Happy Halloween!

Papa Glenn was here visiting over the weekend so we did some babysitting. Lacey was thrilled with her Jack O Lantern. Glenn brought back boots from Texas for them. Cute! Camry was not excited about hers - she'll have to get used to them. She's just now liking to wear her Nikes since she hasn't been walking too long.

We're having a nice weather day for trick or treating which is kind of unusual.

Last Day of Field Work

Had to take Bill some Advil for achey shoulders and neck this morning so got a picture of the anhydrous rig. (my shoulders are just starting to feel better) I just talked to him and he only has 10 acres to go so will get done this evening. He would've been finished sooner but due to the rock hard ground there have been too many things breaking. Still no rain.

I went to the program at the library this morning: An Introduction to Tea. It was interesting, and we got to sample three types of tea. Blog reader, Glenn M. is in the last picture.

Last night I went to my P.E.O. meeting in Mallard. There were 12 of us and the hostess's mother also attended. She's a 50+ years P.E.O. member in Odebolt.

Now that we're done with Harvest, I need to get busy entering recipes for the new Rolfe Cookbook. Recipes are really starting to come in. There are three of us entering them into the software and others are proofreading.

Great Weather Continues

We're still having great weather so farmers are continuing to get their work done before bad weather. Bill & Tim have about two more days of applying anhydrous. Tim has been going back and forth to West Bend with the pickup to get the tanks of anhydrous and delivers them to the fields. Bill is pulling the rig with the quadtrac. The hard, dry ground is hard on the equipment this year (lots of repairing). I've still been seeing wagons of corn going by our house to the elevator, guys chopping stalks, baling, and ripping.

I babysat Camry today from 7:30-6:00. She's such a happy, good baby. After I delivered her home this evening, I picked up a chicken dinner and took it to Bill. He was at a good stopping point and could eat in his mom's house which was nice. (Always nice to be able to wash your hands before eating - especially chicken! I take wipes but not the same.)

Mom left yesterday morning. Her visit went by fast as usual. We didn't get any stamping done again. We both want to get started on our Christmas cards.

Ripping is Done

I was ripping yesterday (first picture) and Tim came out to finish up last night so all we have to do now is applying anhydrous to all of the bean ground - about 1250 acres probably.

Mom and I have a really good lunch waiting for Bill today since it's my first day off with time to do it. We're having pork chops made like Bette Jo had for us one day, green beans, sweet potatoes, homemade bread and apple pie. I'm taking pictures of the apple pies any time I make them and putting them on the blog so there is proof. Bill says I never make pie for him, especially his favorite apple. Since the last apple pie, he's had cherry, pumpkin and sugar cream!

He just called and said that he'll be a little late for lunch because the quadtrac has a problem and they have it torn apart. They want to figure out what's wrong and go get parts. Since the ripping is done, he was wanting to change the oil today and start using it to do anhydrous tomorrow.

Bette Jo's pork chops are dipped in beaten egg and seasoned bread crumbs, browned in the skillet and then baked in a roaster for an hour and a half or until tender.

After lunch, Mom and I are headed to shop in West Bend and then picking Lacey up after school for some one on one time with her. We have her little sister tomorrow all day and then both of them Sat.

Misc.

This is the extra corn piled next to the elevator. It'll eventually have a white cover on it that always ends up ripping during the winter.

The 2nd picture is of Jim disking the no till part of our field around our house this past weekend.














This is the pumpkin patch at the apple orchard in Ft. Dodge. Looks like lots to pick from!

I got home about 7:00 tonight thanks to Tim. They switched the tractors for me this afternoon from the 4 wheel drive to the quadtrac for the ripping I'm doing. MUCH smoother and nice! I was having trouble backing up though so Tim came out and then ended up finishing my end rows and taking the tractor on to the next field.

Done Combining!

The crew got done combining last evening but I have a couple more days of ripping to do - gotta go!

Bill & Tim are going to start cleaning up the equipment so they can get it put away. Had a beautiful sunrise yesterday that I took a picture of and will post soon.

Fall

I saw these first two Fall sights on a parts run to West Bend.

It's always fun to stop by the apple orchard in Ft. Dodge.

The gazebo is in the center of our town.

Mom and I babysat the little girls this weekend and got to spend some time with Diane (shopping). Bill's brother, Jim, was home this weekend and did some disking and ripping for us. Also our friend Kyle did some ripping on Sat. while Jim visited a friend. We're lucky to have all the help that we do.

Our combining may be done by the end of tomorrow if all goes well. I have about 175 acres to rip and then I'll be done. After combining, all of the equipment has to be power washed and put away and then the guys will be working on putting anhydrous on the bean fields.

Some years we're not done until Thanksgiving - it depends mostly on the weather.

Harvest Continues

Can you tell I've been busy? No blog posts. We've been having good weather so it's been go, go, go. We've had a couple of tiny, short showers or just sprinkles that have only stopped combining a couple of times for an hour or two but my ripping could continue.

This first picture was last Sat. morning. All of the equipment had been lined up ready to go behind our house the night before.



One day this week I pulled in for fuel and Bill noticed I had a flat tire on the tractor. Turns out one of the handles of this old cutter was IN the tire! Luckily it was the end of the day so Bill dropped the tractor off at the tire store and they got to it pretty quick the next morning.

This was the foggy view of the field I was in yesterday morning. The tractor windows were dripping wet but it didn't take long for it to dry off once the sun came out mid morning.

This last picture was taken yesterday of the field next to the one I was in. Where we are is mostly flat but there are a few rolling hills around.

I finished a 75 acre field today and have a 40 acre one to do tomorrow that should take about 5 hours. Bill says we have about 500 acres left.

The combining crew was stopped for a couple of hours today after lunch due to the light rain but then they got going again and worked until about 8:00.

Beautiful Fall Day

It's a great day to be in the fields today! After doing the slightly difficult 100 acres behind our house the past 2 days, I'm in a VERY NICE, square, big field with no intakes, waterways, big rocks, terraces or anything else that's a pain today (did I leave anything out?). Life is good!

The elevator is taking corn today from noon - 5:00.

Diane called to say they are butchering chickens today if I wanted to come over. What a blog post that could've been !! :)

Go Colts!! They are on TV here today . . . hope to be able to watch later.

Windy/Fires

This was the sky this morning to the east of our house!

This week I disked with a new to me tractor (JD 8300) and got along fine - nice tractor. Yesterday and today I've been ripping with the 4 wheel drive tractor.

Bill had to be gone today for a field fire. We could see the smoke in the distance. Luckily he didn't have to go to the 2nd one we saw. The heat of the equipment in the dry fields along with this wind we're having is bad news. The fire chief is gone to a fire school this weekend so Bill is in charge. Tim had to be gone today so while Bill was at the fire, we were without a combine driver.

The second picture is of the "harvest pack" that our loan guy from Farm Credit brought to us. They do this every year. They come find the farmers in the field and give one to everybody that's driving something. This was my first year to get one. :) The Lions Club brought bags of goodies out too earlier.

Today we worked in the field behind our house and a train (with ethanol cars) happened to come by - very close! The engineer waved.

Tomorrow I'll be working behind our house probably all day on mostly end rows. Not fun. But I do feel better this year - not as nervous about driving big stuff so that helps a lot! I did drive on the road from Peggy's to our house today which is a big deal - I wouldn't have done that last year. I'm finding out that lots of non farmers think that we should be able to easily get out of their way which is very scary. It's not that easy to find a spot without posts or mailboxes or a level area off the road to pull over very much.

Dust and More Dust

These pictures are all from yesterday. As you can see, we haven't had any rain for a couple months or more so it is super dry. We have wind today, tomorrow is going to be windier and Sat. even windier (up to 40 mph gusts). Not good. There is a pretty good chance of rain Sat. though.

The first pictures are of the combine repair yesterday. It was a problem with a belt and seal. The first picture is the mechanic from John Deere, Tim and Bill's legs. Some may find it interesting that the mechanics make "field calls". Just had to wait an hour for him this time. It's too far to take something that big to the next town where the dealership is if you can even drive it.

This morning we moved all of the equipment from one field to the last field of beans. Half way done! Should start corn Fri.

This afternoon Bill and I are working on a gov't. project while Tim combines and Carl hauls. We are planting rye grass on 40 acres. Bill is pulling a seed spreader with Tim's Gator and I'm going to be disking behind him with a smaller tractor I've never driven.

I'm home for an hour before Bill gets here for lunch. He's running the combine while Tim & Carl go to lunch. I browned a rump roast this morning and threw it in the crockpot on High with carrots & potatoes. We'll have leftover apple salad and an apple dessert I made yesterday.

The trees are changing colors fast now. Lots of yellows here.

Misc.

Had a combine break down this afternoon. Three parts runs to West Bend and mechanic came to the field but it is fixed and ran well tonight. Should finish beans tomorrow. Weather is still very good but the wind is back. Need some rain to help with dust and chance of fires. More with pictures tomorrow hopefully.

Little Helpers

We've had a couple of little helpers this weekend - our niece & nephew. Yesterday they helped Uncle Bill and Tim get about 170 acres done! They went back home later today.

They are in kindergarten this year. I found out from Matthew that his favorite thing about kindergarten is recess. I picked them up in Bill's old pickup and Matthew said "he needs to clean out his pickup - seriously!! There's leaves in the door, dust all over . . . "















It's kind of unusual to see a yellow combine. This one was combining a neighbor's beans. You can see the buildings of the dairy in the background.

Today was another nice Fall day with warm temps. and a little breeze with not a cloud in the sky.