My Favorite Harvest Picture

I know this is the 3rd time I've posted this picture, but it's my favorite.

I thought that I should tell you what it is a picture of since it is my opening shot.  I know some of you know what it is, but there are some of my readers who are new to farm life. 

For those of you who don't know, this is a silhouette of a combine from the back. 

Amy

Harvest #4

During harvest it is very important to keep all the equipment serviced.  You don't have time for breakdowns out there! Like I've said previously, once the combines are started, they're not shut down until they are done for the day.  Every morning while we're waiting for the wheat to dry out for the day, we service all the machinery and fill up with diesel.

You have to clean the header out real good before moving to a new field.  This is so you don't carry anything bad from one field to another.  As in bad, I mean things like Rye seeds or Oat seeds.  They can spread like wildfire and hurt the quality of your crop.

Anytime there is a combine shut down during the day, it's usually bad news.  It's usually because of a breakdown.  Breakdowns are never good.  Breakdowns are bad.  They're terrible!

Have I mentioned how terrible it is to have a breakdown?

Well, we had one this year.  It was on the last day of being done; which caused us to have to cut the next day to get finished.  We almost made it without any problems!

This is my Father-in-law, the keeper of the tools and supervisor!

This year, we had a jam inside the combine.  The wheat was a little too wet and it became clogged inside the thrasher.  Unfortunately the only way to unclog the combine when this happens is to dig it out by hand.  You have to crawl up inside and dig it out piece by piece until you can get it loose enough to turn the thrasher over.  This particular jam took about 12 hours to get unclogged.  I did not get any pictures of the inside of the combine.  I was too busy picking out the pieces.

After we got the thrasher thrashing again, we had to clean out the header, because the wheat was backed up that far from the jam.  LB and the Mechanic climbed up inside to clean it out.

It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it!

Well, we got 'er cleaned out and ready to go!

Your Farm Friend

Amy

Harvest #3

LB's favorite job during harvest is driving the combine.  That's all he wants to do.  Which means that if I'm going to see him at all during this time, then I get to ride in the combine.  I really enjoy riding in the combine too.  I especially enjoy my seat; I get to set on top of the water jug.  I even have a small pillow that fits right on top so that my hiney doesn't hurt as bad after a couple of hours.  Just don't ever forget the pillow, the water jug leaks!

This is a picture of the combine header from inside the cab of the combine.  The paddles push the wheat into the sickles where the heads are cut off and augured into the combine to be thrashed.  The grain is then moved into the bin of the combine and the left over straw and trash is blown out the back of the combine.

See the grain heaped up on top?

Once the combine is full, the wheat needs to be dumped out so that the combine can go back to the field to cut more.  The wheat is dumped onto either a grain cart or a semi trailer.  We dump onto the semi trailer until it's full.  Once it's full the truck is taken to the elevator.  So then, we dump onto the grain cart while the truck is gone.  We do this so that we don't have to stop and wait until someone gets back with the truck.

I love climbing up where The Mechanic is and watching the wheat being augured.

 

See those beautiful golden grains?

Once the truck is full, it is tarped and taken to the elevator.

The End

Well, not really, there's a lot more about harvest that I haven't told you yet. 

It'll just have to wait until tomorrow.

Amy

Harvest #2

LB says that I'm not a very good blogger because a good blogger would post every day no matter how late they had to stay up.  So, I guess  I'm going to have to work harder at keeping you posted.  My Aunt Nana even told me that she had been checking every day so that she could see what exciting things had happened during harvest, and I'd let her down. 

 I'm sorry Aunt Nana.  Could you ever find it in your heart to forgive me?

I'll try harder, I promise.

Well, back to harvest. 

Well, one of the Major things about harvesting wheat, is knowing when it's ready to cut.  When the wheat is ripe, the head of the wheat will turn upside down.  Like in the picture above.  Sometimes, the heads don't turn all the way upside down because the beards(the things poking out the sides of the head) get caught on each other.  Once the head turns, you then wait for the seeds to dry out.  If the wheat is too wet when it's cut it's too dangerous to put into the elevators.  Wet wheat in an elevator will ferment and then becomes very combustible. 

So, the waiting game begins.  Every morning all the farmers get the equipment serviced and out in the field ready to cut.  If there was a heavy dew the night before, you have to wait until the sun dries it out.  Having a little wind doesn't hurt either.

Once the wheat gets dry enough the race begins.  They start the combines and they don't shut them off until the dew sets in again.  So harvest calls for some pretty late nights.

Well, I'll tell you more tomorrow.

Amy

Harvest!

IT'S HERE!!

It came a few days sooner than we thought it would, but Harvest is here!

I love harvest.  Of course, I've only been around farming for 6 years, but I really enjoy it.  To me it's like Christmas. I think it's the atmosphere that surrounds it.  There is an excitement.  It's not the excitement of just being excited, it's an excitement of hurrying to get the job done before the weather turns bad and ruins what's still in the ground, and keep your fingers crossed that none of the equipment breaks down, and hurry and get the trucks to the elevators so they can get dumped and back to the field so they can be loaded again.  Everyone just works together helping each other out.  I guess you could  call it an adrenalin rush.

Well, what ever it is, I love it!