Here is the corn all in a row,
The tassels are up; the cobs below.
Dad’s in the combine making a dust,
Harvest is continuing all in a rush.
The corn is all gobbled and spun out to fly
Leaving a cob all empty to dry.
Monkey wants to hunt mice with me
But I have the Nose you see
Off you go Monkey don’t wait around now
If there is something interesting I set up and Howl!
Your Poet at large ( TEE HEE!)
BOOMER, The Handsome!!!
The first thing we had a small set back…the starter failed. (Well, not the first thing, the first thing –just before light–Terry took the corn down to the elevator. Arriving back around 11 a.m. was the first time he could get back into the field!)
That is what happens when you use old equipment, although Terry does keep them in good working order you just never know when some part is going to break. The kids laugh because we have a ‘herd’ of combines. That ‘herd’ comes in handy every now and again! 🙂 🙂
Boomer and I went out to help him…(it’s one reason he keeps other combines around…for parts). My stead…just incase he needed me to pull start him. Usually I go out on the four-wheeler, but with something broken down you just never know. The loader is also a good place to carry parts and chains (if you have to pull, say—a combine.)
Then an hour later…every system was go! The second load of the day left at 1:30 for the elevator. Gradually, gradually this corn is GOING to turn into a paycheck!
Keep on smiling…two more weeks to go!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm in the middle of corn harvest,
Linda
It is cold here this morning. 49*…a light jacket was in order to change the irrigation water.
As a gift to me I was sent several photos of those beautiful little flying jewels of summer. Kagedog lives in Cedaredge, Colorado and is a regular visitor to our little blog. She knows how much I enjoy the Hummingbirds so sent to me some very nice photos. She also gave me permission to share them with you. 🙂
I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
We still have lots of Hummingbirds here. I don’t know if they are the regulars or if they are moving through. This morning they were fluffed way up as they drank from the feeders. Although, it is cool in the mornings the days still warm up nicely, as much as 89*.
I hope your Tuesday is a good one. It’s time to put the bean puller on and finish work on the combine. We are still waiting for the alfalfa to turn into hay. Hope the rains stay away for a least two or more weeks!
Your friend on a western Colorado Farm,
Linda
Thank each and everyone of you for your good health wishes! I am doing much better today. It was a little rough with a tremendous headache and an accident with my ring finger on my left hand.
The accident happened when I dropped a large chunk of firewood on my finger against some metal. The wood shattered the fingernail in five pieces, broke the nail off, stabbed the broken nail into the bed of the finger (under that nail). The bleeding wouldn’t stop for ever so long. There is no way to clip off the nail to stop the bleeding…just a mess. The next morning the finger had swollen enough that it pushed the nail pieces upward which relieved the bleeding problem.
I was feeling really sorry for myself when Terry and I went to the store to get a finger guard…a huge necessity…but I can’t wear it because the pad is damaged on the other side…just a mess.
I’m stopping here to tell you a story from my past, so I can finish the story from above.
My mother was born in Texas but grew up in Corona, New Mexico (I don’t think there is much there now). When she grew up it was a pretty nice little town, the railroad went through and lots of people came and went.
Before the Great Depression hit and before the Dust Bowl Days descended, when Momma was still very young. She got it in her head she really wanted some white shoes with a strap across the foot that she had seen in a store window when the family went to Roswell on a shopping trip. She wanted those shoes so bad she even dreamed about them…so she took to pestering Gram and Granddad for the shoes. Day and night she asked. She prayed for them at the table anything to ‘get her point across’.
But Gram and Granddad kept explaining there isn’t enough money for something of that nature, you know the story. But she wore them down and got to go back to Roswell to “GET THE SHOES!”
On the way to the store they meet a man on a flat board scooting along, without any legs or feet!
Seeing the man without any feet made her stop and turn to her parents and tell them she didn’t want the shoes and why.
She said she got some really big hugs and they went and had a Coke at the drugstore then came home.
(She told this to me many times …. so I would understand that what you have is really enough.)
Okay…so here I am really feeling sorry about my finger when (at the check stand) we meet a young man who had two of his fingers all bandaged up. In the conversation we find out that he got his hand in hot tar at his work. Even though he quickly peeled the tar off all the skin was burned from his hand and fingers.
My broken and shattered nail and damaged finger tip was nothing to compare! So I told myself to just plow forward it can always be worse.
And it can!
If the storm doesn’t come in we will start combining either later today or tomorrow morning. Finally!
Once more Thank You so much for your concern!
Your friend,
Linda
Of course you have to hook everything up to the tractor. Terry likes to use the 730 to pull the beans
That thing on the front is the bean puller…here’s a better photo of it
Then the bean blade
The puller lifts the beans up and the blade cuts them off
Moving down the field everything is pushed together into rows
The rows are allowed to dry for week (unless it rains, then a mess occurs)
All pulling of the beans occurs in the morning, while the dew is still on the plants. If you look you can see how dry the bean pods look. They are very dry. A little dew holds the pods together so they don’t shatter and spill the beans into the ground. If a pod shatters and the beans spill, that is then end. There is not a way to pick up the beans from the dirt.
After a week. It’s time to start combining. Combining is ALWAYS after lunch. You don’t want the plants to be wet and clump in the combine and cause a wad mess. You also don’t want wet beans going into the combine and molding. If you deliver wet beans to the beanery (where they sort, sack, and sell the beans) they will refuse your load.
For a farmer that is money and time lost.
Dry beans for the combine only!
We are not big farmers and our equipment is not new, but it is paid for and Terry knows how to fix it if something goes wrong. He also has a small combine herd of combines that he uses for parts since our stuff is really dated.
Here the combine is picking up two rows of a time and shelling them and putting the beans in the hopper
The weeds and the bean straw is flung out the back
Leaving just the straw behind.
Once the day turns to evening and the cool comes on, the farmer must stop. Lots of time the lights run until the operator just gets too tired and calls it a day.
The hopper of the combine is dumped into the bin of the grain truck
When the truck is full, but no over flowing it will be driven to the beanery about 5 miles from our home. The trash you see in the beans (weed leaves that made through the trasher into the beans) will be screened out. Then the beans are sacked ready for market.
But first….we got to get them there!
After we get done with the pintos our next crop to harvest will be the corn. But that won’t be until the end of September.
Linda
… in a corn far, far away. A farmer was trying to get all of his corn picked. Every day he greased up his combine, poured fuel into the combine, and drove it way, way out into the corn field.
Up and down the rows went the farmer, filling his big red-orange truck with golden seeds of corn.
Gradually, as the harvest kept on the farmer grew very tired — fill the hoper of the combine, then dump into the truck, when the truck was full he then would drive it to the elevator and wait his turn to dump his truck so he could start over.
The day came (when after sitting at the elevator since 6 o’clock in the morning–until 9:30 a.m. when he was able to finally dump and get back home) he became overly tired.
But wait…..
What is this?!?!?
A little fairy princess appeared at his side, with a touch of her magic wand the corn flew into the hoper and the big truck filled up as if by magic.
But the fairy dust didn’t stop there…when the farmer took the big truck to the elevator he was able to be back in the field in an hour.
Who says there isn’t magic in the world anymore?
This farmer knows different.
Linda
Finally I was able to get the photos off my phone and onto the computer.
Instead of putting all the pictures onto this blog I am just showing you Terry fueling up, getting ready to leave Clifton.
And the scary drive down the main four-lane highway to Delta. Here a semi is passing the combine. Terry is on the shoulder…
The combine is large but driving on the highway with a semi next to it makes the combine look like a baby.
Boy, I’m glad that job trip is over!
Life on a Colorado Farm 