Soybeans

This afternoon all the equipment came rolling back in…. the truck pulling the bean head on the trailer, the combine, the tractor pulling home the last wagon of beans…. the soybean field outside the house was the last one to go! And now they are done.  Yeah!!  I’m not sure there has been a time that the beans have all been done in one big swoop!   They did a bit last Thursday to test the waters, hit it full-steam ahead on Monday, and are done on Friday.  Only a small delay one morning because of fog.

Phil hopes to get the wheat started either tonight or tomorrow.   I’m not sure if he will get his workers going on corn at the same time or not.   There is land with corn on it that will also be planted with wheat so that will wait for a bit later.  Of course, he’d love a rain on his wheat but there is no rain in the forecast for the next week.

Our soybean yields were not dreadful.  The early numbers from the plot showed 60 – 80 bushels per acre.  In a good year, 80 bu is good.  There has been talk that south of our highway (we are) was a dividing line of rain or not rain.   We are thankful!

There are a few snickerdoodle bars left.  Here is my not so glamorous photo….

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Wheat Harvest

The end of June brought the harvest of our wheat.  The yields for the wheat were fantastic… too bad we didn’t have the glass ball to foresee planting more wheat last fall.  The harvest was about 4 weeks early.

Every year it is still so amazing to see the “amber waves of grain” against the corn & soybeans that neighbor the field.

Bob was in the combine and Phil was there to haul the loads.  Not often do I get them both together for a photo.

Phil just had filled another semi load of wheat which is heading out here.

Of course, the spot-price for the remaining bushels was much higher than the price he locked in earlier.

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Out with the Old…

After Phil’s brilliant idea to put his combine at the end of the lane with a For Sale sign, THE FIRST DAY brought him a buyer.  No real calls (real buyer – not dealer) from his ads online and in ag papers.

The green left about 2 weeks ago….

And FINALLY last Friday…

The NEW RED ONE arrived!!

Phil had several reasons he went red:  The green guys don’t really keep any around in the US  (let alone our area) in our size range, he has heard from several places & from real farmers that the red has better ‘guts’ and does a better job with cleaning grain, and this deal worked out when there were no options for green here.

He also got a bean head from them and has put an adapter on the new combine to use his current green corn head.  (That is a very doable combo and not as odd as it sounds!)

I was gone when it arrived but he brought it to the house and offered rides! 🙂

I thought the rear view mirrors were huge so I took this picture.  A few days later JP & Phil were saying how much they like the rear view mirrors.  🙂   I was right – LOL!!

Meanwhile, we are halfway through October and have not picked one single bit of soybeans or corn.  😦  We usually start mid-to-end of September.  This is even later than last year.

Phil has heard of others who have tried to combine corn and it is in the 30%+ moisture level and it can be stored at 14%.  Not good.   A semi pulled in to dump a load and nothing came out the hopper because it was so wet it all stuck.  Ugh!

Please pray for some sunshine! We have had WEEKS (the whole summer!) of rain.  Also pray for the safety of all the farmers.  I’m concerned that once they can go, there will be little sleep and long hours.   (Except that the bin will be full and take a long time to dry…)

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Auction Prep

Last week the men were working on getting a few things to take to the local 3x a year consignment auction.

Several wagons went out – like older, smaller gravity boxes that they don’t need anymore.

I thought you’d be more interested in seeing this old wagon:

Phil’s dad asked me to take pictures of this, which is more technically called an end-gate seeder.

Phil has not-so-fond memories of riding in the back of the wagon, filling the hopper with shovels of seed as his dad drove the tractor so they could get the oats seeded.

Then his mom said how his older sister would have to go out and shovel before school sometimes!  We’ll see how these stories surface at the next gathering.

They also took some old barn beams down to the consignment auction.  Over the last year or so, Phil’s dad has sold them with just an ad in the paper.  He still has a few more to sell.

Phil also has his combine for sale.   We are praying a buyer comes forth from ads placed online, in an Ag paper, and on a tractor sale site.

Yesterday he got brave and decided to put it at the end of the lane next to my homemade For Sale sign and a man called about it today.  Praying that develops!  Otherwise, by Thursday he will probably take it for the consignment auction.

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Harvest Celebration!

Phil & JP finished our corn on Friday, November 28!!  

Yahoo!!!

Afterwards, they moved all the equipment to Mike’s (1 mile north) and worked there a bit Friday night and long & hard on Saturday.  

They finished!!!!  

I’m so glad & Phil & JP are so tired!  

The best part….. JP is now a combine operator!  

After Phil did the driver training Friday afternoon, JP finished our corn.  On Saturday, the hauling & unloading at Mike’s is a bit trickier so it worked out slick for JP to combine and Phil to unload.  

We are done!!

 

And just in the nick of time… several inches of snow are accumulating for our 3rd year in a row of a major snow dump on December 1st.   Maybe because of leap year it started a day too early?  😉

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