Seed Bed prep

We woke up yesterday morning to a little bit of rain!  It hasn't rained since the beginning of June, so while the total amount of moisture that fell wasn't a lot, it was welcome.  Especially since it cleaned the air of all the smoke that has been hanging around for the last three weeks!  It smelled so good, and later we saw blue skies! 

I have been running the coil packer, prepping our summer fallow ground for seeding.  Reynald and Alicia are working on getting the drills ready.  They have also washed both combines and semi trucks and trailers and put them away.  They've been busy while I just sit on the tractor and go back and forth!

Damp soil, Colt, the coil packer and Alicia's house in the background!

It was a great day to watch the sky change from rain clouds to......

blue skies and puffy clouds.  What a joy to see the vibrant blue of the sky and the colorful clouds.  

This image shows the heavy residue that we do our best to maintain on our fields. It is the left over straw from the crop we harvested last year.  We will seed this field in a few days.

Straw makes soil as it decomposes.  It also preserves moisture and helps prevent soil erosion.  

Even after I run the coil packer over, you can see that the straw is still very thick.  This makes for a really nice seed bed.

Different clouds from yesterday.  One of the perks of riding a tractor is the opportunity to observe the changing sky from morning to night.  

Still smokey

and still mowing! 

I am still mowing, but will be taking a break for a few weeks from that project.  I need to start coil packing so that I can get it done before we start seeding. 

Today the wind picked up mid-afternoon so I stopped mowing, due to fire danger and spent the afternoon in the house, canning peaches!  Alicia and I started this process on Monday, but the fruit wasn't all ripe, but today the remainder was. 

And, skies are still smokey here.  There was some hope that a shift in the wind direction would move out the smoke, but since fires are burning in all directions, the wind just brought in different smoke!  Someday we will see a blue sky again!

This image was supposed to show the smoke, but it also shows mowed and not mowed straw!

Here's my faithful mower.  It takes a lot of abuse, and requires some fixing now and then, but for the most part, runs smoothly.

What didn't run smoothly this morning, was my Indy tractor.  About this time every year, he tells me that he needs to have the fuel filters changed.  Luckily, I know just the person for the job!

I love having an in house mechanic!  

Another shot of the smoke.  

And a few jars of peaches!

Charlie really loves corn, so he has taken to pulling ears off to eat.  But, when he pulls an ear off, the entire stalk comes along as well!  He takes the stalk to the grass and eats the corn off the cob, even though the corn isn't quite ready!  He was also eating peas today, and yesterday he was picking black berries!  He has a well rounded and healthy diet!

Charlie eating corn on the cob!

And look who else joins in on the fun!!

Smokey Skies

I apologize for a lack of posts these last few weeks.  I still haven't figured out how to upload photos from the new camera, and I'm not in the habit of using my phone as a camera, as much as I should or could. 

I have a bunch of photos on the camera, so one of these days, I will post several harvest photos, well after the fact! 

For now, I will try to remember to use my phone more to shoot images of what is happening on Rolinco road!

We've had several weeks of smokey skies, but yesterday the air quality was terrible.  The smoke was thick, making it difficult to be outside for very long, and reducing visibility to 1/4 mile.  We woke up this morning to more of the same, but by mid morning a strong wind began, bringing in more smoke, but also moving it along!  It's still pretty bad this evening, but not nearly as thick as all day yesterday.

With the bad air quality, Alicia and Reynald and I decided it would be a good time for me to hop on the mower and get a few acres of stubble chopped.  We spent a few hours getting the mower serviced and moved and I was up and running by noon yesterday.

Here are a few images of our project.

We hooked up Indy to the mower which has been parked at Pumpkin center since last fall.

Looking east from Pumpkin Center to the combines parked on top of the hill, which you can just barely make out through the smoke.

Alicia came across a huge hornet nest, built in one of the drive line covers.

She sprayed the nest with starting fluid to kill the hornets.

Upon further inspection, we found several more nests so went home to get the wasp and hornet killer.  Much more effective than starting fluid!  

Alicia was removing the drive line covers so that Reynald can grease.

Alicia is happy after killing at least four large hornet nests in the mower.

I checked the tire pressure on all the tires.  When tires sit this long, they naturally lose a little pressure.

In this image you can make out the FAA tower which is about a quarter mile away.

This is the neighbors house, which is again, less than a quarter mile away.  

The winds are predicted to change mid week, hopefully moving some of this heavy smoke out of our region.  Looking forward to seeing a blue sky again! 

Harvest week in review

Right before harvest started, my camera konked out.  Reynald bought a new one at Costco when he did the pre-harvest grocery run, and I have figured out how to take photos with it, but I haven't figured out how to upload to use on my blog.  This will be an after harvest project!

So, for now, I have been taking more photos with my phone.  I am a fan of Instagram and post images regularly so until the new camera situation is resolved, I will post phone photos!

Here are a few from the last week of harvest. 

We started the week at the Topper Place.  I love cutting wheat here.  My commute to the elevator is about 100 yards!

Days end at the Topper Place.

A beautiful sunrise one day this week.

Harvesting at home is the best!

Baxter is supervising the process.

Filling my truck right outside the front door.

Another end to a safe and productive harvest day.

And another shot of harvesting at home.  

Baxter has been riding with me now that the wheat is cut around the house.  We are so afraid of coyotes coming around now that the "wheat fence" is cut.  We had to wait for a train to pass at Tokio.  Could he be counting cars?

Saturday night in the truck with Baxter.  He's not a huge fan of truck riding, but he puts up with it because this is the only time he gets to snack from my lunch pail.  He loves cantaloupe  and dried zucchini chips that Alicia is making in her food dehydrator.  

Birthday Party

This evening, we finished cutting wheat for the day, parked the machines and went back to the end of a dead end road to collect a vehicle that we had to leave behind.  Driving along, we spied our neighbors gathered in their field, celebrating a birthday!  We stopped to say hello and they invited us to have a piece of birthday cake and a beer!  You just never know what you will find at the end of a dead end road, during harvest!

Most of the family gathering to celebrate Maddox.

This ice chest has been in the family now for four generations and makes the perfect beer cooler!

Reynald and I were happy to have birthday cake for our supper!

Happy 12th birthday Maddox!