Alaska Bound?

All around us everyone’s summer plans seem to be changing. It does not matter if you are an RV’er or live in a home, the blogs I read and people I talk to are all changing their plans. Some are changed for them while other are changing them themselves. We are holding out hope, fingers and toes crossed that we will still make it to Alaska. At times it looks like it could still happen, at other times, the light is fading at the end of the tunnel. 

The latest information I read said that the Canadian border is closed until mid to late May at which time they will either open it or extend the closing. We are not scheduled to cross until mid-June so even if they keep it closed for a few weeks longer it would not delay us. Some people we talk to say they think it will be open by June, others don’t think it will open at all. 

Even if they did delay the opening we are somewhat flexible and would still cross the border as late as July. The next question is the parks. Although we tend to boondock rather than stay in parks, the latest is that both the British Columbia and Yukon Provincial Park may be open in June but possibly only to residents. We even looked into taking a ferry from Washington to Alaska but at over $5,000 one way that is out of the question. 

I see on Facebook that some people are crossing. Alaskan snowbirds heading home and those with jobs up there for the summer with letter from their employers…. Now there is a thought. I am sure Barb could get a job cleaning cabins or something at one of the resorts up there in a good fishing area so I would have something to do to pass the time while she is working!   

In the meantime I will just sit in the tractor, daydreaming about Alaska and "Painting Fields". At least that is what I think of it as. Each of the big tractors has a guidance system so you can track exactly where you have been to make sure you cover every inch of the field. For example when using the roller you set up the width of the roller so the guidance system knows how much ground you are covering. Then you set up the direction you want to head (i.e. 180° = North/South), line up your starting point, put it the tractor in gear, set the speed, push the guidance button and away you go! You don’t need to hold onto the steering wheel at all.

As you go down the field the guidance system “paints” a yellow line the width of the roller on the screen so you can see where you have been. At the end of the row, you turn off the guidance, make your corner and turn it on again. Row after row after row after row. I had two days of over 200 acres this week and at about 45 acres/hour including travel time I was in the tractor about 8 hours each day. 

3 passes down, many, many to go!

I enjoy it, sitting in the tractor, looking at the scenery, lost in my own thoughts. The downside is that if you are not paying attention or one were to fall asleep the tractor would keep going in whatever direction you set it at until you ran into a slough, a tree or if you were a really sound sleeper, ran out of fuel. I sure the first two have happened to someone, I doubt the sleeping part as it is way too rough. So as you go up and down the rows you are painting the field! You do have to look for other things that might be in the field like this really cool find!

They have been known to give you a flat tire as well!

When it is all done it looks something like this…..The unpainted areas are either rock piles, tree rows, wet areas, or sloughs. 

Lots of sloughs in this field

Straighter field with just a road and tree rows

Being in the tractor that long you have to make sure to bring snacks and a lunch. If you forget it is not like you are going to tractor to the nearest Dairy Queen and pull up to the drive thru. One day I did forget a lunch and was starving. So starving that I was eyeing up the mouse glue trap on the floor with peanut butter on it. 

Yum, peanut butter!

If I was really careful could I eat the peanut butter off of it? Or would I return to the farm with a glue trap stuck to my face! Luckily Barb brought me lunch and I did not have to find out. On another occasion Holly was nice enough to bring me lunch. If you have a long row without anything in the way you just turn on the guidance and you have both hands free to eat! It is a little bumpy so soup would probably not be a good idea but a sandwich and chips will do just fine. 

The other day after I got done rolling a field I get a text from Farmer Bob asking me to bring chains out to him. Yes! Chains can only mean one thing, Farmer got stuck! The monkey is off my back as I am now not the last one to get stuck. Awfully nice of him to take the heat off of me. 

 He was able to unhook the tractor but the Landoll was still stuck

With a few lengths of chain and getting on drier ground, he was able to pull it out. 

DeAnne finished the barn painting and it looks great! If you read the post I mentioned last week about the history of the farm you will see that this is a replica of the barn that was on the grounds when Bob was a child. A tornado took out the real barn several years ago. 

DeAnne putting the finishing touches on the barn

Barb giving Chase a ride in the Bobcat

Dylan and I started off the week by burning the flax residue I had raked earlier. They finally lifted the burning ban so we called the Fire Dept. to let them know we were going to burn and put a torch to it!

The rest of the week we planted a variety of crops. Canola, wheat and soy beans. When harvested, the Canola primarily goes into cooking oil, the wheat for seed, bread and flour and the soy beans for feed and oil. There are other uses for each but these are the most common.  

Chris teaching Chase the finer points of farming

Farmer Daisy

We received a couple of pictures from our kids this past week showing us what they have been up to. Our daughter Jessica and her husband Shane have been building a chicken coop. She called and commended Barb and I building a house together because her and Shane cannot even build a “#@!# chicken coop” together! 

Hey, it looks good to me!

In the meantime, Forrest and his family have been on the hunt for morel mushrooms in Oregon…. 

Score!

Lily with some nice "shrooms"!

As of today we have 2,850 acres planted, or almost 60% of their total acreage. Unfortunately rain last night ground us to a halt so it might be a day or two before we get back in the field. But then again, the rain is a good thing for the seed that is already in the ground!