Rollin Rollin Rollin

It finally feels like we're full steam ahead now that both combines have cut 2 full days without breakdowns. We've got 2 bins full of seed wheat saved and everyone has a little grain at the elevator in their name now too.

Friday we moved away from the dusty dirty flood field even though it wasn't done yet and cut more seed at the River. By evening we were wrapping up those long hauls around the winding, bumpy river road and moved back to the flood field to try again. A little breeze helped move that dirt away from the windshield so the combine operators could see where they were going. We finished that up early Saturday afternoon (that whole place finished with a yield of 40). Most of the flood wheat had a test weight in the 54-55 range, which wasn't too bad considering it was completely underwater in a lot of places. Sad that it had been on par to be close to 60 bushel wheat, but thankful it wasn't any worse too. I got more water hauled to the cows yesterday afternoon before we moved and I made lasagne for dinner. I took a few more photos last night while I was waiting for my truck to be filled - of the cows standing at the pasture fence and the brome grass glowing in the waterway. :-)

This morning I'm making some apple crisp in the slow cooker to go with all the leftovers we still haven't cleaned up yet. My fridge will be empty at 1 p.m. today, I'm not putting anything back in there again! Now, if the magic dish genie would show up and do my dishes while I go drive truck, that would be a perfect ending to the day! Maybe, if everything holds together today and we keep on rolling like we have been, we'll have 5 fields completed (350 acres). Close to halfway done - 6 more fields to go. Now I better quit blogging and get yesterday's dishes done and make some sandwiches for afternoon meal before the guys show up hungry at my house!

Flood Damage Slows Harvest

We cut for 2 days (well 1 full day and 2 half days) with 1 combine at Bob's place and finally finished it up yesterday afternoon. 80 acres down. We thought we were going to get into full-tilt harvest when we convoyed the 2 combines and 2 trucks to the next 60-acre field, but it wasn't go-time after all. The field we pulled into had flooded the first of June. Between the billowing dirt clouds and the hidden logs, it was pretty slow going. It turned even slower when one of the combines sucked a log into the header and broke off a bunch of the auger fingers (they pull the wheat into the feeder house). So the rest of the evening was spent playing mechanic. That flood patch had a less than ideal test weight but turned out alright with a 47 bu/ac yield. The grain was just a little shriveled.

The second combine was able to move to a new patch that had not been underwater and cut some seed wheat. It is getting binned this morning. Good to have some seed wheat in the bin since there are chances of rain over the weekend. Don't want the good, non-flood grain to start shriveling too if we get more rain!

Today is leftovers day at my house, cleaning up the meals that MIL made the last 2 days. I did make some new jello to go with it, but we might have to have ice cream sandwiches for dessert because I won't get off work til noon and then it'll be hurry up and eat, let's get to the field time! I still need to make sandwiches for afternoon meal too! Tomorrow and Sunday I'll be able to cook up some good food for dinner!

It has Begun

"Has Harvest begun?" Bob asked me as I parked the red truck in the machine shed. I confirmed. We were cutting his wheat, but he hadn't been there to see it. He had been planting grain sorghum in another field. Jarrod and John spent the day slaving over the separator belt in John's combine and finally were able to start harvesting about 5:30 tonight. Jarrod picked me up on his way through town with the first truckload. I marveled at the uncharacteristically cool weather for this first day of our harvest, took photos and shuffled the red truck around a few times. Never know when those chances to simply play with the camera will come along, so I took the chance tonight. I'll have you know, I never banged the sideboards on the truck once! Must be finally getting better at driving a stick! The first day of harvest ended with our new summer 2011 ritual - every-other-day water hauling to the spring herd. It's not nearly as much fun after dark.

Harvest 2011

It has come to my attention that gasp! I havent blogged in almost a year! It is almost harvest time here and a lot has happened that would have made good stories. I just discovered that we can now update our blogs with our phones so here is a cell phone picture of some ripe wheat! I will try to update frequently throughout harvest!