A Big Mess

Harvest is winding down, thank goodness, but we can't say we're done yet.  The guys are still helping some neighbors, and we have a little bit of our own left.  A year like this one just creates a mess.  No matter how dry it is the weeds seem to do just fine.  In fact, in a dry year they can be more of a problem since there is less competition from the crops that are struggling.  So, since we received close to 4" of rain with the hailstorm, the weeds have taken off....along with all the shelled out grain on the ground.  The result is that our fields are almost greener now than they were in June.  I keep joking that if the weather holds we could cut a second crop.  In reality, the sprayer is going to be really busy and will have to cover every acre...possibly twice, to conserve soil moisture and avoid a mess in the spring.

The weeds also create a problem in the fields yet to be harvested, making it more difficult to cut and raising the moisture of the grain.  And that is why we can't say we're finished.  We have some acres planted to a new variety of certified wheat and M is hoping to get some seed back.  He tried to cut it last week but the weeds were too much of a problem.  If they spray it with Roundup to kill the weeds it kills the germination of the wheat so it won't be any good for seed.  So, they are waiting a bit to see if the weeds dry up some so they can get those last few acres cut.

There was a big rain in the forecast for last weekend so we had a few calls from neighbors asking us to help them finish up.  One neighbor had had a heart attack so J went to help his son for a couple of days while M went to help another neighbor.  Our time with the rental combine is up now, though, so M is without a ride.  And then, the predicted 2" of rain ended up only being 0.2" here.  Gave us time to go watch Jared play football, though.

I was happy to put away my harvest lunch gear, but I didn't get off so easy.  Last week M was running around cleaning up some hailed out wheat and asked me to follow him with the grain cart.  That consisted of a little bit of driving and A LOT of sitting!  M's selling point on the plan was that we could have a nice picnic in the field; however, it took him longer than he thought to finish the piece he was on so we ended up eating our picnic lunch at home before heading west.  Everyone else had better things to do so I didn't mind helping out.  We didn't get home until dark so it was a long afternoon.  Good thing C suggested that I take two books along.  I was halfway through one and finished it and started the second.

You would think that we could take a breath and relax for a minute but that is not the case.  R is off hauling bales, J and C have been spraying, and M has had a lot of things going on including trying to get everything lined up for our crop insurance claims.  Our nephew from South Dakota is here this week so we're trying to keep him busy and hopefully we'll work on some of the fire debris cleanup.

I've been ready to get back to cow stuff and will be getting my wish when we pregnancy test our heifers tomorrow.  Yay!