Delivery Week!

It's been a busy week here at the farm. The last of the wheat (l) went into the bin today. None too soon either as my sinuses, eyes and throat are really paying the price. We have now moved on to Canola (r). They planted just under 2,000 acres of canola this past spring and now it is time to harvest it. Unlike wheat, canola is a much slower process. With wheat it was everything I could do to keep up with the harvesters. I would no sooner return with an empty truck and another full truck was waiting to go out. Even with two truckers they were sometimes texting me asking me where I was as they needed the truck I was in!

There are a couple reasons the canola is slower. First, the yield is much less than wheat, then there is the grain/seed size. It would take probably 6-9 canola seeds to equal the size of one kernel of wheat. As a result, it takes a couple hours to fill a truck versus 30 minutes. So, I find myself doing this....

This does not mean that the days are any less busy though. In fact, in the past 7 days we each worked over 100 hours.  We can typically get into the field a little sooner each day with canola. So, we are harvesting a little sooner each day and going a little later each day versus wheat. Noon to midnight would not be unusual. Luckily Ty's wife, Stephanie, brings us supper out in the field each day. For a picky eater like me, it forces me to try some new things. I am not a big fan of Mexican food, but I had the best fajitas of my life while sitting in the truck the other day. Some of them even come with dessert!

There has been a lot of talk in the news lately about price gouging and people/companies taking advantage of the unstable market. Well, I can tell you it is not on this end of the spectrum. Farmers do not set their own prices. Commodities are priced based on not only the U.S. supply, but the world supply mainly on price and demand. For example, wheat prices right now are at a low for several reasons, mainly there is a huge supply right now. This bin below holds 50,000 bushel of wheat (3,000,000 lbs) and right now wheat is approximately $4.56/bu making a full bin worth $228,000. Earlier this year wheat was at $7.40/bu making that same bin worth $370,000. That's nearly $150,000 swing in what they could have gotten for that wheat in just one bin! Think about all those bins of wheat across the country and how much less farmers are making now compared to that high. 

Farmers cannot raise their prices to make up for this loss. They have two choices, sell at that lower rate or hold it, hoping the price goes up. Some farmers need to take their grain to the elevator right away to live and pay bills, while others have the ability to hold it until the price goes up. Add to that increasing fuel and electric prices and you can see why the small farms are disappearing across the country. 

Much of this canola is going straight to the elevator to fulfill a contract they had made earlier in the year. Some of it is going to the farm as well. Here is one of my least favorite things to do. I don't hate it; I just don't love it. Checking the grain level in a bin once it gets near the top. Heights never used to bother me, but these last few years it has started to. I am just not as stable as I was used to be. I continue to do it to fight my fear. The views from the top are worth it though!

It is so dry out here that the combines are just in a dust bowl as they harvest. 

I cannot help but think about Farmer Bob in his younger years when he could harvest in an open cab. We get filthy throughout the day in our enclosed cabs. Imagine how filthy you would get sitting out in the open!

Although I cannot check my trail cameras back at home, I can check the ones they have around here. Here are a few of the more interesting ones; mostly catching some yellow-headed blackbirds in flight, which is really cool, but that last one with the deer in the foreground and the pheasant on the fencepost, looks like it comes right out of a Redlin or Kouba painting! 

In the 'pictures from home category', I have a few. There is a squirrel that terrorizes the girls almost every day. You say the word "squirrel" in our house and both of the dogs immediately jump to their feet and run to the door. The squirrel is usually long gone from the bird feeder by the time the girls get there but this week, for the first time, they were fast enough to trap this squirrel on the feeder post! That poor thing did not know what to do!

It sat on top of that post for a minute or so before launching itself at the nearest tree, which was much too far for it to actually make it. It hit the ground with all four of its feet spinning, making it to safety just ahead of the dogs. I bet it won't make that mistake again!

Barb also painted the door going into the garage. Frankly, I never thought of even painting it, but it does look much better! Now if she would only grout the stone.....

She also did me a favor by going to our local liquor store on Allocation Day to get me a hard-to-find bottle of bourbon. Once a month, the liquor store owner takes all of his hard-to-get bottles and puts them out. This is known as Allocation Day. He posts on Facebook what he is going to put out and they are available on a first-come-first-serve basis, limit 1 bottle. Barb got there about 6:20 in the morning and she was 23rd in line waiting for the 7:00 opening. People had their chairs set up, one guy even brought his Blackstone and was cooking people breakfast! See that kid in the baby stroller? Nothing like family day at the local liquor store! I wonder if the baby was able to get a bottle as well?!!? 

I gave her a list in order of which bottle I would like. When it was her turn, my top 10 were gone, but she did score on this bottle of Bookers!

But this ordeal cost me a lot more than the cost of the bourbon. She liked the idea of a Blackstone so much, she went and bought one!

This caught my eye as I walked by the chicken coop. I had heard about the tragedy when the dogs got into the chicken coop killing every single one of them, but I did not know that Gavin (10) insisted on putting up a cross as a memorial. It is hard to read but the writing says: Maple, Brighten, Chuckles, Meadowlark, Speedy, Scardy Cat, Clucker, Blacky, Snowman and the other 9. Tragic, but cute.

All of that and I have not even gotten to the biggest news of the week. Chris and Holly got a brand-new baby this week! By "got" I mean "had" and by "brand-new baby", I mean Ms. Tessa Mae, coming in at 6lbs-6oz. It was a scheduled delivery so at least they got to plan for it. Check out the boys shirts.

Holly absolutely would not allow me to take a picture of her, even before Tessa was born! Baby #4 for these two. Here is the thing about Tessa, she is only the 2nd female baby in the Sobieck family in a couple of generations. Bob S. (Chris's dad) came from a family of 4 boys, and he is the only one (and now Chris) to have a baby girl! Their lives have changed for sure, no more restful nights for them for a while. Chris took an afternoon off the day before she was born and a couple days after, but now he is back at it! 

I'll leave you with this picture of Dylan eating a donut. Do you think anyone else was interested in this donut? This picture is so cute, even Harry would love it!