The Crew!

 Joining us this harvest to help get the crop in are the following amazing folks.

Tyler, guiding Starbucks down the road.

Sean, driving Double Shot.

Erich driving Red Wing, twin to Double Shot only with red fenders!

Eldest crew member, Reynald

Newest crew member and fiance to Alicia.....Matthew!!

And of course, Field Manager and grain cart driver extraordinaire, Alicia.

Due to the light crop this year, the team is zipping through the fields at record pace.  It's still hot and dry causing us to be even more vigilant about fire danger, which can happen in a split second in these conditions.  

Harvest 2021

Going backwards in time......here are a few photos of the beginning of our harvest this year.  I haven't taken time to for additional photos but it's on my list of things to do.

Moving the combines to Matthews place near Odessa.

I towed one of the headers with the pick up.

One machine parked in Matthews yard.

And two machines parked and ready to go.

How close can you park?

Trucks are also in place and waiting.

But not quite so fast.  We bought new headers and they came nicely covered in John Deere green paint.  Which is turns out, is somewhat "sticky" at first.  The standing wheat would not feed in to the throat of the machine, causing it to flip up over the top of the header.

So, we had to spend several hours grinding off the paint between the cutter bar and the auger.  The good news, is that it worked. The bad news is that it was a hot, dirty, icky job. but we got it done.

We were all covered in a fine film of green paint.  Kermit the Frog came to mind.  "It's not easy being green"!

Our yields are way down this year due to the sever drought that has gripped our region.  And as if that were not enough, we had a late from in June that dropped the production in the draws to near zero bushels per acre.  This crop had so much potential, and I have to say, that the wheat plants did their best to give us a few kernels at least.  So many farmers and ranchers are deeply impacted by this lack of moisture.  Fingers crossed and crossed again, that one of these days it will start raining and give some welcome relief to all.   

Back to Work

 Several readers have asked where I have been hiding!  I don't have a good answer so I will say that I intend to start posting farm, family, yard and project photos again!  

Yesterday my one and only farm job was to weed 300 acres that is heavily infested with Rush Skeleton Weed and several Russian Thistle.  This is ground that we broke up following several years of CRP plantings.  It's lovely ground, but will take some time to rehabilitate and build up.  We are up for the challenge!

I was merrily farming when suddenly I heard a very loud "clunk" and I looked back and one weeder was dragging the wheels.  Naturally I stopped to investigate and this is what I found....

This giant rock was buried just below the soil surface.  

I hit it dead on with the center weeder drive boot.  The angle iron that holds the boot to the frame is bent and will require a great deal of repair.  Reynald removed this weeder from the line up and replaced it with one from a different set so that I could finish my job.