Corn Harvest 2018

An outdoor herbivore buffet

Partly cloudy, 45 degrees
Humidity 77%
Dew Point 40 degrees
Wind S at 10 mph
Forecast: Clearing

Our ride took us ‘back West’. Not far from the corner of N Road and 170 Avenue.

To get to the corner of N Road and 170 Avenue you need a truck (four-wheel drive) or an ATV.
Or a dirt bike.
Or a helicopter.
Or a horse.
Or a good pair of boots.
Just not a car.
Bruce and i are on the Ranger.

We’re out checking to see if the corn is ready. We (actually Bruce) kind of know that the corn is ready….more than anything we’re checking on the fields. They’re not ready. They are getting there. But not yet dry enough to support trucks, tractors, grain-carts or combines. Not even dry enough to making tracking deer hard for a city boy. There are hoof prints all over the edge of the field. But no sleigh prints. Deer prints, however, are right next to the field. Right where it’s easy to reach the corn. The deer walk up. Stand by a stalk. Eat the corn all the way down to the reddish-orange cob. Then move over to the next stalk and start eating that ear.
An outdoor herbivore buffet. Open 24/7.

Heard a story this year about a fellow up North who leaves acres….acres….
of corn and milo standing. He also cuts some and leaves it laying in the field. Acres of grain left to entice deer and birds. Pretty cool setup for hunting.  However, even the most avid hunters around here just can’t bring themselves to leave good grain in the field.
Most folks around here hunt.
Many farmers open their fields for others to hunt. As long as i’ve been coming to the farm there have been hunters. The first hunters i knew were ‘The-Hunters’.  The-Hunters have been coming to the farm almost as long as John and Bruce have been alive. Longer than Carolyn and Pam have been alive.  The-Hunters have come to the farm for so long that they are now ‘family’ (posts: ‘hunters’; 8.10.2011, ‘kin;’ 8.12.2011, ‘hunters (again)’; 12.6.2011). Of course, most of The-Hunters are gone. They’ve entered immortality and farm family lore. But now there is a new generation of hunters. Folks from all over. Freddie from West Virginia.  R.C. from North Carolina. Another guy from Arkansas. Several from Wichita. Bruce, being a good host, likes to show hunters good hunting. Especially if they are looking for deer and birds (usually pheasant and quail). But the idea of leaving even a few acres of grain in the field to attract game….well i just can’t see it. Now maybe…. if a we get an oil well or two….but even then it would be hard to deliberately leave good grain in the field. It’s hard enough leaving corn stand while the fields dry.
This year has been the rainiest in living memory. As well as meaning it’s hard to harvest it also means there is a lot of stuff for animals to eat.
Especially birds.
We noticed on Thanksgiving a lot of local birds giving thanks for all of the grain knocked over by the hail this year. Funny how damaged crops and muddy fields lead some to cuss and others to give thanks.  Guess it’s one of those ‘circle of life’ things.

 

Farmgenuity

Partly cloudy, 44 degrees
Humidity 40%
Dew Point 25 degrees
Wind SW at 10 mph
Forecast: Partly cloudy

A great day. The kitchen is well on the way to being done. Skim coat tomorrow. Final sanding and it will be time for paint.
Time to sit around share some beer, tell some stories and swap some lies. Sitting at the kitchen table, Eli, who has a very retro flip-phone, noticed something was loose. A quick check around proved that we didn’t have any small screwdrivers….something on the eye glasses repair size.
Eli looked at the drywall tools still on the counter.
Moved a few things around.
Picked up a small putty knife and fixed his phone. A classic demonstration of ‘farmgenuity’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost daily out here i see farm folks
men and women
kids and codgers
dogs and cats and cows demonstrate a level of ingenuity that is incredible.
Over the years i’ve seen Bruce fix everything from broken equipment to clothes lines
to dryers
to tractors
to fishing rods
to furnaces to flowers to ballpoint pens
to….
well….
to everything. Always with an ingenuity that is amazing to watch.
Over the years i’ve developed some serious city-boy skills of examining something that is broken (or not working the way it should) and figuring out what is wrong. I’m even pretty good at figuring out what widget needs to be replaced. Maybe even where to go to get it. But a quick trip to town means a 10-mile drive.
Both ways.
And it might well be an hour, or two, or three to the nearest business that actually sells widgets.
Over the years i’ve learned that farm folks can look at something that is broken, or not working the way it should, and not only see what widget is faulty but also how the widget fits into the whole scheme of what is supposed to happen. Farm folks can visualize a way to use what we have here on the farm to make what is supposed to happen, happen. This may involve adding something, or removing something or bending something but in the end, things work. Often work with or without a store-bought widget.
The movie Apollo 13 comes to mind.
A handful of engineers standing around a table full of things that were ‘actually available’ to the astronauts who were half way to the moon.  From this collection they designed a way for the astronauts to put together ‘a fix’ for the failing carbon dioxide removal system. A fix including things like a flight manual cover, hoses from spacesuits, tube socks, and duct tape.

 

A real out of the world example of the kind of ingenuity seen daily on a farm.
The same farmgenuity Eli used to fix his phone.

 

 

Walking a cut corn field

Partly cloudy, 42 degrees
Humidity 80%
Dew Point 39 degrees
Wind NW at 9 mph
Forecast: Rain

Summer wheat fields are full of soft sounds.
Almost impossible to hear over the low diesel rumble and high whine of the air conditioner. But turn off the grain-cart tractor, open the door and back window and step outside.
When the snaps and cracks of the hot diesel engine finally stop and the sound of the combine fades away then the Western farmland quietness blows in. After a while the air is full of the buzz of insects and birds playing a deadly game of tag just above the wheat. And the wind really does rustle the dry wheat. However, the subtle sounds of the wheat field are lost in the encroaching bass drum sound of heat.
Heat has a sound.
And a smell.
And a feel.
And it doesn’t take long for it to exert a ruthless hold on the field. A hold that is only busted by a tractor’s low diesel rumble and high whine of the air conditioner.
Fall cornfields have a totally different sound.
And smell.
And feel. A crisp feel that is slightly softened by a jacket. Now it is great to turn off the tractor. Open the door and window. Often the sounds and smell of Fall are inviting enough to step outside and walk around. Maybe a foot. Maybe two.  Then the cussing begins.
Walking in a cut wheat field in the early morning is fun. Riding around an early morning cut wheat field in a tractor or four-wheeler is fun. Riding a horse, like Kite around a cut wheat field would be fun.
Really fun.
Doing the same things in a cut corn field….is
….well it is….
….well it is really not good.
When corn is cut there are about six to eight maybe 12 inches of the stalk left. And this remaining stalk is tough. It will catch on your boots. It will trip-up the most experienced farmer.

 

 

 

 

 

Running in a cut corn field….well it just doesn’t happen.
The only time i’ve seen anyone, run in a corn field they are running between the rows of cut stalks.
Corn is a row crop.
It is planted in rows.
Straight rows.   From one side of the field to the other.
Corn is cut in rows.
Cut with a special header designed to go between the rows.

 

About the only runners i’ve seen in a cut corn field are dogs and birds.  Even then they are always looking down.  Watching where they are running. A dog may occasionally catch a glance of where the bird is going, but most of the time they keep their nose right in the middle of the row of cut corn. Birds, usually pheasants and quail, will run but just far enough to get to take off speed. Flying is, without hesitation, the finest way to move fast in a cut corn field.
One thing for sure cut corn stalks are tough enough to tear up clothing and gloves and shoes and knees. Old Marine Gunnery Sergeants used to say that standing bamboo will divert, even stop, 7.62 bullets.  Never heard of this being demonstrated on standing corn but i think the corn stands a really good chance.
But….sitting inside a tractor with the engine off and
the door wide and
the back window open and
a warm cup of coffee from a slightly battered green Stanley thermos is enjoyable. Real enjoyable. The best way ever to ‘walk’ a cut corn field.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moose….Stuck Again

Sunny, 38 degrees
Humidity 20%
Dew Point 31 degrees
Wind S at 8 mph
Forecast: Increasing clouds

I love cutting on the Flagler ground.
The North/South run is a mile long. Almost flat with just a few small terraces running off to the West. Put a semi at either end of the field. One semi on the North end.  One semi on the South end. This is the ideal set up for the East half of the Flagler ground. At least the ideal set up for the grain-cart driver. This way the grain-cart guy only has to drive a half mile to unload onto the semi. Of course, about the only time this set up happens is at the very beginning of the day. Once the day starts to roll along one of the semis is always on the road. Going to town. Coming back from town.
This year the corn on the Flagler ground is planted East/West. And on the South side of the field the run is only about a ½ mile long. And we can use the county road next to the field to get the grain-cart to the semis and back.
Admittedly this is not as picturesque as unloading the combine ‘on the go’ along the North/South run, but a lot easier on the grain-cart driver’s nerves. The long run keeps the grain-cart on the run….trying to keep up with the combine.
The Flagler ground is not as wet as the other fields. Wet enough to slow things down but not so wet we have to leave it for later. On the first day everything is going great. Nothing stuck.
There was one moment when John was cutting along the South side when the front tires started to slip. After a moment of excitement, he backed up, drove around the ‘slick spot’ and was back cutting within in a minute or two. We decided….

OK, John decided. The grain-cart driver doesn’t make many decisions on where we
cut. Although all of the cutters, Bruce, John, Clayton Andrew and Brent will usually
discuss the plan for cutting the field. They’ll even say something like ‘Does that sound
good?’ Of course, ‘Grain-Cart Driver Protocol’ (at least Grain-Cart Driver Macho)
says that the proper answer is ‘Wherever you want. I’ll be there.’ However, it is good of the cutters to make the Grain-Cart Driver feel like part of the decision. Good for grain-cart driver morale.

….to leave that piece of the ground alone for now. Come back to it after it dries a bit more.
About a hundred yards East of that slick spot John hit another slick spot. The way the land slopes here, there was no obvious reason for a slick spot.
But it’s there.
And so was the combine.
As soon as the tires started spinning John tried backing up. Then forward. Then, because of our recent adventures back North, he shut down the combine and called Bruce.
Once Bruce got to the field he started calling his ‘guys’.
First thought was to run home and bring the big tractor. Second thought was to call Rich.
Rich lives a few of miles from where we are cutting. He has a big four-wheel drive tractor and he is cutting corn….so won’t be using his big four-wheel drive field tractor. On the way over to get Rich’s tractor Bruce started calling around to see if any of the stores in town have a heavy duty, 100,000-pound (tensile strength) winch/snatch strap (The ‘snatch’ part of the strap’s name is because the snatch strap will stretch taut and then rebound, ‘snatching’ the stuck vehicle out of where it is stuck). But there are no heavy-duty snatch straps to be found. The usual answer is, ‘We’ve got them, but just sold the last one we had in stock two days ago.’ Seems there has been a run in our area on heavy duty winch/snatch straps.
Go figure.
But as usual Bruce’s list of ‘guys’ came through. A guy who farms right near where we are, has the exact tow strap we are looking for.
By the time we get back to the field we have:
1) a 100,000-pound, winch/snatch strap and
2) a four-wheel drive tractor and
3) a backhoe guy unloading his backhoe.
In a few minutes he is cleaning dirt from around the combine wheels and header.

We attach the strap between the combine and four-wheel tractor and give it a go.

 

The combine doesn’t move.
The combine doesn’t move again.
Time to call the bulldozer guy.
Once he gets in the field the combine is quickly freed.
All of our adventures (and the adventures of others in the area) leads me to the idea that farm equipment ought to have treads like the bulldozer. It drove across the field without a worry. Of course, treads on a combine is absurd. I was expecting Bruce to nod and suggest i get to work inventing it. Instead Bruce shakes his head, ‘There isn’t enough corn left to cut to make it worth the price of putting them on’.
‘You mean they exist?’
‘Sure,’ says Bruce. ‘They’ll even come out to the farm and put them on.’
Ya’ sure. And the green metal snipe is on the back wall of the Shed.
The second time i was at the farm i was asked to go look in the Shed for a metal snipe. ‘Green’, (to go with all of the John Deere equipment) i asked? Then laughed.
I’d been on a snipe hunt before.
In Boy Scouts. I spent most of a Fall weekend campout trudging through the woods looking for a spotted snipe.
I was humiliated.
But the feeling passed by the Spring campout when i got to send the ‘new guy’ on a snipe hunt.
I actually got a lot of cachet at the farm with my Boy Scout story. And i immediately lost all my hard-earned cachet by using the term cachet.
A guy Bruce knows sent a photo from a farm about 30 or 40 miles from us. A beautiful John Deere combine and tractor with matching grain cart all with treads. The perfect setup for muddy fields.
Come to find out we can rent treads for the Moose. The local John Deere folks will do it. We can rent the treads for about $20,000. To actually get treads permanently installed is only $75,000. Not bad i guess, but that kind of money will buy a lot of backhoe and bulldozer time. Of course I’ve been coming to harvest for about 25 years and i can’t remember any other time when the combine got ‘this’ stuck. So I can’t imagine getting the harvest equipment set up for a situation that occurs only four times in a hundred years. But the John Deere’s with treads do look kind of cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Stuck Combine

Partly sunny, 45 degrees
Humidity 55%
Dew Point 36 degrees
Wind NW at 5 mph
Forecast: Rain

Over the years i’ve seen just about all of the equipment get stuck. Trucks, tractors, combines, semis, four-wheelers all have had the indignity of being in a field and going nowhere.
This year it was the Moose  (John Deere 9670 STS combine).
Don’t think it has ever been stuck before. May have had a few ‘losing traction’ episodes but the Moose has always gotten free under its own power.
This year it took help.
Major help.
More help than i’ve ever seen before.
We were up North. It was early afternoon. Bruce was heading North. Down a low spot in the field. Some might call it a draw. But if so it’s not much of one. It is such a slight ‘draw’ that i would have gladly ridden Kite (Deborah’s retired race horse) down the slope at a full gallop with saber drawn. Of course, i’ve never had a saber. Did have a Marlow White Marine NCO sword in my youth. But pretty sure i would have killed Kite and myself if i brandished a saber at a full gallop.  But it wouldn’t have been the fault of the ‘draw’ in the field.
A couple of years ago we got the former combine (John Deere 9600) stuck near the stand of trees on the West side of the Flagler ground. In the middle of the field is a stand of trees that run kind of North/South with wheat on the East & West sides. On the East side of the trees there is a mile long stretch of beautiful flat field running North and South. It is a perfect place for unloading the combine ‘on the go’. The ‘cutter’ can maintain a steady speed. The grain cart backs up to the combine and we offload from the combine into the grain-cart at 3.5 maybe even 4 miles an hour. Of course, we do this elsewhere but here on the Flagler ground it just looks cool. Like those John Deere calendar pictures of cutting wheat up in Nebraska.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To get the combine unstuck on the Flagler ground it was just a matter of detaching the grain-cart from its tractor then using the tractor to pull the combine out. Took longer to park the grain cart and chain-up the combine to the tractor than it took to pull the combine out.
This time was different.
There has been a lot of rain this year. The water table is high. Really high. Only a few feet below the surface of the ground. And those few feet retain a lot of water.
Bruce had made a number of passes on this part of the field.
No problem.
The last pass….problem. Funny how things can go from business as usual to ‘no business at all’ in a few seconds.
Bruce tried backing the combine out.
Bruce tried going forward.
Bruce tried going back.
The wheels spun and dug themselves further and further into the ground.
Time to stop and regroup.
The grain tank on the combine was about half full of corn. So, step one: get the corn off the combine and reduce its weight by about 9,000 pounds. This decision was quickly reached by Bruce, Clayton Andrew and me (actually i spent most of the discussion nodding and trying not to look like this was something i’d never considered). Further discussion revealed that the best way to get the grain-cart rig under the combine auger was to back it up. Less chance of getting stuck. This way the tractor part of the rig is facing uphill and on firmer ground. I nodded. Made sense. Then i looked at the grain-cart and tractor.
Then back at the stuck combine.
Then back to the grain-cart.
Then back to the stuck combine.
Clayton Andrew looked at me looking at the stuck combine then back to the grain-cart. Smiled and said, ‘Do you want me to move the grain-cart?’
A weight, a grain-cart full of weight was lifted from my shoulders.
I’ve been practicing backing up the grain-cart. Whenever i get the chance, I’ll back it around the field. I’m getting pretty good. Especially if i have a whole field to back up in. But the vision of getting the grain-cart stuck right next to the stuck combine was ugly.
Clayton Andrew was totally unperturbed. He first drove the grain-cart up to the semi and unloaded it. This way the grain-cart wouldn’t have any extra weight when it tackled the muddy part of the field. Something else i’ hadn’t considered. When Clayton came back from the semi he backed the grain-cart right next to the combine. As slick as a whistle….which is almost as slick as the mud on the combine’s tires.

The wheat was off-loaded from the combine then Clayton Andrew headed back to the semi to unload the grain-cart. Now all of the equipment in the field was free of any extra weight.
When you think about it, weight is a big deal when pulling (or pushing) a piece of equipment. Especially one that is stuck.
The Moose weighs about 32,665 pounds unloaded.
It had about 100 gallons of diesel fuel onboard, adding about another 800 pounds.
The header (which cuts the grain) and combine adapter (which holds the header to the combine) add an extra 5492 pounds.
So, the combine, as it sits, stuck in the field, weighs about 39,677 pounds.
More discussion.

The grain-cart tractor won’t pull the combine out. The big field tractor won’t. So, it’s time to start calling Bruce’s ‘guys’. First, he calls his earth moving guy. This guy has big equipment….bulldozer, road grader, land scraper. He lives about seven or eight miles East of where we are.  And he is available. Bruce then calls his backhoe guy. Figures it will be easier to get the Moose free if we can get the dirt cleared away from its front tires and header. The backhoe guy lives a couple of miles away and our luck holds; he can come right over. Well i guess if our luck was really ‘holding’ we wouldn’t have gotten stuck. Well our ‘post-stuck’ luck is holding.
The bulldozer guy gets to the field first.

 

 

 

 

He unloads the dozer and brings it down to the combine. There is just the hint of bulldozer tracks in the wet soil.
We hook the bulldozer up to the combine and with Bruce in the combine the bulldozer guy starts pulling.
The combine doesn’t move.
The bulldozer doesn’t move.
The bulldozer tracks are digging into the field.
Time to stop and regroup. Perhaps just using the winch on the bulldozer will work. This time the bulldozer is in park and the winch is winching. And suddenly there is movement.
The bulldozer.
Toward the combine.
The combine is not moving. The bulldozer’s winch is pulling the bulldozer toward the combine.
Time to regroup again.
Sometime in here the backhoe guy gets to the field he drives into the field.  And just like you’d expect he gets stuck.
Then the backhoe magic begins.
Step one:  he puts the front-end loader down. Slightly lifting up the front of the backhoe.
Step two:  put the bucket (on the back-end of the backhoe) into the dirt. A fair distance away from the backhoe itself.
Step three:  release some of the pressure on the front loader.
Step four:  pull the backhoe forward several feet with the bucket.
Step five:  keep repeating until the backhoe is where you want it. He can even change directions by changing where the backhoe bucket digs into the dirt.

With Clayton Andrew’s guidance he begins removing dirt from around the wheels and header.

After the last try when the winch pulled the bulldozer toward the combine it is decided to ‘anchor’ the bulldozer with a couple of tractors. The grain-cart tractor and the field tractor. Chain them together and then chain them to the bulldozer. Start the winch. And watch….
the combine come out of the mud.

Within 20 minutes we are cutting wheat again. And….
leaving that ‘draw’ alone for a while.

 

Finished remodeling

Cloudy, 34 degrees
Humidity 72%
Dew Point 32 degrees
Wind SW at 9 mph
Forecast: Snow

Eli and Chris are gone. Headed back to Lawrence with an invitation to return anytime….and a promise that they won’t ‘have to’ remodel anything.
Before Eli left he put the final ‘skim coat’ on new wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John came by later to help finish the sanding. He and Jan have done a lot of sheetrock work in their lives. They have put in many miles in the years of their marriage and remodeled most of their homes. Eli has professional level skills, but John and Jan are not far behind and they have about 25 years more experience.
It didn’t take John long to smooth out the skim coat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Bruce’s help we came to an executive decision about a new paint scheme for the kitchen. We still have paint (maybe a half gallon) for the living room. And about the same amount of ceiling paint.

Actually, the can of paint labeled ‘ceiling’ was apparently for a ceiling from other times. The color was close. Really close. But you can tell a difference. I walked around the house and did small test areas on all of the ceilings. Can’t find a match. After a very brief discussion it was unanimously decided to not worry about the living room ceiling and talk Carolyn into repainting it next Summer.

The final choice for the kitchen paint was only slightly different than what had been there. A shade or two darker and slightly gray. Before it was slightly green. And slightly means slightly. I can pick out the grayness or greenness only when comparing it side by side with something else. Of course, i’ve never been known as someone who can ‘mix and match’. The ‘matching’ part always throws me off. One of the things i really liked about the ‘60s & ‘70s was that when it came to colors it was acceptable to mix almost anything with almost anything. This made picking out clothes easy….pretty much whatever was clean i put on. When there was nothing clean left, it was time to go do laundry. Times were much simpler.
We also came to another executive decision. The kitchen ceiling would be painted the same color as the kitchen walls. The paint seemed more than light enough. This would make it a lot easier for the painting crew.
The final executive decision of the day was that i would be the painting crew. There were a number of remarkably good reasons for this. i just can’t seem to remember what they were. But, with brand new painters’ tape, brushes, rollers, trays, paint and other implements of the trade (and minimal rules by the executive committee) i set off to put the final touch on the remodeled kitchen wall.

 

 

I finished on Tuesday morning. We’d spent one week from start to finish.

 

 

 

There is no question….the kitchen is more ‘open’. More a part of the living room. Now we just need to get a houseful of folks to test out the ‘flow’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aluminum Header

Partly sunny, 50 degrees
Humidity 34%
Dew Point 27 degrees
Wind S @ 10 mph
Forecast: Sunny

Luck seems to follow us (at least Eli) on the kitchen wall project.
A quick trip to the attic convinced him of two things.
One: the electrical outlet has enough wire to reach its new location so we don’t need to add any.
Two: the way the rafters tie into this part of the house make a ‘header’ very necessary.
When Bruce stopped by we discussed the header. It would be nice not to have to use the traditional 2 x 6s laminated together. If we go traditional the top of the new opening into the living room will hang low enough to significantly decrease the headroom. Since a fair number of the Mai Clan are well over six foot a low hanging header is a real inconvenience.
There is also the problem of the esthetics. A low hanging header just won’t ‘open up’ the space. However, in the country esthetics are usually saved for sun rises, sun sets, freshly plowed dirt and a field of wheat, so i let the kitchen/living room esthetics lie.
In the middle of discussing increasing the headroom using a 2 x 4 beam, instead of a 4 x 6 beam Bruce comes up with the idea of steel. A couple of long strips of steel welded together would take up a lot less headspace and be stronger than the laminated wood beam. Eli readily agreed.
So, Bruce calls his welding guy.
Bruce has lived almost all of his life in the WaKeeney area. He knows just about everybody. He always knows some ‘guy’ to call. Kind of like Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother)

 

Bruce has a guy for everything.
A roofing guy. A tractor guy. An insurance guy. A plumbing guy. An equipment guy. A septic tank guy. A ditching guy. An earth moving guy. (The last two will come in handy when the combine gets stuck next week). So, Bruce calls Eric, the welding guy.
Eric says he can weld together a beam for us and probably do it tonight. However he mentions that he happens to have an aluminum I-beam that he can cut to the right length. After a brief discussion Bruce and Eli decide that the aluminum beam is more than strong enough to hold the weight. It is also a lot less heavy than steel or even a laminated wood beam. Eric says he can have it ready in an hour.
Eli’s remodeling luck holds. With a bit of investigation Eli discovers that on the refrigerator side of the opening already has a jack-stud (aka: post) to support the beam.
The cabinet side of the opening already has a 2 x 4 framed in. All we need to do is add another to it. I was suddenly filled with joy realizing that i could demonstrate my framing skills. Eli thanked me for my enthusiasm. Then told me athat the nail gun will hold the 2 x 4s together better and
BAP
BAP
BAP
BAP
BAP
BAP and a nail gun is a lot faster.
I noticed the small gas-powered air compressor on the front stoop. I even noticed the red air hose running through the living room. I didn’t notice that the hose was connected to a nail gun and….i didn’t notice that the Estwing 28-ounce milled face steel framing hammer was put away in the toolbox.
The aluminum I-beam fit perfectly and looked cool. We kicked around a few ideas on how to keep it exposed so folks could appreciate the marvel of an aluminum I-beam. Of course, we didn’t get very far. At Bruce’s suggestion Eli signed and dated I-beam. This way whoever does the next remodeling job will not only see the marvel of an aluminum I-beam but the will also know who put it in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sheetrock was a bit tricky. But by midafternoon Eli had all the sheetrock up and was working on the new flooring where the wall used to be.

 

 

 

 

 

By evening Eli and Chris had put on, and sanded, several coats of joint mud.
John is lined up to come by and help with the final sanding.
I’m lined up to do the painting….as long as i don’t use a framing hammer. But all of that is for another day. Eli and Chris leave tomorrow so now it is time to kick-back in the kitchen with a beer or two and tell stories. It’s a great way to get a feel for the new ‘open’ kitchen and living room. Of course, we’ll need a house full of kids to actually test the flow.

 

Sledgehammer

Partly sunny, 42 degrees
Humidity 64%
Dew Point 33 degrees
Wind NW at 14 mph
Forecast: Sunny

The sledgehammer is parked in the laundry room at Grandma’s house.
The laundry room is next to the kitchen. This way the sledgehammer is easy to get to when we need it to turn ice cubes into ice chips. Ice chips are the perfect size for the ice cream maker (Trego Center Dairy Ice Cream Recipe: Archives > June 2011 > ‘push day & ice cream recipe’).
Today the sledgehammer got a chance to fulfill a more dramatic destiny….tearing down a wall. But first a few cuts with the Sawzall.
I’ve always liked Sawzalls. (Almost as much as framing hammers).
A Sawzall can cut through almost anything. From thin plywood to steel pipe. They are so popular that every power tool company in the world has its own brand of Sawzall.
The Sawzall Eli has will take on pretty much any carpentry job. It certainly cut effortlessly through the kitchen wall sheetrock (By the end of the day it easily cut through the 16 penny nails holding the wall studs in place).
The Sawzall cuts Eli made marked the edge of the new wall. This way the ‘new’ wall will have a nice straight edge even after i tear into the sheetrock
with a framing hammer,
sledgehammer and
rock mason attitude.
I began wall removal with an Estwing 28-ounce milled face steel framing hammer (life just doesn’t’ get much better). This ‘opened up’ the wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time for the sledgehammer.
There is a certain satisfaction of using a sledgehammer. Not sure if i’d want to do it all day
Or every day.
Or as part of a chain-gang. But to get a piece of wall
or duct
or stud out of the way….a sledgehammer is the tool to have.

By 5:30 in the afternoon the sheetrock, the duct-work (that wasn’t doing anything), the framing, and actually all of the wall were gone. All that remained was a dangling electric outlet that would be reinstalled tomorrow along with the header and new sheetrock.

 

 

 

 

 

Six pm Wednesday evening.
Time to head to Mikes Place, home of the best hamburgers in America.

 

 

 

More Remodeling

Partly sunny, 38 degrees
Humidity 70%
Dew Point 36 degrees
Wind NW at 16 mph
Forecast: Sunny

From the beginning the vents were the biggest concern.
The electric outlet and telephone line were pretty straight forward. In fact, the phone line could just be eliminated, there hasn’t been a phone plugged into it in several years. Not since cellphones became the norm at the farm.
But the furnace vents presented a problem.
At least we thought they did.

Eli was not overly concerned. Said it might involve tearing into more of the wall or even into the East wall in the living room. It seems rerouting ducts just comes with remodeling. He has the tools and the knowledge and a plan. Step one of ‘the plan’ was taking off the electrical outlet and vent covers. A job that landed within my skill set. Eli is remarkably good at being able to quickly figure out someone’s skill level and then assigning them appropriate tasks. And after all I’ve done carpentry.  Off and on, throughout my life i have done carpentry. And always with the same very high degree of….
well ‘pathetic’ comes to mind. About the only thing i can do with any degree of precision is drive nails. I’m really remarkably good with a framing hammer. In my youth i could drive a 16-penny nail straight and true with three hits. A a skill to be proud of….of course today anyone doing any kind of framing uses a nail gun.
I also stacked some rock in my youth. Foundations, fireplaces, patios. Admitedly i did my best work with a hammer. Rock hammer. Sledgehammer.  In rock work a sledgehammer can turn a big rock into a pile of ‘thug-martins’ with one carefully placed swing. (A ‘thug-martin’ is a small rock used to fill a hole between other rocks. It is usually buried in concrete and will never be seen. I’ve no idea where the term ‘thug-martin’ comes from but i learned it from some rock mason friends in Arkansas.).
An exceptionally professional vent cover removal, led to a remarkable discovery. The hot air and cold air ducts were contained in the same duct.

 

 

The rising hot air (10^thgrade physics class with Ms Barrett) goes up a round pipe in the center of the duct-work, then out the vent near the top of the wall. The sinking cool air (Ms Barrett again) comes in through the top and bottom vents and back to the furnace.

 

 

Eli was quite amazed. Said he has never seen anything like it. Neither have i. Of course, my knowledge of heating and air conditioning duct work is slightly less than my knowledge of carpentry. Eli, on the other hand has done a fair amount of work with home heating and cooling. When he put new wood floors in the house where he and Chris currently live, he installed hot water tubing all over the sub-flooring. When the furnace is on the heat radiates from the floor (Ms Barrett one last time) warming the house.
As Eli was examining where the duct met the floor he discovered that the duct was loose and could be moved around a bit. Inside the round warm air duct was a rag.
Plaid.
Like a piece of an old work shirt.
He pulled the rag out and looked through the hole into the basement. Whatever the dual-duct had been attached to was long gone. Asking around later we found that both Bruce and Carolyn said they remembered that some of the original ducts were not attached to the new system when the central air conditioning was installed in the late ‘60s.
So all of our thinking (OK, Eli’s thinking) on how to reroute the duct work was delightfully thrown in the trash barrel….soon to be joined by the duct work….once i got to work with the sledgehammer.

 

Remodeling

Partly sunny, 38 degrees
Humidity 70%
Dew Point 36 degrees
Wind NW at 16 mph
Forecast: Sunny

Wednesday, October 10th 6:58 AM….looking out Grandma’s kitchen window, i saw a dove carrying an olive leaf land on the small tractor.
A sign!
Mostly a sign that flying beats driving on our dirt roads. We need four-wheel drive truck (or a lifetime of experience) just to get to the blacktop road ¾ of a mile West.
No cutting corn today.
Probably no cutting for at least five or six days. The fields won’t support the weight of the combine, tractor, grain-cart or trucks. Nothing to do but stay inside and work. Which is convenient because Eli and Chris got here yesterday and they are going to help remodel Grandma’s kitchen. ‘Helping’ is slang for ‘they are going to remodel Grandma’s kitchen’ and i’m going to help.
Eli and Chris live in Lawrence. Chris just retired from teaching. She also buys houses. Fixes them up, then sells them.
Eli is a gifted guitarist and construction dude. Never have figured out if he does construction to support his music or does music to support his construction. One way or the other he has developed a niche among the older, mostly retired, folks in Lawrence who need remodeling. He is the go-to-guy for the 50 plus crowd who want to change-up their home. Chris and Eli have a sort of ‘Property Brothers’ thing going on but without the TV crew….just an old ‘junior construction apprentice’.
For years Grandma’s house has been ‘the place’ for family to gather during wheat harvest. Or Christmas. Occasionally other times.
During harvest we often have 25 to 30 folks eating at Grandma’s. Or playing cards. Or just sitting around watching football, KU or Chiefs or the World Cup (when the Kearby’s are around).

 

 

 

 

 

Many of these folks are kids.
Once upon a time the kids (Grandma’s kids: John, Bruce, Carolyn, Pam) had kids running around the house.
Now those kids have kids….running around the house. With each generation there are more kids running around the house.

Over the years we’ve talked about remodeling. Making more room. Taking down a living room wall, make the South bedroom part of the living room. Perhaps extending the kitchen. Raising the floor in the ‘new room’ and making it part of the living room. Perhaps creating a ‘spa’ with a hot tub for those long days of milking and cutting wheat.
Admittedly these are pretty outlandish projects that only make sense over a game of Pinochle and a bit of Schnapps­.
Except the hot tub.
Once Grandma actually had a portable hot tub put in the West bedroom. Only lasted a year or so but maybe we ought to revive the idea. A hot tub for ‘The Barn’ (the former milk tank room that is now transforming into the Trego Center Dairy Man Cave).
Last Summer at wheat harvest i asked all of Grandma’s kids (and a few grandkids) what they thought of tearing down part of the kitchen wall.

After some discussion, everyone agreed. Especially when i said i could draft Eli as contractor.
A few phone calls and texts and photos later, Eli was set up to come to the farm during the first part of October.
So, on a muddy Wednesday morning in early October the Sawzall made the first cut

 

Woolly Bears Again

Cloudy, 20 degrees
Humidity 95%
Dew Point 19 degrees
Wind N at 19 mph
Forecast: Snow

The Wooly Bears seem to be right (Corn Harvest 2018 ‘Snow?’).
We’ve had three ‘snows’ so far and it’s not yet Winter. From lightly covering the ground to actual measurable snow.
This Veteran’s Day brought an inch or so at Lone Tree Farm (John & Jan’s place)

Lone Tree Farm

to 2.5 inches in Hays (Rheta & Clayton Michael’s place).

Hays Kansas

Might have had more measurable snow at the farm but the wind is a little too strong. The snow only piles up on the leeward side of things; buildings, granaries, equipment, cows an occasional dog.  Of course, the only dog who is laid-back enough to let snow pile up on him is Shadow and he is old enough to know to spend snowy days in the barn (old milk-barn).

Shadow guarding the barn

Most of the corn is in. A few acres up North need to be cut. Just waiting for the ground to dry/freeze hard enough to drive equipment on the field. Woolly Bear predictions are that this might be soon.

Snow?

Cloudy, 34 degrees
Humidity 87%
Dew Point 32 degrees
Wind S at 7 mph
Forecast: Cold & clearing

Snow.
Mid-October.
Kansas.
Snow in mid-October is perhaps not that unusual in Billings or Bismarck or Duluth or Casper or even Denver, but WaKeeney, Kansas?

Of course, several folks around here have been reporting Woolly Bear Caterpillars with more black than burnt-orange. A sure sign of a more severe winter coming.
The Woolly Bear has approximately 13 segments. Black on the ends. Burnt-orange (some have a more brownish-orange) in the middle.

If there are fewer burnt-orange segments and more black segments it is a sure sign of a severe winter coming. At least according to Dr C. H. Curran, the curator of insects at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in 1948. Between 1948 and 1956 Dr Curran and friends (The Original Society of the Friends of the Woolly Bear) took Fall trips to Bear Mountain State Park to check the Woolly Bears. Sure enough, there seemed to be a correlation between the Woolly Bear colors and the upcoming winter.

Although Dr Curran never claimed any scientific correlation/causation for his tongue in cheek research, it was good enough for most of us. After all we’d seen the same thing. Year after year. Generation after generation.
We’ve had weird weather this Fall. Weird weather all year. Most everyone i’ve talked with is willing to go along with the Woolly Bears.
Wet.
Cold.
Snow.
Coming our way.

Ice?

Partly sunny, 34 degrees
Humidity 80%
Dew Point 32 degrees
Wind N at 3 mph
Forecast: Scattered clouds

Bruce came over for coffee at about 7:30 am. He & Joyce are headed to Hays this morning. I’m headed to Stephens Lumber in town for some more drywall mud.  This will be the last trip to the lumber yard for this project….taking out the wall that separates the kitchen from the living room. But that is another story.
A littler after 8am Bruce & i left the kitchen and headed our separate directions. When i got to the gray pickup i stopped dead in my tracks. There was ice on all of the windows.
A little frost on the pumpkins is one thing, but a layer of ice on the truck windows is quite another thing.

 

We’ve got mail.

Partly sunny, 34 degrees
Humidity 80%
Dew Point 32 degrees
Wind N at 5 mph
Forecast: Increasing clouds

We’ve got mail.
It’s been a while.
Monday (10.10.18) no mail (Columbus Day) buts lots of rain.
Tuesday more rain and mud (no mail). Need a ‘monster’ truck to get through.
Wednesday rain slacking off but roads were ugly (no mail). Need four-wheel drive or a lifetime of experience. By Wednesday evening roads were firming up.
Thursday the mail came through.
The ruts in the road are becoming solid. Still slick, but even a city boy can get to town. This year is certainly a big change from the last six years. There was quite a drought in the Midwest. Last year it broke and i finally learned about slick roads. At least roads slick with wetness.
One of the often-overlooked (at least overlooked by people who don’t regularly drive them) things about roads is how ‘slick’ they can seem. With no rain for a while, a layer of fine dirt forms on the roads. A layer sometimes an inch or so thick on a roadbed that is almost as hard as concrete. Hit the breaks or turn the wheel suddenly and the truck is sliding like it’s on ice.
Take a hard dirt road and add a day of rain and that layer of fine dirt becomes mud. Mud that is as slippery ice.
Add a week of rain and even the hard dirt is mud. Enough mud that even a tractor will get stuck.
This year is setting records for rain. But the rain is slacking off. The ruts are getting ‘solid’. Still need four-wheel drive on many roads but we now are talking about when the county road grader will come through (Country
Roads; wheat harvest 2017).
And….we’ve got mail….again.

Rain, rain, again and again
Rain, 27 degrees
Humidity 100%
Dew Point 38 degrees
Wind N @ 22 mph
Forecast: Snow 1-3 inches

Woke up at 3:30am. Rain.
The rain and I both faded away by 4:15.
Awakened at 5:10am. Rain. A hard rain. Lightning and thunder hard rain. Figured it was time to get up. Found ‘It’s a Hard Rain Gonna Fall’ on line and began practicing. (Second year of retirement focuses on music). Mr Dylan got it right. Except the blue eyes. Seems everyone on my side of the family has brown eyes. Sometime around 7:15am the wind switched to the North. Switched hard. More rain. This should pass through fairly quickly. Then we wait for the snow. Snow. In the middle of October.

One way or the other it is back to four-wheel drive. At least for city boys.
All through my life i’ve loved thunderstorms. Especially Kansas thunderstorms.
In ‘the days of my discovery’ (22 to 25) i was back in Pittsburg, Kansas. I was born in Pittsburg.  A fifth generation Kansan. We were Eastern Kansas people. When i was six i was forced to leave.
My mother and father moved to Indiana and insisted i go along.
Dad had been teaching math at the local college and was offered a job working for Dage Television, helping to create ways to link classrooms on different campuses with television cameras. Eastern Indiana didn’t have thunderstorms. Neither did Washington D.C. i found out when we moved there. I was nine. Dad was now working at the National Academy of Sciences. Worked there until his death years later.
Because we were on the East Coast and the rest of the family was in the Midwest, we did a lot of trips back to Kansas. Summer. Christmas. Family get-togethers. (Guess this is when i developed a love of road trips).
My love of thunderstorms was rekindled during ‘my years of discovery’.
I generally rode a bike (bicycle….motorcycles would come later). Had an occasional car, but was always willing to trade it for a better bike.
Summer thunderstorms in Kansas can often be seen miles away. Eastern Kansas is flat enough that a 30,000-foot thunderstorm can be seen a hundred miles away. Way beyond the horizon.  Occasionally two thunderstorms will collide, from two different directions. Slowly come together. Mountains of gray and blue gray and violet and white (punctured by lightning) slowly covering the bright blue sky in-between.
Times like these i would ride out to the airport just to watch. Our small airport was West and a bit North of town. A place where the land is particularly flat. Full of fields and almost no trees. A thoughtful place to build an airport.
The ride home in the rain (once or twice almost a swim) worth the stinging rain and bone rattling rumble of thunder.
I still love Kansas thunderstorms. Except today. I would gladly trade the thunder and rain for a quiet sky full of Sun.
Yesterday the roads were almost as hard as concrete. Ruts everywhere, but easy to travel without four-wheel drive. Now there will again be mud. We’ll have to tack on more days of waiting for the fields to be dry enough to cut corn.
Ah well. Still feels a bit blasphemous to complain about water falling freely from the sky.

 

Sun!
Partly sunny, 38 degrees
Humidity 70%
Dew Point 36 degrees
Wind NW at 16 mph
Forecast: Sunny

October 10th 7:58 AM….looked out Grandma’s kitchen window saw a dove with a olive leaf land on the small tractor.
Looking South there are broken clouds and blue sky behind them. On the Eastern edge the clouds have a tint of red/orange.

Four-wheel drive is still nice to get to the highway…..3/4 mile West. But not absolutely necessary. At least for the folks who grew up around here.
As always, we hate to get presumptuous but maybe we can start to cut corn before Halloween. Local wisdom says that we may still be cutting on Thanksgiving. If we can just get done this year!

Rain, 45 degrees
Humidity 100%
Dew Point 49 degrees
Wind NNE @ 10 mph
Forecast: rain

Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day
Bobby wants to go and play
Rain, rain go away

Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day
Brucie wants to go and…..
well actually Brucie wants to go cut corn
So, do i.
So, does Paul.
So does Carroll.
So does everyone.
All the farmers (and grain-cart drivers) in the county and several counties around want to cut corn. And if they don’t have any corn to cut they want to get into their fields and work.
Not sure when a nursery rhyme slides into blasphemy but we may be close. It’s hard to picture farmers cursing rain, after all it is water falling free from the sky, but there comes a point when it is easy to hear the sharp edge to everyone’s ‘acceptance’ of the weather. But, as everyone says, there just isn’t anything to do about the weather.
Except complain.
Weather complaints led Dave Breeze and i to action.

Dave and i met in the Marine Corps.
A Sunday afternoon barbecue.
The barbecue was in married NCO (non-commissioned officer) country.  A part of base housing that was set aside for married NCOs. Corporals or higher. Most of the married folks in this neighborhood were sergeants and few staff sergeants.
I was none of the above.
But i had a friend who was both a sergeant and married to someone who was alright with me occasionally crashing on their couch. It was nice to get out of the barracks for a while. Especially on a weekend.
On this particular weekend there was a neighborhood barbeque.
The guy who lived next door to my friends was in the air-wing. A tall, lanky dude with an outgoing and slightly cocky attitude. Come to find out the attitude was just normal air-wing attitude. He was a crew chief on a CH-53 (big single rotor helicopter). When i met him, he was ‘crewing’ a grill full of brauts.
He introduced himself and answered the obligatory question, even before i asked, with ‘Missouri’. In the military, at least in the enlisted ranks of the military, the first thing you ask after (or even during) shaking hands is ‘where are you from’. At the time my answer was D.C. I had spent the last ten years of my life in Virginia. Arlington and Fairfax counties. Right outside of D.C. It was just easier to say D.C. because everyone has heard of D.C.
Since the brauts were not done i walked off.
I never got back.
Found other food and a woman who wasn’t married.

Three years later Dave Breeze and I met….for the first time….again.
In college.
We did not recognize each other in any way. It was only after a few months that we put together that we had been in the Corps at the same time and in the same place. And we had met at a Sunday barbeque. Over the years we made up for a lost Marine Corps friendship. Dave ended up being the best man in Carolyn and my wedding.
Somewhere during our early years of our friendship, we were complaining about the weather. It was too wet and cold to go fishing.
Complaining just doesn’t satisfy.
Usually because we complain to the people we are around. They already know the weather is not what it needs to be.
If there was just someone to call.
Someone to call and lodge a formal complaint. But who?
We tried several local radio weather people.
We tried the local TV weather people.
We tried National Weather Service.
We tried the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Everyone told us that they just tracked the weather. They had no control over the weather. There was certainly no use complaining to them.
‘The answer’, said Dave, ‘is obvious’.
We would assume responsibility for the weather.
We would take turns being the ‘someone’ to accept responsibility for the weather.  The someone people could call and lodge a complaint.
Of course, there wasn’t, and still, isn’t, anything we could ‘do’ about the weather, but at least we could provide a place for people to vent their weather frustrations.
From 1973 on we traded off ‘the weather line’. Even years Dave was the ‘weather complaint department’. Odd years i was.
As we went through life if we heard someone complaining about the weather we’d step up and say ‘i know someone you can call.’  They would listen to the story, laugh a bit and go on their way. Most of the time no one called. We only averaged about 5 calls a year. Mostly from people who thought the whole concept was crazy and the laugh was worth the time spent calling.
We happily kept this up until Dave’s death at 48. Like so many visionaries he died too young.

Today at the farm our county is now on target to having the wettest year in memory. Maybe the wettest on record. A record i’d just as soon let someone else set.

Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day
We’ve got corn to cut and fields to work
Rain, rain go away