Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Boy, oh boy!  The morning is cool!   48ºF (9C) to start the day!  What a sharp contrast to the heat and humidity of the past several weeks.  And we have had no rain for many days now…perhaps we can lengthen the time between mowing the yard.  It’s needed attention every 4 days for weeks, maybe we can now go a whole week!

The combines and headers have been through our shop and are now as ready as we can make them for fall harvest.  The corn heads are attached, the software updates have been made, and the machines fully serviced and fueled.   They have been washed, the cab interiors cleaned and wiped down, and–essentially– they look like new.

We think they’re really ready…

John is cleaning up the sprayer from that last few days of applying herbicide in double-crop-soybeans (DCB).  It was a little muddy in spots when he was doing that, and his sprayer wheels got dirty.  But he will make it look shiny again, no doubt about that.

Using the pressure washer will make it shine!

The 4 semi-trucks are now taking their turns in our shop to get serviced and prepared for fall.  The old Mack CH is in there now.  It serves all summer as our sprayer’s tender, but now it will be connected to its Wilson hopper-bottom grain trailer.

Both Brandons are servicing the Mack, changing the oil and filters, and then they will lubricate the suspension and driveline.

Lastly, the JD 9520R tractor will be connected to the Demco 1322 grain cart, and the 9R540 connected to the vertical tillage tool.  Then, we will have the machines completely ready.

One last detail is that the two grain legs will be inspected and lubricated.  The grain dryer will be inspected and readied.   Yes, there are some days of preparation work yet to go, but we will soon be ready.  My guess is that harvest will start sometime in the September 10-15 window.

I’ve been mowing along the roadsides one last time before fall.  There is not very much more of that to do.  I like to have them shaped up before the fall busy season.  That usually keeps them looking okay going into winter.  There may be a little bit of ‘touch up’ on roads here near home, but we are almost to the time we can remove the R15 rotary cutter from the 6145R tractor.

Mowing along Robinson Road.

While mowing along US 50 yesterday, I saw this old car moving slowly westbound…can anyone tell me what kind of car that is?

Enjoy these lovely, comfortable days.