À la carte

 That word came to mind this week as I drove the grain cart all week. Bob S. had to go back home for a wedding. That left an opening in the grain cart. I was more than happy to fill that spot as the tractor has air conditioning and with temps in the 90's AC is much appreciated! Despite having them worked on the trucks, not so much at the moment. 

I have reached the two week point at being away from home. This is when I start getting homesick and count the days until I am released from my servitude and am allowed to roam the country free again. At this point, it is unknown when they will let that happen. I am thinking 10-14 days, I will find out more at my parole hearing later this week. 

We worked on wheat most of the week, getting into the field about noon and home about 10ish depending on the moisture levels and humidity. 

Then sunsets here are beautiful. And there is something about watching the sunset from the cab of a tractor that makes it even more beautifuler (that was for all you teachers out there!).

Here is a video of Dylan thinking he is a he-man of sorts. There was a round bale in the edge of the field that was in the way, his 29-year-old ego and brain said, "No problem, I will just roll it out of the way". Not so much!

Holly had a special surprise waiting for us at our last wheat field. She had planned an impromptu picnic in the field! Complete with a grill, burgers and all the fix'ins! All the spouses and kids attended as well. DeAnne, Stephanie, and Sydney. 

We then took group pictures in front of some of the equipment. She is thinking of making it an annual tradition, I think it is a great idea! She even made a Facebook reel about it which you can see here.

After that field was done, we moved on to Canola! Much slower pace for the cart driver. While wheat can be anywhere from 50-100 bushels/acre, Canola is more like 30-50bu/acre meaning I have a lot more downtime between dumps. Same goes for the truck driver too.

Of course, there is always the morning fueling of the combines. One thing I forgot to mention is that sometime while doing that we are also fixing guards and sections on the header. The header is the thing in front of the combine that gathers all the grain as the combine goes across the field. The section are little cutting blades that cut the stalk of the plant and the guards, well they guard the sections from rocks and other debris. Both are constantly getting broken; we often have to replace 4-10 sections a day. 

Meanwhile back in South Dakota, Barb is as busy as usual. Just when I thought we were done with the rock wall outside the house I caught this image of her scrubbing the wall with what appeared to be my toothbrush! I certainly hope I am wrong as I was planning on using that thing when I got home after being gone for several weeks!

When I called her to see what the heck she was doing, she said she was scrubbing the face of the stone with Muric acid where we got mortar on them. I knew she was a compulsive clean freak, but this is taking it to a whole new level! But what there is more. She said she also took everything out of each and every cabinet and cupboard and cleaned inside of them as well. While I think this is a little over the top for my standards, it is also one of the things I love about her!

Yet another day she texted me a picture of a door saying that she thinks she found a door for her workshop on Marketplace, and she was going to look at it. Now everyone knows that Marketplace is full of reputable sellers and women alone should just rush right to strange houses to look at items, right? Well, that is what she did. Next thing I know she is texting me pictures of windows, insulation, heaters, saws, sanders... She said she was going home to get the trailer so she could bring home all the treasures she bought. 

Here is where I knew that I married a strong and capable woman.... (As if I didn't know it already). The enclosed trailer had fallen off the block of the wood holding it up a week before I left and I had yet to put it back up on the block. This means Barb would not be able to get it on the Jeep without getting a hand jack and lifting it up. I called her and explained the situation to her and to her credit, she did not give one sigh of frustration, she just asked where the jack was and went to! Next thing I knew I received this picture of our trailer full of stuff she bought from the guy! I am sure the guy is going to talk about this crazy lady who showed up at his house to look at a door and drove away with a trailer full, leaving $1,000 behind in the process. We needed all that stuff and it would have cost well over twice that much if we bought it new, so it was a win/win for everyone involved. Especially me, as I did not have to load a thing!

Last, but not least, she broke out the log splitter. I had cut down a couple of standing dead trees before I left at Barb's request as she said she might "put up some wood". Next thing I know I get a couple of photos of a pile of split wood and a full wood storage area!

The critter cams this week showed more of the same. Deer and turkeys. Still fun to see though!

A different kind of "dear"! (or turkey depending on your perspective)

I know I get in trouble if I do not include at least one dog picture in a post. This week I have several for you! First are Dylan's two dogs, Nova and Nellie. They just hang around the farm all day waiting for someone to play with them. 

Barb sent me a few pictures of Zoey and Dakota. Zoey is being her usual goofy self while Dakota is more content just being around Barb and sleeping. 

I do have one "Find the Frenchie" photo for you. Why she does this, I have no idea, but it seems to be a trait with Frenchies. If you google "Find the Frenchie" you will see all sorts of images they seem to be peeking around things to see what you are up to!

You know how much I love picking on my "friend" Dino. The last "dog" image for the week is this one I found on Facebook. Now some of you may think this article was doctored up a little bit, but I assure you, it has not and since it is now on the internet it is true. As we all know, everything on the internet is true!

So, if you see this guy walking around your town, run. Run very fast. Well, at least at a fast-paced walk as he is practically an invalid and limps along at pretty much a snail's pace. 

Back at the Farm!

 Ah, it is good to be back at the farm. Kind of like ground hogs day in a sense. Being my 11th or 12th fall up here, things become routine. I do have to refamiliarize myself with some of the machinery. Like, what RPM do you put the tractor at when unloading grain from a truck into a bin. Or which switch turns on the PTO. Within an hour of my arrival, I was doing just that, unloading a truck. 

There are 6 of us on the farm working on getting the crops in; Farmer Bob is in one combine, Chris is in another, Chris' dad, Bob S. is in the grain cart, Dylan and I are trucking, and Ty is cutting hay, cleaning grain and doing a variety of other jobs back at the farm. So far, this has not varied too much; Dylan has jumped in the combine a time or two, but the rest of us have pretty much stuck to those roles. 

There has been more than our fair share of breakdowns, at least it seems that way to me. A fuel pump here, a pulley and shaft there. And there is always the occasional bearing, sensor and shear pin that goes out. Luckily, they are pretty self-sufficient when it comes to repairs. I am not exaggerating when I say they have saved well over $10,000 in labor costs just this week alone. 

The focus of the week was on the wheat fields. 155 acres one day, a couple hundred the next. How much you get done in a day depends on how fast you can go in the field. If the straw is tough, you need to go slower, pretty much everything is under 4mph even in the best conditions. The other things that dictate how much you get done is the moisture level and the aforementioned breakdowns.  You cannot just get up in the morning and hit the fields, you need the night's dew to dissipate before you can get out there, many times it is after noon before we get out into the field. 

While waiting for that to happen, there are always the morning chores, fueling the combines, topping off the DEF, dumping trucks from the night before, greasing up equipment, cleaning out bins, moving augers..... So far, our days have been like 7am-7pm, but we were up one night until midnight working on replacing that pulley and shaft. The Case dealers even have "after hours" parts people on call. Does not matter what time it is, call the parts number and someone answers. That person will then drive into the shop, find the part and put it out for you. On the night in question Farmer Bob was running to get parts at 11pm.  Time is money and one cannot afford to be broke down. 

Diesel on the left, DEF on the right

As I said, my job this week was trucking. Depending on the truck, I will be loading with anywhere from 60,000 to 70,000lbs of wheat which I then bring back to the farm and unload into one of 30 or so grain bins of the farm. The bin vary in size from 4,000 bushel (roughly 4 trucks) to 50,000 bushel (roughly 50 trucks. 

The seed will sit in these until they are either sold on the commodity market or cleaned and sold for seed to other farmers. Most of the fields know their fate even before planting. Some are raised specifically for seed and some they know will be commodity when they put it into the ground. Sometimes farmers will have the seed under contract even before they put it in the ground in the spring, say, with General Mills or a beer manufacturer. It is quite the process.  

Depending on the crop, we have to "sanitize" the combines, trucks, cart and augers between varieties. This means getting into every crook and cranny, blowing the seeds out. Since much of their harvested seed is sold to other farmers to plant the following spring, you do not want cross contamination between varieties. 

See all that seed on the ground above and below? There are a lot of places for seeds to hide in those machines!

While the trucks and cart are relatively quick, the combines take about two hours each. But you have to be somewhat of a contortionist to climb in and out of the trucks and carts. The best way into the truck hopper is through the trap under the truck which is about 18" from the ground. My old-man bod just does not bend like it used to. I've tried going in from the top, but it is so steep and slippery, you pretty much just shoot to the bottom anyways. 

Did I mention the bins? Yeah, we have to clean those too.....

Then there is the moving grain from one bin to another. This happened a couple of times this week when a big bin only had a few thousand bushel left in it and we needed to free it up for the grain coming in from the field. We moved what was remaining into a smaller bin. 

Out of the bigger bin (left) and into the smaller bin (right)

 There are 6 varieties of wheat: Hard Red Winter, Hard Red Spring, Soft Red Winter, Soft White, Hard White and Duram. This week we harvested Hard Red Spring and Duram. Duram wheat is used primarily for pasta, it also has a very high gluten content, red wheat is used for pretty much everything else. 

Duram on the left, Red on the right

They recently bought a drone to video some of their fields for their seed business. Here are a couple, one of a pea field and one of a wheat field. If you look in the background at about the 1:00 mark of the second video, you can see their farm in the background. 

The best part of the day comes around 6pm when supper arrives. Either Holly (Chris's wife) or Stephanie (Ty's wife) arrives in the field with a Styrofoam container of food. This week suppers included ribs, pizza, sloppy Joe's and cheese steaks! The end of the day a shower comes in a close second. With the temps up in the 90's this week and as dirty as we get that shower feels mighty nice! 

I put up a couple of critter cameras before I left South Dakota, two of which are cellular and send pictures to my phone. Here are a few of the more interesting shots. 

You may have to look twice before you figure out what this one is.....

The animal in the next one isn't quite as obvious as the cow above, but if you look to the right edge you will see it. One of the hills most elusive critters. 

Some sad news though, Remmie passed away this past week. Some of you might recall this post I wrote about him this spring. He had the kind of life a dog should have; a loving family, the freedom to walk freely around the farm and being able to pursue his passion for hunting. Chris and Holly gave him the best life, he could not have asked for better owners. To say he is missed would be one a huge understatement. I urge you to read/reread that post to give you an idea what he meant to their family. 

Busy 10 days at Home

 There is something comforting about the routine of being at home. Every morning the same sounds reach my ears as I sit on the couch and watch the morning news. I need a few minutes to get my head and muscles going in the morning, Barb not so much, she is generally a spaz from the moment she wakes up. 

I am often up before her, by "up" I mean on the couch. I often wake up at 3:30-4:00 and go out to the couch. I don't know why, but that move will often put me back to sleep for a few more hours. At about 6:00-6:30 what happens next never changes..... Zoey will jump on the couch and sit on my lap waiting for some pets. I will then hear Barb turn on the Breville, as she walked to the sliding door and takes the dogs out. 5 minutes later she is back in the house and walks into the laundry room where I hear her fill the dog water dish and pick up their food bowls puts the dry food into each and brings them back into the kitchen where she puts a scoop of canned and a few pieces of shredded chicken on top.

After bringing the bowls back into the laundry room, she returns to the kitchen where I hear the clank of the dishwasher being emptied. By now I have the TV on and am watching the morning news. Once the dishwasher is emptied, I hear her at the Breville grinding her coffee beans and the other noises it makes in the coffee making process. Barb then comes and puts her coffee cup on a coaster on the table next to the couch and asks me if I want my Mountain Dew. 

My heart glows with love as I listen to this morning routine....day after day after day. 20-30 minutes later she will ask what I want for breakfast and go about making it. By now many of you are telling me to get my lazy ass to get off the couch and make my own breakfast, I will tell you, I have tried in the past and this routine is what Barb likes to do, what she wants to do. If I try to do anything I am told to go sit down. 

From that point on, the day is a wildcard, who knows what will happen. As we drink our morning beverage we talk about our plans for the day, which for me usually is, "Work on the garage". 

But that was not the case the first few days we were home as I was out of lumber and they could not deliver it for 3 days. So instead, I said words that we both dread....  "Let's finish the grout". With a groan, she says "Do we have to?"

An hour of so later I am mixing up the mortar and Barb is adding dye. Once the mortar is the right consistency, we each add mortar to our squeeze bags and get to squeezing. 

But guess what? We are done with the grout! I don't know why but this chore was like our kryptonite. We just could not get motivated to do it. But now it is done! Well, almost. Barb still wants to go through and clean off the excess with muriatic acid. 

Of course we had our regular chores that needed to get done as they were delayed while we were gone; changing the water filters in the house, cleaning the filter in the hot tub and weed whacking the tall grass on the driveway island. 

 Oh, and filling the apple tree water tote. The apple trees are looking good so far. No apples, but whatever was eating the leaves seemed to have stopped. 

When I was done with that, I had about 100 gallons of water left over so I put it in the cattle tank. While the cattle have several water tanks available to them between ours and our neighbor's property, ours has been empty for a couple of weeks. The herd happened to be near me as I was filling it, when they heard that water hitting the bottom of that tank, they came a runn'in!

 Our lumber order arrived on Monday and I got to work on the garage. While climbing around on the roof is not my favorite thing to do, I do find it rewarding working on it. We are still working on the roof, we still had 26' of roof on each side to cover, so 52' in total. Normally we could get this done in two days, but Barb blew out her back resulting in a 2-day delay. Once she was better, we got to work getting 6 panels (18') up the first day and only 2 on the second, it was just too hot. The temps were 86 and 94 each of those days so by noon, it was so hot you could not go on the metal up there. 

Did you find the Frenchie in one of these photos?

In the mornings and afternoons, we have been spending time out in the gazebo, which is where we discovered Zoey's latest talent. Eating ants! There are dozens of ants crawling across the concrete and Zoey has taken it upon herself to rid the gazebo of them one by one. The funny part is the ants are trying to fight back as they bite Zoey tongue and she shakes her head trying to get rid of them. 

I did get out to help Kevin at one of his jobs one day where he was putting trusses up on a 40x80 shed. It took a good 8 hours to get them up, but luckily the temps only got up to 76 that day. 

Yet another day, I got over to Dan and Bonnie's to help him with some electrical on an addition he is putting on his garage.

But the week was not all work, we got out once to go to Custer and sit on a roof top bar watching the bikes go by. Last week was Sturgis week and there were bikes everywhere!

We also took a drive out to Buffalo, Wyoming to look at a generator for the camper. We currently have an onboard generator, but it is acting up. Barb called a few places in the area, but no one will work on it. The one place she did find said they would do it, but needed $190/hr just to diagnosis it with a minimum of 3 hours. Then she found the exact same generator with only 100 hours on it for sale in Buffalo for $400. So we drove out and bought it. 3 1/2 hours each way, but I think it was the right move. I will either work on the existing generator myself or just replace it. 

And Sunday we had our niece. Alana and Ryan out for a Frenchie play date. We had not seen them in a while and it was nice to see Zoey, Sophie and Loki playing. Dakota hid in the bedroom and wanted nothing to do with them. Zoey and Sophie would play, then crash, play and crash over and over again. 

Our next post will come from North Dakota as it is time for me to head to the farm! Harvest began about 10 days ago with the peas. They are getting ready to start with wheat which is much busier than peas so it is time for me and Bob S. to head up to help!

I will leave you with these two beauties who stopped by the other day to visit. A doe and buck mule deer. They were only around for about 5 minutes but it is certainly nice to see them!