The Craziness Begins...

Harvest has officially begun so my life is over.  I know, that's a little dramatic, but things get a bit crazy this time of year.  J started cutting peas last week and they have started desiccating lentils so we'll have those ready as soon as we're done with the peas.  I'm hoping they get a lot done before R and Jared have to go back to school because that will mean less time that I have to spend on the grain cart.  The in-laws have moved back to the farm for harvest and everyone is happy about that.  It's so odd to not have them here all the time.

I always feel bad at harvest because the guys are kind of excited to reap the fruits of their labor, and I really hate it.  It's hot and dirty with long, long hours and stress.  I don't want to be in the middle of things but feel really guilty if I'm not.  I just can't win.

R has been swathing CRP hay for a neighbor and has been able to help us a couple of days.  He's happy to be keeping busy and making $$$ to get him through another school year.  He's healing well from his hernia operation.

R had a bit of excitement yesterday, however.  I was at work and the fire whistle in town blew.  I said to my boss, "I hope that's not R, he's out swathing."  I texted him just to be sure and he said "I started it."  Then I got worried.  He called me later to let me know all was well.  Something must have sparked off a rock and started the grass on fire.  He called for reinforcements and had it pretty much out before the fire trucks arrived so it only burned a couple of acres.  They were lucky to get it stopped before it hit a pea field.  When I was leaving town after work the fire whistle blew again and I thought, oh no, but it was south of town so nowhere near R.  There have been quite a few fires in the area, from swathers, lightning and a vehicle fire in a grass field.  One of my sisters commented that she didn't remember there being fires when we were kids and I agreed, but the world was a lot different when we were kids.  At that time, there was a lot of fallow ground and the CRP program didn't exist.  Now there are miles and miles and miles of grass and crops without any black ground.  The last two springs and summers have been nice and wet which encourages a lot of growth that inevitably becomes dead and brown when the dog days of summer arrive in July and August providing lots of fuel should a fire start.

We had a storm roll through last night just as we were going to bed with high wind, thunder, lightning and a little bit of rain.  I couldn't sleep and had to close some windows because the rain was coming in.  The storm was over pretty quickly so I opened the windows back up to cool the house down and could smell smoke.  I prowled the house going from window to window looking for flames but never did see any.  The way the wind came up there could have been a fire a long distance from here causing smoke in the air.  I always wonder about a fire starting from lightning in the middle of the night and how far it could go before someone noticed.  A big fear of mine obviously.

Today was another hot, windy day.  I took lunch to C, R and Jared in the field.  M and J had been desiccating at Opheim and were on their way back so I left the cooler for them and headed out to take salt and mineral to the cows.  M had told me the easy way to go and then another way from where I was at lunchtime.  He doesn't give me good directions, and I don't take them well.  If I can't visualize what he's talking about I can't follow.  Anyway, to make a long story short, I wandered around for awhile before I found the right gates to get me to where I wanted to go.  I lost track after 7 gates.  He warned me that I should take a wire stretcher along so I could open and close those gates.  NEVER a good sign.  Of course, I grabbed the POS stretcher that slips all the time so that made things more difficult.  I came back the easy way--with NO gates!  Pete and I were hot and tired and cranky(well, at least one of us was cranky) by the time we got home.

The fair is in town this week so M says whoever wants to can take at least part of tomorrow off to go to the  demolition derby.  Jared will be going so so my house will be quiet.  I might just stay home and enjoy that!

Catching Up

I feel like I've been out of touch with my world lately.  I worked a couple of days while my boss was gone, we went to the lake (Fort Peck) for the weekend, I worked Monday and then left Tuesday to go to Rapid City to be with R while he had surgery for an umbilical hernia.  We came home on Friday so yesterday I finally had a day to survey what's been going on.

M and I were up early to go check cows.  He and Jared had moved them on Monday so we don't have to go start the generator and pump water every day.  I wasn't sure of the best way to get there since it is a new pasture for us so I wanted to go along.  Along the way I checked out the radishes and turnips planted as a cover crop.  I hadn't been up that way since they were seeded.  J planted some last year as part of his CSP program and they did amazing things for the land he had them on and were HUGE!  We have peas almost ready to cut and even some of the early wheat is starting to ripen.  The guys are thinking we'll be cutting peas by the end of the week.  I'm not ready for harvest!!

I also went to check on the heifers in a different pasture.  The heifers were all accounted for, but I wanted to check the mineral tubs which were on the other side of a coulee.  M and I had gotten the 4-wheeler stuck there about a month ago, but he assured me I could cross if I didn't "lollygag".  He was wrong!  I just about made it but just couldn't get up the other side.  Pete jumped to safety while I managed to back my way out of it--to my surprise!  I and the 4-wheeler were a muddy mess.

Today I had to run around helping M get his swather and baler moved back home.  I also caught up on laundry, mowed my yard and washed my car.

R will be home now for about a month recovering from his surgery.  He already put in a long day on the swather today which may not have been the wisest thing to do.  There is a hay shortage all over the state but here so the calls are coming in wanting swathing done.  He could be a very busy boy or at least as busy as he wants to be.

A little muddy!

Haying Time

M is busying with haying season, not one of my favorite times.  His hours are crazy (I guess that's not too out of the ordinary) and I don't have much to do with it.  We have had hot, mostly dry weather so he bounces from swathing to raking to baling depending on the conditions.  He is pretty particular about his bales so conditions have to be just right for him.  J hates swathing and that is usually R's job, but he doesn't mind baling.  With R gone at the moment, M is having to do it all.  M's cousin's son, Jared, who is 15, is with us again so he may get trained to do some of those things.  Jared just finished driver's ed so he's a little more legal than he was last year!

We had quite a storm roll through last week.  Thank goodness it didn't last long.  I always say it's never a good sign when the weather service calls our house wondering what is happening, and they called that day.  We had high winds, heavy rain and some hail.  I didn't find out how bad the wind was until the next day when I saw this in our back yard.

 I've been wanting that shed moved, but not like this.  I don't think we'll be using it again.  

We also had a cattle trailer tipped over.  Luckily, it was the older, smaller one and it was laid over onto the hay trailer so it was at about a 45-degree angle.  The guys were able to chain onto it and pull it back up, and it doesn't have a mark on it.  We also discovered that M's parents lost some trees.

Broken tree

Just missed the corner of the garage when it fell

I have been trying to work on the clean up.  The front yard was full of little twigs and branches and some really big branches, too.  I ended up raking the whole front yard.  I need to do the side yards and back yard as well.  I've discovered that there is more damage than we initially thought.  We're going to need to get a tractor in there to remove some of the big stuff.  Trees are a rare commodity in this area so it is so sad to lose one!

I have finally been able to ride my bike some. It's hard to find the perfect day, dry and without too much wind. I mapped out a route along prairie trails and rode it on Friday.  I decided that wasn't far enough so added to that the next day.  I didn't wreck and didn't croak and thoroughly enjoyed being in the great outdoors.  We've had a couple of rain showers in the past couple of days so I have to wait for things to dry up before I go out again.

I an thankful every day that I don't wake up to concrete and asphalt and can look out on all the shades of green with the crops and grassland.  I guess I'm a country girl through and through.