A busy, busy time in the life of a farmer. When it's time to harvest, ti's time to harvest. (Unless you want an October wedding, then it will just have to wait.) This is my second harvest season with the Pagel's and very different then last year's. Since I accepted a job at FSA, I'm only at the farm nights and weekends. It's surprised me a lot just how much I miss being on the farm and working with Matt everyday. I mean practically everyone works somewhere else then with you spouse. Most say it's best not to work with your spouse. In the 3 weeks I've been working off farm the one thing I've missed the absolute most, is my Forever. Oh he tells me stories, (long, VERY detailed stories) about what he did that day. (I don't get to tell him about my day until he's done with his!) And I LOVE hearing his stories. For those of you that know Matt and thinks he's quite, I wish you could see him when's he's telling me these stories. He lights up and I can't help but smile. But...I miss sharing those escapades with him. As you can tell, we're still adjusting to our new schedule.
We started harvesting last Saturday somewhat. Sunday I got to run the combine while Henry drilled and Matt kept the corn away and trucks empty. Monday we really really got started with the 3 of us. Henry runs the combine, Matt unloads the trucks and I drive the grain cart and take trucks to Matt so they stay empty. For those that don't know about harvesting, we'll start at the very beginning. keep in mind this is what occurs in Northeast Kansas on one particular fram. In different parts of the country, state and even county the timeline may be different. The same concept, but different ideas and timeline. It all depends on the growing season, condition and farmer.
Corn is planted around the middle of April. Before even planting, producers sit down with their seed representatives and start figuring out what type of seed to plant where. It all starts with choosing the right seed to go in the right type of ground. I've never been involved in these talks, but there are tons of choices to make before even purchasing seed! So after the seed is planted, farmers are forced to wait 5 months or so and hope for favorable weather conditions so their seed will grow. During this time we spray the weeds so they won't overtake the crop. Then we hope for rain at the right time, no hail or wind and good harvesting conditions.
When that tiny corn seed finally produces a corn stalk with ears on it and the ears turn down and the moisture dries out, it's time to harvest. We've harvest for 2 full days and another couple 1/2 days. This is how harvest season has gone for me so far.
Day 1 (Saturday): Re-teaching myself how to drive and operate grain cart, combine, trucks and remembering what to do.
Day 2 (Sunday): Got to run the combine! This hardly ever happens! I love harvesting! I want to go on a harvest crew.
Day 3 (Monday): 3 of us harvesting-ran grain cart a lot of the day. Our neighbor girls, the Slipke's, and their dd came and rode with us and helped move fields. Talked to Matt about how fun it would be to o on a harvest crew together. Combine broke down in the evening. We wouldn't have to be in charge of anything on the harvest crew. If something broke down, it wouldn't be entirely on us to get it fixed and running quickly.
Day 4 (Tuesday): Up at six because Matt was headed to get parts and wanted to be there as soon as the store opened. I went to work. Ran lunch to the field for guys over my lunch break. Snarfed food down while driving to and from. Get off at 5 hurry home, change clothes, check cows, head to harvest. Ran grain cart most of night. 8 o'clock: getting pretty dark, try to turn on tractor lights-wouldn't come on. No big deal, Matt an fix them when he gets back with empty truck. Matt gets back, plays with fuses while I'm unloading onto the truck. Doesn't get them fixed, but truck if full so he leaves. Completely dark at this point. Try getting to lights on the combine using flashers on tractor while avoiding running over any corn left standing. Combine is full-Henry turns on flashers (which is code for I'm full-you should have been there before that point) so I drive faster in complete darkness weaving around corn trying to get on the correct side of corn-going the correct way. Mission not accomplished-got to the combine, but going the wrong way so we had to sit to unload. Notice while sitting there that it is incredibly hot in the tractor. Go to turn fan switch on. Fan switch is already on. While playing with the fuses, Matt took the fan one out and put it somewhere else. At this point it's late, I'm tired and decided I'm not going to be hot and tired, just tired. So Electrician Kelsey starts pulling out fuses and inserting into fan slot. Sparks start coming out. Abort! Decide it's nice enough outside that I can just open the window and doors and not start the tractor on fire. See the truck lights come back. Drive quickly through darkness again avoiding corn. And so it continues. Storm coming in that night and we're trying to get the field finished and equipment home before the storm. Finally, get caught up between truck and combine. At this point it's about 11:15. Matt gets in to ride to combine to get the second grain cart to fill truck. In that ride together I made it very clear to Matt that I never EVER EVER EVER want to go on a harvest crew. I'm much too tired and those people run 24 hours a day and never sleep! It started raining about 11:45 so we started the several trips it took for us to get things home to the shed. Hnery sent me home at midnight, but couldn't get to sleep until Matt got home at one so I knew he was safe and not crawling up metal bins in lightning. Instead taking a shower in lightning, but at least I knew he was home with me.
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| My grain cart help. She's growing so much. She slept all lot of the day, but enjoyed getting attention lavished on her by the Slipke girls. |
Today is the first day it hasn't been raining or wet enough to harvest. I think they are going to try going again today.
COMBINES:
But back to the nitty gritty of harvest. Combines are what pick the grain. Depending on what typ eof head the combine has on it, they can harvest different crops so farmers don't have a different combine for every crop-just a different head. The combine picks the grain. When picking corn, you position the head so you get the ears of corn, mostly the top 3/4 to 2/3 of the corn stalk. We only want the shelled corn in the bin of the combine. So the combine has a series of shakers and cleaners that the grain goes through to clean the corn. The corn is shelled off the cob and augered into the storage bin on the combine. The rest of the "trash" is thrown out the back of the combine, hits the spreaders and gets evenly distributed back onto the field.
We are a no-till operation-meaning we don't till the soil. Many years ago that was the only way to do it-till the soil. They thought that by working that organic matter (the stalks left standing and "trash" that comes out of the combine) into the ground, it is beneficial to the soil. Now, research shows that leaving it and not tilling the soil is the best way because it reduces erosion and other problems. There are pros and cons of each way. This is something I'm not all the passionate about, but a lot of farmers are very set in the way they are doing it and there way it the best way. I grew up on a farm that works the ground, my oldest sister married a farmer that says there is no other way. I'm married to a farmer that say working the ground is bad and hard on the ground. So I don't know about that aspect. I'm kind of indifferent on this subject. I think it comes down the the farm and what works for them.
Once the bin on the combine is full (ours has a beeper that says to stop because the bin is full and yes Matt and I drove to Hiawatha one night on a "date night" to get a replacement sensor since ours was gone. Harvests couldn't continue without it according to Matt. Not sure how people harvest that don't have one?) so the bin is full which is where the grain cart comes in.
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| Combine dumping into the grain cart. |
GRAIN CART:
This is what I really enjoy doing. If I could sit in a grain cart and not have to do anything else during harvest I would be a happy happy girl. I like driving the combine, but that's Henry's job. I'm fine driving trucks, but prefer if Matt does it. The grain cart I feel is the most challenging. The grain cart is what helps save incredible amounts of time during harvest season. The grain cart allows the combine to unload grain while still picking more. The first challenge of being a great driver is being where you need to be at the right time. You need to be at the combine when it gets full so it doesn't ever have to stop picking, but not too often-just when it's full. Then you need to fill the truck as soon as it gets there so it can be on the road. But when you go to unload the truck, you need to make sure the combine won't be full while you're filling the truck. Then assuming you are in the right place at the right time (doesn't happen very often for me) you need to be doing it correctly. When the combine is unloading on the grain cart, the combine driver needs to be watching the corn going into the combine so it doesn't plug up. The grain cart driver has to know how close to drive to the combine and how fast to drive. If the grain car doesn't drive in the right spot of not at the right speed, the grain falls on the ground.The grain comes out of the combine fairly quickly so if you mess up, there'a lot of grain that can be wasted on the ground pretty quickly. It takes about 1.5 combine bins to fill the grain cart and 1.5 grain carts to fill the truic. Sounds easy right? It would be a lot easier on flat long rows, but in NE KS we have terraces and you have to be extra careful how you go over those so you don't tear anything up and when loading you've got to pay more attention so you're the right distance for the combine, However, with that said, when you get caught up or the grain isn't great the grain car driver gets a little break every once in a while. It's challenging to know when and where to be, but I love the challenge and it's exciting every time you successfully allow the combine to continue picking and not stop. Anyway, it my favorite. Now think about doing all that without lights in pitch blackness of night and dodging corn that is still standing. Makes is that much more interesting!
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| Grain cart behind the tractor view. |
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| Grain cart dumping into the truck. |
TRUCKS:
Normally, this is Matt's job. The combine and grain cart drivers just sit basically all day. In the truck, it's not that way. We have 2 trucks. A good truck and a not so great truck. So if you have two trucks, one is normally full by the time you get back with the other truck. So he's always in and out of everything. Then there's the option of storing grain on farm or taking it to town. We have a lot of on farm storage so there has to be an auger to get it into the ins, a tractor to run that auger, truck has to be backed up in the certain spot and the tractor has to be running so fast. It scares me to do all that. There's so many things going that could mess up so easily. On all the harvesting equipment that's true, but for me dumping tricks is something I say no to doing. I drive loaded grain trucks and have since I've been in high school, but don't particularly love doing it. After the grain is stored and harvest is over then decisions have to be made about when to market the grain. Some do that before. Marketing grain is a blog of itself that I should write because I would learn a lot.
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| This is how the corn comes out of the truck, into the auger and up to the bin. |
Anyhow, that's a good start in the harvest process. Again, I encourage questions and comments. Anyone can leave a comment on the blog. It's an easy process to do and I would love to hear from my readers!
Another aspect of harvest season, that I'm going to blame on harvest, but it really just my bad domestic skills is our horribly dirty house. I decided Wednesday night (it had rained so we couldn't harvest) that I was going to mow our yard that hadn't been mowed in a month and cook an actual meal. As soon as I started mowing it started raining. Went inside and decided before I could cook anything, our kitchen needed to be thoroughly scrubbed. So by the time I had got that all done it was getting late and I was hungry so I searched through a church cookbook and found the recipe for microwave meatloaf and was fairly impressed with it and it's super easy and mostly hands off! Debbie K., your mom put this in the Buck's Grove Cookbook and I'm super thankful she did!
Microwave Meatloaf:
2 lbs hamburger
1 cup oatmeal
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
Mix well. Bake for 15-20 minutes. (Remember this is in the microwave!)
Toppin Sauce:
3 T. brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. dry mustard
Mix well and pour over meat loaf about 2 minutes before done.
I halved the recipe and Matt ate all, but the little I ate so I wouldn't recommend cutting anything if you're feeding more than 2 or want leftovers. Otherwise, I thought it was pretty good and Matt said it was okay which is about as good as it gets with him.
One more exciting thing for this week...
One of Matt's sisters, Moe (Melissa) and her husband Jason had their second child this week on Thursday night. Hopefully, we get to go down this evening to meet Lorelei Estelle. Moe had to have a C-Section so hoping she heals quickly and it isn't too painful. We're very blessed to have amazing nieces and nephews in our life and are excited about the addition of another one. We're also very thankful that Matt's siblings are keeping the grandparents entertained with them so they don't turn to us to have children too soon!
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| Lorelei Estelle and her dad Jason. |
That's all I've got. Hope you have a fantastic week!
