get done. This guy doing it all by himself was probably once getting 3-5 acres done an hour. Made me want to go over there and help him, it is going to take him forever to get done!

They also got a new toy since I was up here last. Some of you may remember, it is this time of the year that they need to change the tires on the sprayer from crop tires to the fatter tires. In years past they had to use the forks on the bobcat to do this. No more! They still use the bobcat, but now they have this fancy tire grabber! They also got a new wire-feed welder as there is always something to be fixed. 

The highlight of my week? Well, there were a couple. The first one occurred when I dropped a truck off in Garrison and DeAnne had to pick me up. The first thing I asked her is if she wanted to go to Dairy Queen. When she said "Sure", I asked her if she had any money as I didn't. That worked out well for me!

The next was when we got done early(ish) one day and Farmer Bob asked if I wanted to have happy hour. One does not have time for happy hour most days, so the answer was a definite yes!

As cool as those highlights are, they pale in comparison to this one. Barb said she was thinking of coming up for a few days to see me and baby Tessa. I am pretty sure it was mostly baby Tessa as in previous years she never offered to come up. This set into motion a whirlwind of cleaning. Holy crap, did I have some work to do. Sweeping, scrubbing, cleaning, laundry. As a matter of fact, I better wrap this up as she will be here at any minute. 

Speaking of Barb, she got one more project done at home when she stained the entryway to our property. In the picture below, she was halfway done. The wood on the right is stained, the left, yet to be stained. She says it looks good, but now the wheels blend into the wood too much so she may have to spray those black. 

This last picture is of Ol' Remy (Remmington). He is almost 13 and is having a harder time getting around. Most days he just lays around and passes the day. But on this day, Chris brought him out into the field while we were working on stuff and he wandered out into the canola hunting up some birds. It was bittersweet, you could see his youthful mind wanted to get out there and kick up a few pheasants, but his body fought him every step of the way as he limped his way through the field. I could not help but wonder if that will be me someday. Having the want and desire, but not the physical ability. I suppose it is the fate for each and every one of us at some point. Regardless, what a life. Life is good at the farm.

That's it from the farm next week, next time you are driving down the road and see a combine out in the field with its lights flashing, you will now know that his hopper is almost full and the cart guy (if he has one) will soon be back to take his grain!