Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Pre-harvest preparations continue today.  The elevators have been greased.  It took a trip to the top of each.  Brandon is scraping the hopper bottom of bin 5, which is our wet-grain holding bin that serves the dryer.  John and Nicolas are preparing the dryer for action.

Nicolas assists John with the setup of the dryer.

Soon, the pits will be cleaned.  We need Mike Rowe here…this task is our candidate for “Dirty Jobs”.  Probably our yuckiest work on this farm.

Ben and his crew are here from Montgomery Welding to install some additional roof vents on our bin #4.    When we turn on that big aeration fan, the air will move more freely through the grain with these new vents installed.

Ben from Montgomery Welding cuts an opening in the roof of bin #4 for a new vent device. Yes, he is wearing a safety harness.

We will examine the wheat again today, to determine if harvest begins tomorrow… or if we will delay a while.

The last field of planted corn has now emerged and looks okay.  It’s just a little weird to see corn so small at this date.  I hope this field makes the old saying of “knee high by the fourth of July”.  Our early corn will probably be near tassel stage by then!

Watching the Weather Channel, we see that there has been some severe tornadoes out west in Nebraska.  Our hearts go out to those folks.  When the Weather Channel reporters speak that the tornadoes go through “open country”, they make it sound like there is no impact there.  I think they are forgetting that “open country” contains some farmers’ crops and their livestock, in addition to their homes and grain bins and barns and buildings.  Let’s remember those losses, too…not just those in towns and cities.