Happy Halloween!!!

Where did October go???

We got completely done with harvest yesterday.  Just in time before the weather turned colder.  We had 50's yesterday and today it's sunny but with a high of only about 38. 

Tim has been traveling back and forth to West Bend to get tanks of anhydrous this week.  He brought them to the fields for Bill to apply them.  That took about three days.  I thought I was done ripping the corn fields and the bean field end rows Wed. night, but Bill called yesterday morning and needed me to do some more here at our house which didn't take long.  The only thing left now is getting the equipment power washed and put away before the snow flies.  The guys hate that job and always hope for a non-windy, slightly warmer day to get that done.

anhydrous rig

We're tired and getting caught up on sleep, laundry, mail, bill paying, etc.    

Harvest Time Activities

Friday was a busy day around here.  A water pump belt broke on my tractor so I ran to West Bend for a new belt and Bill put that on, and I got that 75 acre field done that night.  One of the semis had a problem that they were able to take care of too.  We have about a week of combining left Bill says and the weather looks good.

As I was ripping the field, I got to see this pretty little tree at the farm house there.  The leaves here have probably been at their peak this past week.  Many have lost their leaves already.

 


Peggy had picked up the twins (our niece & nephew) Thurs. so Matthew was riding with everybody and had lunch with us.   Bill's sister and niece, Ryanne, came Fri. night.  We were finally able to give birthday gifts to all 3 kids.

We had guys here at our machine shed putting new doors up.  I did a blog post last winter about the doors on our new shed having a delamination problem right away.  We've been on the list to get new ones for a long time since they had installed many doors with this problem.  They replaced one on Fri. and will do the other one tomorrow.  It'll be good to get this done.

Bill's brother arrived Fri. night so he has been doing my job since yesterday so yesterday I got to babysit our great nieces and took them to Community Orchard in Ft. Dodge - great fun!  I'll have several more pictures of our day in my next post.  

 www.CindyKCreations.com
 

Freezer Full of Fresh Chickens

It was chicken butchering time at Diane's house again.  Her husband's dad likes to raise chickens as a hobby.  They have a flock for laying eggs and every fall they raise some for butchering.  Back in Oct. 2012 I went over and took some pictures for a blog post that you can see HERE.  It was the same setup basically so I didn't take the same pictures again.  We did have the feather plucking table and packaging sink and table inside their shed since it was really windy and a little chilly plus chance of rain.

Diane's husband gutting and trimming

It took about 4 hours or so to do 32 chickens.   With several helping and having done it a few times before, it wasn't bad at all.

 



This time they used a Foodsaver to package them rather than the huge Ziploc bags.  This should work better with getting all the air out.





The kids helped some, mostly plucking the few feathers that were left and played on the trampoline.

This picture was taken last night.  Bill and Tim were out combining beans until about 8:30 or so.  Some of the beans in a field will be ready but not all of them so it's a frustrating Fall to not be able to get complete fields done.   

Harvest Has Slowly Begun

Crops around here are just barely getting ready and some fields are still a little squishy from recent rain even though we're having nice days now.  We were able to get started yesterday around 4:00 and combined only about 40 acres of beans.  We got a loaded semi stuck in the field at elevator closing time, but it was able to be pulled out by a tractor and made it to town just at 6:00.

In the mornings, the ground is usually wet so today we had to wait for the sun and breeze to dry things off enough to get started after lunch.  The quad trac's air conditioning went out on an 80+ degree day.  Waiting for parts for that.  At about 5:00 I was riding in the combine with Bill waiting for him to get the cart full and something started making a bad noise.  A big part had broken.  So I headed to West Bend for the part.  Luckily they had the part and we were able to get it before they closed.

Bill and Tim are out finishing up the field - behind our house.

Tomorrow they hope to combine a field of seed beans.  They require special handling and go into a grain bin.  I won't be needed - probably - since they hope to dump from the combine directly into the semis.    

I've been making some things for quick meals that I can freeze like spaghetti sauce and this morning I made chocolate chip cookies.  Next will be a batch of ham balls - they freeze well.   This afternoon I was able to get some things in our landscaping cleaned up for winter.

Beaver Dams Can Be a Problem

Our crops are not quite ready so this is what Bill and Tim were doing this morning.  There was a small and a large beaver dam blocking a drainage ditch to two of our farms.   This first video shows blasting the smaller "practice" dam.
 
Then they mixed a larger amount for the big dam and waterproofed the container which was originally a cheese puffs plastic container that we had saved.  

This the big dam.

SUCCESS!!  The water is flowing through now!  This will help drain the fields when we have rain.  The County is supposed to come out and clear these out the rest of the way - whenever they get to it.

 

Pretty Southern Indiana

I've been back to visit in Indiana the past few days.  We've been able to visit some relatives we haven't seen for a while.  Glenn, Rob, Ross, Reed, Mom and I met Uncle Neal & Aunt Jan for supper one night.  We met Uncle Dale & Aunt Dana and two of my cousins for lunch another day. 

We had not seen most of my dad's relatives since he died seven years ago so we went down to southern Indiana and had lunch with several of them and got to visit  two of my cousins and five of my aunts and uncles.  Unfortunately, I didn't take the picture before Uncle Wayne and my cousin Paul had left.  Uncle Rich and Aunt Lois are the ones I've talked about here who used to grow melons and tomatoes to sell in the Knox County area which is well known for having great cantaloups.

cousin Cheryl, Aunt Vera, Aunt Sharon, Mom, Aunt Lois, Uncle Rich

It was a perfect Fall day to travel south from Carmel to the Freelandville and Vincennes area.   We stopped at an Amish store which is always fun.  The further south we went, we started seeing lots of combines working in the fields - working in both corn and beans.  

I think these farmers (above) are the family that now live where my grandparents did.  They farm lots of acres.  The house and buildings sure look different.  A new machine shed is in the place of two of the old barns.

We were able to visit at Uncle Wayne & Aunt Vera's house.  I love their old brick house that's back off the road down a long lane.  Uncle Wayne and Aunt Vera farmed together all of their lives until just a few years ago.  They're very happy that I'm doing the same with Bill in Iowa.  It's fun to talk farming with Uncle Wayne.  Wish he could come to Iowa.

We also visited long time friends, the Walters (they read my blog - hi!) and Dad's cousin, Liz in Freelandville where dad was from.  The Walters have a nice house with big yard and an amazing view.  Liz is busy right now feeding the crew that is harvesting her ground.  She takes them hot sandwiches for tailgate lunches and goes back out with cookies for them at 2:00.

Mom and I even got to stop at Gray Brothers Cafeteria on the way home.  It's a favorite restaurant of people all over.  We used to make a special trip there a couple of times a year.  Grandma & Grandpa Randall really liked it too.

It was a really nice day and I was teary a lot of the time.  Lots of memories of times there and knowing that I won't be back much with living so far away now.