Saturday, October 11, 2014

We were back at harvesting corn Saturday afternoon at the Steimel and Commer farms.  There was just two loads of corn left at Steimel, so we went there first.  The trucks had to be parked far away at the entrance to the Steen Big Field, over a half-mile from the site we were picking.  The Steimel farm adjoins the Steen farm.  The grain cart could drive across the previously-harvested Steen-Big soybean field between the corn and the trucks. We finished Steimel rather quickly.   We moved to our Commer Farm, north of US 50 in the White River bottom land area.  The same was true there… the trucks could not enter the soft field, but had to remain on the blacktop about 1/8 mile away.  This caused the truck drivers and grain cart operator to use extra care, and required some backing into position every time.  This got more difficult for the truck drivers after dark!  The distance from field to trucks caused the combines to wait several minutes each time the grain cart delivered its load to the trucks.

A good thing about the Demco 1350 grain cart is that it could fully load a truck each time.  Another good thing about it is the rubber tracks… we think it reduces soil compaction, especially in the soft conditions we’ve been seeing lately.  Even so, we left some noticeable muddy tracks in the Commer field.  It was not good, but we’ve seen worse, too, with deep, deep ruts behind us.

Besides our regular crew, we have been aided greatly by Rhoda driving the grain cart, and with Larry Corn coming to drive trucks.  Larry has been working with our family for 47+ years… he’s just like family, and we are grateful he will take off from his job at the Jasper, Indiana hospital to help us.  Another of Ross’ friends, Bill Berry, has been a great asset to our harvest work this fall.  He has been here every day, not only bringing in the crop from the field, but also delivering some of it to market!  It’s a good thing he doesn’t mind early mornings.  I’ll try to capture and post a picture of these folks soon.

We did finish the 78+ acres at Commer Saturday night.