Monday, October 8,2012

It was pretty frosty this morning, and it’ll take some extra hours to get the soybeans dry enough to cut.    After Friday evening’s rain, another 1.3″ (33mm) to be exact, we were not able to harvest soybeans for the whole weekend.  It was a chilly but sunny weekend.  Our plan right now is to start this afternoon at the Waldo farm, finishing off the soybeans there, and then move back to the Dunn farm.   I have school board tonight, and that will limit what I can do on the farm this evening.    Ross and John and I went around this morning to discover if/where/when we could return to the harvest, and to determine if Larry can return to the wheat field preparation and planting.   We developed a tentative plan for the day.  We think we may get going with the combines about 2-3pm.

Ben is home from Purdue for a couple days on his fall break.   It will be handy to have him around… it’s just hard to think of him as being a senior in college!   The guys have the combines out and fueled up and lubricated.  They are going to clean up the grain and dust under the dryer.  I’m hoping to get the JD corn head cleaned soon, maybe before we go off to the field.  To clean it, the plastic row dividers must be removed, then compressed air is used to clear away the accumulations of dirt and debris around the gathering chains.  After cleaning, a coating of chain lube oil will be applied to those chains, protecting them during the off-season storage.

It’s just so good to see the sun again, and know that we can make some harvest progress later today.  Yes, the soil is a little ‘sticky’, but not too bad after such a rain event.