Monday, August 12, 2013

The pace is perhaps a bit slower today and this week.  The things that ‘feel urgent’ are getting the painting finished on the tractor storage building, and getting bins 4 and 7 cleaned out from wheat.

John is thinking about the servicing on the 9360R tractor and the combines.  Those machines are due for an oil change before heading into harvest in about 5 weeks.  All 4 semi trucks also need oil changes and grease.  Those ‘glamorous’ tasks are part of what will make us ready when the corn and soybeans are ready.

School starts here at South Knox tomorrow.  The summer seems to have sped by us… I think it’s because the planting season was so very long and drawn out.  We just put away the bean drill a few weeks ago!  So, it seems like school days came early this year.  In reality, SK begins 4 days after the other county schools.   I have even heard of some kids in other schools who returned to classes the last full week of July!  It must be that my age is showing, but the start of school is a signal of the change of seasons.

Even if summer seems short, the crops look pretty good, including the DCB.  John has them sprayed and they look clean (weed-free).  They have grown above the wheat stubble now, and the fields are (almost) uniformly green.  I think I can begin to see the faintest hint of the corn beginning to ‘turn’.   Beginning on the lower parts of the cornstalk, the leaves will gradually go from green to yellow to brown.  You can easily tell that the days are getting shorter, for dusk comes earlier each evening, now soon after 9 pm.  The shortening day length triggers the maturation and ripening process in the soybeans.  And so far, August has been less hot and humid, feeling more like September than August.  Nights are predicted in the 50s again this week.

As everyone’s thoughts turn to things of autumn, we are reminded of how blessed we really are.  Forgetting the severe drought of 2012, we anticipate a pretty good harvest for ’13.  It is still a long way from ‘in the bin’, but things currently look pretty good.  As dad would say, “Don’t start writing checks on it just yet.”   But we are hopeful that when the combines roll, it will be okay.  No, we don’t expect record yields… there are some lasting effects from the delayed planting, and the frequent rains of early summer that drowned spots in almost every field.  Remember that we did hundreds of acres of replanting?   Harvest will extend later this year… into November most likely.  As we harvest, we will have to cut around the replanted acres, and return when those spots finally get ready.  But even with all that, a farmer feels better when he has more bushels to gather in.   Count your blessings….