Wheat Harvest 2015

The Great Metal Snake

7.12.15
78 degrees, Partly cloudy
Dew point: 52 degrees
Humidity: 50%
Wind: S @ 2 mph
Forecast: Increasing clouds

OK i really am getting better at backing up a trailer.
Of course my skills are not nearly the caliber of Bruce or Clayton Michael or Clayton Andrew or Rheta or actually anyone else who lives within 10 miles of the Farm. But for a city boy who only backs up a U-Haul or boat trailer or grain cart a few times a year….i’m not bad. At least when no one is around.
This Summer i had not one by two million-hit backing up adventures. The first was during wheat harvest when Bruce, Clayton Andrew & i were moving back West. We finished one field and needed to move about five miles. We left together. By the time i got to the ‘new’ field Clayton Andrew was standing next to the field-truck he had driven over. He made good time. The dust had settled on the road (all the farm roads are dirt) and he was leaning against the truck talking on his phone.
I came up from the South. Bruce was coming around from the North. The South is a lot quicker route from the previous field but the North road has fewer obstacles, especially bridges. Very convenient for a combine wearing a 32-foot header. Clayton Andrew had taken the Southern road. So had i.
With anyone else driving the grain cart would have gotten to the new field well before the combine. However ‘Grain Cart Rule #2’ (don’t damage the equipment) becomes ‘Grain Cart Rule #1’ when there is no wheat in the grain cart. So i went fairly slow. The result is that i was pulling up to the field about two minutes before Bruce.
I pulled to the side of the road and climbed out of the tractor just in time for Clayton Andrew to suggest i climb back in and move the grain cart back about 20 feet. I was parked in front of the slug going into the field. Most fields don’t have fences, but most fields do have a shallow culvert around them. Every so often about 10 feet of culvert is filled with dirt (a slug) so that equipment can drive across the culvert.
I climbed back into the tractor just as Bruce was turning the corner. Backing up took me a moment….or two. Actually a minute….or two. Maybe three. Well, four. Seemed like an hour.
Bruce just got a new ‘smart phone’. Clayton Andrew, however, has had one for several years. So i guess i wouldn’t expect Bruce to get video of me backing up, but i’m shocked Clayton Andrew didn’t. I’m sure it would have gone viral. ‘City boy backs up a tractor and grain cart’.
Bruce said i looked like a snake trying to go backwards.
Well, backing up a grain card is not one of those things i get to practice much back in the ‘city’.
But by the time wheat harvest finished my backing-up-the-grain-cart-skills were improving. And transferable to the boat trailer. Now that there are no cows to milk we seem to have more time to fish.
The standard routine when Bruce and i are leaving the lake is for me to back the empty boat trailer down the loading ramp. We usually use the ramp at Cove 3.

It is a really nice place to get on and off the lake. The ramp is concrete and well maintained. The parking area is large and so is the turn around area next to the ramp. I’ve gotten this down to a science. Well, not really a science, but at least i don’t look like a complete newbie.

I have discovered that if i drive toward the lake on the right side of the ‘turnaround’ i have plenty of room to turn to left onto the ramp. Then up the ramp so the truck and trailer are perfectly lined up. Then it is just a matter of backing 30 feet down the ramp until the trailer is up to its wheels in water. Bruce drives the boat on the trailer. I drive truck, trailer and boat to the top of the ramp where we ready the boat and fishing gear for the 18 minute ride to the Farm.
So i’ve got may part down to the point where i occasionally feel a bit ‘cocky’. If i’m wearing my old BTI cap and i actually look semi-pro.
This morning everyone and his dog are on the lake. Including two dogs we just met riding on a boat up in Cove 1. Of course Bruce knows everyone (and now two dogs) who are on the lake. Knows everyone on a first name basis. Even the dogs. And it seems that today everyone was using the Cove 3 ramp and leaving the lake at the same time.
No worries. I had my BTI cap on and was all lined up and ready to back down the ramp. By the time i was a few feet down the ramp i had the trailer off to the North side so i pulled back up the ramp a few feet to straighten it out.
Drove backward a few feet and got the trailer off to the South side. So i drove forward a few feet to straighten it out.
Drove backward a few feet.
Drove forward a few feet.
Drove backward a few feet.
Drove forward a few feet.
Drove backward a few feet.
Drove forward a few feet.
Drove backward a few feet.
Drove…..
By now Bruce had tied the boat to the dock and walked up the ramp.
I figured he was going to take over. I was more than willing to let him back it up and put me, and everyone waiting on the lake, out of our collective misery.
Not so.
Bruce just walked beside the truck and gave directions. A very courageous thing to do considering the side-to-side movement of several thousand pounds of metal snake. But inside of two minutes the trailer was in place and Bruce was climbing back into the boat to drive it onto the trailer.
Again no one took video. At least we haven’t seen anything posted yet. Our second chance for a million-view video was gone. Too bad. It would take a bit of the bite out of the embarrassment if we had broken into the ‘10 most viewed YouTube videos’.
Maybe next year.
Maybe next year.

Albert’s Banjo

7.10.15
92 degrees, Partly cloudy
Dew point: 52 degrees
Humidity: 24%
Wind: S @ 5 mph
Forecast: Clearing

Albert Mai was lucky.
He also loved music. Although he had very little formal training, he could play by ear. People say Albert could pick out a tune on just about any instrument.
All of this came together at the Trego County Fair of 1954.
There was a raffle. Actually there were a number of raffles, but the one that drew Albert’s attention was for a banjo. He had occasionally picked up a friend’s guitar or banjo but had never owned one of his own. The raffle was just too good a chance to pass up. So he bought a ticket. When the drawing was held that afternoon, sure enough, Albert had won. The banjo, a four-string tenor, came with a small envelope. Printed on the envelope were instructions: ‘Care of the Banjo’. Inside the envelope were a couple of flat picks.

Albert played that banjo off and on for some 35 years. When he wasn’t playing the banjo, it lived in the bedroom closet.
After Albert’s death, when the family gathered together, the banjo was dug out of the closet. Someone noticed that a string was broken. The remaining strings were pretty rusted, so they were all taken off along with the bridge. The banjo went back into the closet. The ‘Care of the Banjo’ packet and picks were left in a dresser drawer. No one knows what happened to the bridge.
Time went by.
Elfriede sent the banjo to John. John is the oldest of their children and a very good musician. Seems to have inherited Albert’s ability. The banjo stayed at John & Jan’s house for a fair number of years then came back to the Farm last Christmas. Seems John was never going to become a banjo player and Jan figured it should come ‘home’.
Every six months, or a year or so, someone, or some two, or three will go on a cleaning binge out at the Farm. This Summer Jan & Carolyn & Pam got the cleaning-binge bug. In the process they found several table leaves from a table that no longer exists, some clothes, a crib from two generations ago, a two foot long straight razor made of wood (a high school shop-class project), a real straight razor leather strap, some books, letters, Uncle Ernie’s legendary bear skin coat and the banjo. Actually they ‘re-found’ the banjo.
All of the ‘finds’ were discussed and memories shared. Some things were given new life and passed along. Some things were put back to be re-discovered another time. Some things went to the landfill.
Once the banjo, Albert’s talent and luck were discussed, it became obvious that no one wanted the banjo. No one knew even anyone who wanted the banjo. It didn’t look like it was worth fixing up. It is after all it is a tenor banjo. The banjo was headed to the landfill.
Now i’ve have never been a banjo player. Never wanted to be one. But the thought of a musical instrument going to the dump is just more than i can bear. At least it can be cleaned up and hung on a wall. A lot better fate than becoming part of a future archeology site.
So we carried the banjo back East. Took it to Mike. He has a music store. Does repairs. Plays Bluegrass and knows a fair amount about banjos.
When he first saw Albert’s banjo he smiled, ‘you know this is just a wall hanger’.
Well….ya’. Never figured i’d be learning to play. Especially not a tenor banjo. Kind of figured it would hang on a wall and then go to someone in the next generation to hang on their wall. However Mike’s next comment got my attention.
‘This wasn’t even made by a luthier.’ (Luthier (/ˈluːtiər/ LOO-ti-ər) someone who makes or repairs string instruments (except harps). ‘It was made by a drum company…..maybe Slingerland.’
What?
It seems that during the 1940s and 1950s the banjo was becoming a very popular instrument. So drum companies branched out into banjos….after all the fundamental part of a banjo is the ‘drum’ head. Drum companies would take one of their drumheads add a resonator, neck and strings and have a banjo. In fact a close look at where the neck of Albert’s banjo attaches to the head you can see where it had been ‘shimmed’. The makers had taken a ‘stock’ tenor guitar neck and attached it to the drumhead rather building the neck to fit.
‘To be honest’, he said smiling, ‘if i was buying it, i’d give you $25 dollars, take everything off and just keep the drum head….still probably hang it on the wall.’
Go figure.
According to Mike there was a good chance the banjo wouldn’t even stay in tune. However he agreed to add a bridge and some strings so it would look nice on a wall.
A week later Mike called.
‘Well,’ he said when we went back in, ‘It’s actually playable. Never would have guessed.’ He sat down and picked a bit.
Along with the bridge and strings Mike made a few cosmetic repairs. It sounded, and looked, a lot better than before. Of course when we brought it in, the banjo was just a long handled drum.
So is Albert’s banjo ready to go on stage?
‘Uh, no.’ Said Mike. ‘But at least when you take it off the wall, you will be able to pick out a tune.’
Guess that will do.
Throw in the stories about the banjo being made by a drum company and Albert winning it at the county fair and that will do nicely.
Very nicely.

Fixing a swather

7.15.15 1100
101 Sunny
Dew point: 57 degrees
Humidity: 17%
Wind: N @ 5 mph
Forecast: Sunny

Why is there band saw, a drill press, grinders, welding rigs, vices, air compressors, steel work tables, an incredible collection of tools, bolts, nuts, washers (metric as well as standard) that would make almost any garage or hardware store proud? The ‘Shed/Quonset’ is where all of these are kept, is more of a workshop than a place to park equipment. OK, some things are parked in the Shed….the boat, pick-ups, riding lawnmower, four-wheeler. They can be easily moved out during the day. Most of the ‘equipment’, tractors, grain cart, headers, are in the Morton building.
So why is the Shed a workshop?
Because farmers fix stuff.
From bicycle tires to truck tires. From small brackets to hold grain cart cameras to steel teeth on front-end loaders. Fishing rods to balers. Washing machine hoses to hydraulic lines that move 4,000-pound loads. Farmers fix stuff.
Sometimes it is necessary to call out the professionals. Curt, an old family friend, who is the plumber in town. The John Deere folks from Ness City. The vet. All on speed dial with a dozen more. But step one is try to figure it out. Step two try to fix it. Step three call the professional.
Last year Clayton Michael was swathed and baled some of the Farm ground (see post from July 4^th 2013) to use it for the beef cows. This year Eric, who grew up on a farm just West of Trego Center Dairy, is doing some swathing. We (actually Bruce or Clayton Michael) will put it in big round bales. For his swathing efforts Eric will get some of the bales. Eric has a swather, so rather than Bruce renting one, Eric does the swathing and gets some of the bales.
There is a lot of bartering out in the country, especially on a farm.
It was all going good until Eric came into the drive on the second day. It was early. Way too early to be stopping.
Seems one of the pulley brackets that holds the header in place broke. Fortunately it is an older swather so it is easier to work on….less electronics. Unfortunately it is an older swather so stuff harder to take apart….bolts get seized.

Fall back on ‘old car restoration trick #32’ use heat to free a seized bolt. Often folks will use a blowtorch. However Bruce has a nice acetylene rig. Sitting right in the Shed. Eric is one of the best welders around. In next to no time the bolt is free. The retaining collar is cut off and the bracket is removed.
Eric was in town the next day and got the parts to fix the swather. And now we have straw bales put up and ready for Winter.

Fixing the windmill

7.2.15   11:30 am
81 degrees, Sunny
Dew point: 63 degrees
Humidity: 62%
Wind: N @ 9 mph
Forecast: Cloudy

The cows in the pasture East of the Farm aren’t getting any ‘fresh’ water. Even Millie has been complaining. She’s threatened to form a grievance committee.
There is a stock tank in the pasture. It is set up next to a windmill. The windmill pumps water from the water table about 60 feet down into the stock tank. Good water. Same water, at least from the same water table that we use in the house. But right now the windmill is turning, the pump is pumping, but there is no water coming out.
As soon as we got in from fishing, fishing is a post harvest priority, we packed up the really big pipe wrenches, cheaters, vice grips, mallets, pipe block, assorted other tools and headed East.
Standing by the windmill unloading everything, the discussion turned to possible procedures, pitfalls, plans and strategies to remove a wellhead. Clayton Michael has removed quite a few. Bruce has removed way too many. I was on my phone Googling ‘wellhead’.
Everyone agreed that step one is to remove the well pump rod from the windmill. The windmill blades turn with the wind. The gearbox right below them pulls a rod up and down. The rod is connected to other rods then connected to the foot valve. The entire structure is about 60 feet long. All of it is inside the water pipe. And all of it, except the top five feet, is underground. So step one stop the pumping. Fairly easy. Pull the chain that connects to the ‘tail’ of the blade. This pulls them out of the wind. However on a well this old there is still a little movement.
Bruce handed Clayton Michael a couple of 9/16^th inch wrenches. Seems Bruce has worked on this well before. A little difficult but Clayton Michael soon had it disconnected. Time to start ‘pulling’ the pipe. This is a whole lot like a John Wayne oil-drilling movie. A tall derrick and a bunch of folks ‘stringing’ together (or in our case taking apart) 46-foot sections of pipe until they are pumping oil from a mile or two underground. Our well is exactly the same. Except our pipe is in 22-foot sections and we only have three of them. But our classic windmill lead to oil wells and millions of barrels coming out of the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska and the North Sea.
Once the top linkage was disconnected Clayton Michael put the pipe block in place.

It is known by various names, but pretty much everyone who has worked on a windmill knows what is meant by a pipe block. Just like the windmill itself this contraption is a remarkably brilliant blast from the past. Probably unchanged for over a hundred years. Two metal ‘jaws’ are mounted on a wood base with a notch on one side. The jaws rock backwards as the pipe is lifted out and clamps back together if the pipe tries to go back down. A truly elegant tool. Just like the wheelbarrow, hammer and shovel, people from the 1800s would know exactly what it was and how to use it.

Water does not come out of the top of the well pipe like oil gushing out of John Wayne’s oil well. There is a right angle built into the pipe about four feet from the ground. This pipe carries the water to the stock tank.
Now it is a matter of just disconnecting pipe.
The pipe going to the stock tank.
The right angle.
The short piece of pipe protecting the pump rod.
Then the heavy work. Pulling the pipe up. This is done with good old-fashioned pipe wrenches (another elegant tool) and muscle.

Two wrenches on the pipe. Lift up a few feet. Reposition the pipe wrenches closer to the ground. Lift up a few feet. And repeat. And repeat.
About every 22 feet there is a joint where the pipe screws into the pipe below it.
Unscrew the pipe. Find the where the pump rod is connected.
Unbolt it.
Secure it.
Set the upper segment of pipe (and pump rod) off to the side. Reset the pipe wrenches. Lift the next section of pipe up a few feet. Reposition the pipe wrenches and lift a few feet. Reposition the pipe wrenches…..
It took about twenty minutes to get to the foot valve. This is a brass valve that allows water to flow in only one direction. As the pump rod is pulled up so is the water. As the pump rod goes down the valve is opened and more water flows into the pipe. Around the valve are leather O-rings that keep water from leaking. Here was the problem. These were worn out. So water was leaking around the valve.
The foot valve assembly is about two foot long and brass. So the easiest thing to do is take the assembly into town and get the right size ‘leathers’.
By mid afternoon we were reassembling the well.
By late afternoon the cows are standing round the stock tank drinking.
I hung around for a while to get a few pictures and listen to the windmill blades creaking as they turned. The pump rod clanking as it goes up and down. Every time it pulls out of the ground, water splashes into the stock tank.
The cows standing around the tank quietly drinking.
I started to nod off to the soft rhythm of this ‘country sound’.
Somewhere as i was drifting off to sleep i realized the cows were talking about forming a committee. Seems they want a large lean-to for shade on sunny days.

Cleaning the North bin

7.9.15
72 degrees, Cloudy
Dew point: 52 degrees
Humidity: 48%
Wind: S @ 5 mph
Forecast: Clearing,

Time to move some corn.
The corn in the North bin, the one nearest Bruce’s house, needs to come out. The bin is maybe a third full. The corn needs to go to town. The bin then needs to be cleaned for the next crop.
The weather is good, which is to say cloudy and cool. Rain, of course, is not the time to move grain around. But a sunny Kansas day in July is not a good either. The weather gurus are forecasting temperatures to hover around 100 all next week. Working inside a shiny stainless steel bin is not a good place to be in when its 100 out.
So….today is the day.

Bruce backed the small tractor up to the bin outlet. The outlet is where the grain dumps when it comes out of the bin. The tractor’s power take-off (PTO) will hook onto an auger. The auger has one end in the tarp lined outlet pit and the other up in the air over the black semi.
The grain bin has its own auger built into the floor. This auger takes grain, in this case corn, from the center of the bin under the floor to the outlet. Actually this bin has two auger openings. The one in the center and one at the edge.
As soon as the auger is turned on the corn starts to flow. As it fills up the outlet pit, the auger being run by the tractor’s PTO, lifts the corn to the semi.

Pretty straight forward as long as i don’t try to think about the physics involved….several Archimedes’ screws (augers), packing theory (how the grain physically fits together), etc.
Once a fair amount of grain comes out we are left with craters centered on the auger holes. Eventually the corn stabilizes (packing theory) and no more corn falls down the sides of the crater into the bin’s auger holes. So scoop shovels in hand we get in and start pushing corn down the sides of the crater. But this also ‘stabilizes’….when it gets too hot and dusty to tolerate being inside the bin.
Time for the ‘clean sweep’.

This is another auger that attaches to a pin near the center hole of the bin. This auger reaches almost to the side of the bin. It has a wheel on its outside edge so it can move around the bin on its own, and as it travels it moves corn to the center.

Once the clean sweep has swept most of the corn out, the rodeo starts. There is a point where there is not enough corn in the bin to keep the clean sweep to slowly moving around the bin. As the grain decreases the clean sweep’s speed increases. There are stories of people being chased around the bin by the clean sweep. Boots, hats and egos torn up by ‘tried and true’ farm technology. So at the ‘redo’ point we turn off the clean sweep and continue with very old, very tested technology….brooms. Sweep the corn to the auger holes in the bin floor.

The corn has gone to town.
The bin is clean.
Time to go fishing.

Max the CornDog

7.10.15
75 degrees, Partly cloudy
Dew point: 46 degrees
Humidity: 42%
Wind: S @ 5 mph
Forecast: Clearing,

4^th of July was fairly quiet here. But there were a million (maybe two) things advertised on the radio and TV about all of the things we could be doing or eating.
Somehow the thing that jumped out at me was hotdogs. There is something about hotdogs that just mean America to me. Baseball and 4^th of July.
In my travels i’ve eaten hotdogs in just about every configuration. Straight on the bun. With mustard. With ketchup. With both. With slaw. With chili, cheese & onions. Just about every combination of condiments that can be done. I’ve had hotdogs wrapped in bacon. Deep fried. On a stick covered in corn flour.
I never much liked corndogs. Don’t know why. Just never have. But Max has got me rethinking corndogs.
Guess maybe there are some i like.

Happy 4th

7.4.15   10:30 pm
84 degrees, Clear
Dew point: 63 degrees
Humidity: 49%
Wind: SE @ 9 mph
Forecast: Clearing, hot

Been a quiet couple of days at the Farm.
Bruce & Joyce are in Colorado.
Shadow & Max are staying in town.
The cows are in a couple of pastures away from the Farm.
The cats, Heidi (the huntin’ dog) and i are keeping the grass trimmed and the garden watered. Cleaned up the four-wheeler earlier today and the dirt in the windows. I turned off the air conditioner on Thursday night and opened all the windows.
There has been a goodly breeze for the last few days and, to be honest, i just can’t get enough of the ‘country quiet’.
But having the windows open means that some dust settles in the sills. And on the tables. And on the TV.. And on….so….time to clean. But that will wait until tomorrow.
Clayton Michael has been around all day. Out killing weeds in a couple of the fields. He got here right at 6 am. Pretty much a normal time to start, even without cows to milk.
I’d been up late, or early depending on your point of view. Got to bed about 3:30 am. Which is not out of the ordinary for me. When Carolyn is around i’ll usually get to bed at a reasonable hour, but i’ll usually get up during the night for a while. Once upon a time i’d go riding my bicycle for an hour or so, but i’m just getting too old for that. Now i just read or write or send email.
Not sure when this became a lifestyle. Not sure when night became a time of waiting, watching, smelling, listening and day became a time of resting. Seemed to have happened in my late teens early twenties.
Clayton Michael was being quiet when he got here. He is a decent dude. But he saw lights on in the house. And it was, after all, 6 in the morning.
I guess it was the semi starting up that got me up.
Grabbed my clothes, my phone, my Buck survival knife and headed for the back door. Where my boots are.
Just as i bounded out the door, dressed and ready to challenge the thief who was stealing one of Bruce’s semis, i saw Clayton Michael’s car parked by the Quonset. So i took my thumb off the 911-speed dial, put my knife on the air conditioner and wandered over to see what was up.
Clayton Michael had disconnected the grain trailer and was going up the hill to attach the box trailer. It has the mobile water tanks and pump. He then spent the day in the fields.
About mid-afternoon, he finished killing weeds. Was back at the Farm. I ended up going with him to check on the cows and take them a little hay and check their water tanks.
All in all a pretty laid back 4th.
This evening, about 9:30, i drove a mile East and half mile North. Here there is a nice gentle rise in the land. Can see the town, from end to end. Sat for little bit and watched the town fireworks. Town is about 10 miles away so there is no sound but they are cool to watch.
Happy 4^th.

Wheat Harvest Crew Disbands

6.29.15
90 degrees, Sunny
Dew point: 47 degrees
Humidity: 60%
Wind: SW @ 9 mph
Forecast: Partly cloudy

Time for the TregoCenterDairy 2015 Wheat Harvest crew to disband.
This morning John & Jan left for Colorado. To a Benedictine Monastery. For a weeklong retreat. I’m eager to mention that this was well planned. Months ago. So it wasn’t ‘wheat harvest work’ that caused them to retreat incommunicado. John & Jan will stop several places on the way. To visit family and friends.
Clayton Andrew, Jessica & the boys also leave this evening. Heading back to Topeka after supper.
Rheta & the kids also head back to Hays this evening.
Pam & the girls head back to Colorado tomorrow morning.
Carolyn heads back to Greenville at the same time.
I’ll be hanging on for a couple of weeks.
Yesterday as cutting was wrapping up Jessica, Rheta & Pam got some pictures of the family in the field. With the combine in the background and the last patch of wheat in the foreground they got some really good shots.
By Wednesday morning it will be quiet here.
Real country quiet.

Chased off the lake

7.2.15   8:30 am
81 degrees, Sunny
Dew point: 58 degrees
Humidity: 78%
Wind: NE @ 12 mph
Forecast: Cloudy, rain

Bruce and i went fishing Wednesday morning. Cedar Bluff Reservoir is about 12 miles from the Farm. South and East. It is, depending on Mother Nature, about 11 square miles in area with about 50 miles of shoreline. On any given Summer day there are pleasure boats, skiers, rafters, sun bathers and, of course, people fishing.
In 1946 the Smoky Hill River got a damn and spillway. So a piece of the river became ‘the Lake’. About 30 years ago the Smoky Hill River became a stream and then a trickle, then scattered pools. The lake shrank. Trees grew on the new shoreline and crops were planted. The river came back. The lake grew. The crops went away and the new trees became fish condos.

Thursday Clayton Michael came out to the Farm to pull the wellhead on the pasture East of the Farm. The well is no longer pumping water. The cows have formed a grievance committee.
But before pulling the wellhead….fishing.
We were on the water by 7:30. A slight bit choppy but still easy to see the Carp schooling at the surface. From 20 feet off they look just like floating seaweed.
There are only a few people on the lake. Three other boats with people fishing. One just cursing. Maybe this lack of interest is because the radar app shows a line of thunderstorms coming from the Northeast. Should hit WaKeeney full on, but on the lake we’re a good 15 miles South of town. No sense giving up fishing for a ‘threat’ of ‘possible’ rain.
The rain hit us about 8:30. We headed back to the dock, and the safety of the truck, at cove three. While storing the fishing rods i was suddenly caught. A treble hook, what we call a ‘Bob Popper’, in my BTI cap.

Clayton Michael was now heading as fast as possible for the cove. He and Bruce were hunched up behind the windshield. I was hunched up behind Bruce using needle nose pliers to get the hook out of my cap.
‘Do you want a knife’ Bruce yelled over the gale. Of course not! This cap has been through five harvests. No way i’m going to cut the hook out.
‘Just don’t drop it over’, he added. Well that struck me as a no-brainer. If my cap goes over….i’m going over!
With the full on concentration of a surgeon i continued. The boat was now bouncing over the wave crests. The dam at the East end of the lake was no longer visible. The rain and wind were now at hurricane category 2. My hands were rock steady. I was one with the movement of the boat. One barb at a time. Finally the hook was free. Virtually no snags in my cap. Unencumbered by concentration i felt the rain. But before huddling up by the windshield between Clayton Michael and Bruce i fulfilled my duties as a responsible crewman and proceeded to secure the hook.
To free my cap, and control the rod, i had let out a little line. To keep the hook away from everyone i pointed the rod tip over the edge (Gunwale, “gunnel”, our Maritime Historian friend Alex says) of the boat. The hook was safely over the water.I was now very wet and my face stung with the rain of the category 3 winds. But i was feeling very proud about freeing my cap and keeping everyone in the boat safe from a loose treble hook.
The hook barely hit the top of a wave.
In a second or two the line was almost completely off the reel.
I was now high-speed trolling.
Clayton Michael hunchbacked at the wheel caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. As best he could tell i was apparently trying to reel-in a 1500-pound marlin.
He throttled back.
The category 4 rain, no longer bouncing off the windshield, was now lashing the boat. Bruce and Clayton Michael both saw the knot on the line tying it to the reel. I continued to fight the marlin.
Bruce looked around for something to use to bail the boat.
It took a good minute to reel in all of the line and hook. Once it was secured Clayton Michael hit the throttle and kicked the ice chest around so i could sit on it. Hunched up between them i was finally feeling the wetness and the cold. Bruce looked over at me.
‘I told you not to drop it over.’
The hook?
The hook?
I thought he was talking about my cap. But apparently Bruce has experience with high-speed trolling. He seemed to know that a little three-barbed ‘Bob Popper’ would fight like a marlin if given a really big fish or a really fast ride.

The Speed Cutting Groove

6.26.15   6pm
92 degrees, Sunny
Dew point: 54 degrees
Humidity: 28%
Wind: N @ 10 mph
Forecast: Sunny

Well the TregoCenterDairy Wheat Harvest Crew 2015 is really on top of our game.
We’ve worked together for a fair number of years and this wheat harvest shows it. Things are moving like clockwork. We’re moving around the field, on and off the field like we are in a ballet.
OK, maybe not a ballet. Maybe a soccer team….or football team….or a basketball team….or….a Rock N’ Roll group. A band that has played together forever. We just know when to take the lead or lay back. When to try a new chop or pump an old line. A group with a rock solid groove.
Ya’ that’s us. The Rock N Rollers of wheat cutting.
The great thing about being in the grove is that we can pick up the tempo and make it look easy.

T-shirts, posters, albums and autographs available in the lobby.

Grain Cart Rules Revisited

6.24.15 1:30
89 degrees, Sunny, Few high clouds
Dew point: 57 degrees
Humidity: 34%
Wind: SW @ 22 mph
Forecast: Sunny, Decreasing winds

The field by Aunt Leona’s is done. We’re now moving to the Canyon ground. There is not really a canyon, it’s just what we call it.
Bruce left early this morning for the field. John followed about 40 minutes later.
I went to the dump….it’s what the older folks around here still call the landfill. Jan, Carolyn & i filled a pickup with yesterday’s refuse.
Once we contributed to creating a future archeology site, Carolyn & Jan gave me a lift to the field. Coincidently Bruce & John had just finished dumping (hmmmm i can see a possibility for confusion) a combine load on the semi. John got out and got in with us. ‘Follow Bruce to that wheat pile’.
‘Wheat pile?’ Carolyn asked.
‘The wheat we spilled yesterday.’
Now there are two sacrosanct rules for driving a grain cart. Rule #1 is even repeated. ‘As long as you don’t break these rules,’ my grain cart teacher told me, ‘you’re OK.’
Grain Cart Rule #1: Never spill the wheat. (also rules #4 & 8….blog 6.30.13)
Grain Cart Rule #2: Never damage the equipment.
Well….yesterday, toward the end of yesterday, Bruce was riding in the grain cart with me. John was ready to off load some wheat, so i pulled up the edge of the wheat and stopped. ‘Might want to be a little closer.’ Bruce said. This way the combine doesn’t have to leave the track it’s on, just to get to the grain cart. Very good technique. Just like the old Merrill Lynch ads, when Bruce speaks, listen! So glanced at the combine auger, no wheat coming out so i started to move forward toward the wheat. Well it takes a second or two for an auger to move wheat, or anything else. By the time wheat started coming out i had the grain cart several feet from where it was falling. John did a heroic job of getting back over the grain cart, but we did put several bushels of wheat on the ground.
Today with a scoop shovel, broom and our hands we picked up most of the wheat.
About 12:00 today i was unloading wheat onto the semi. We’ve had winds all day. Steady 22 mile an hour winds, with gusts to 27.
Just as i started unloading there was a sudden downpour. A hard driving rain. In a clear sunny sky. I know it was sunny because i looked out the front of the cab. Then the side. Then the back. Then toward the semi. Somewhere during this investigation i realized that it was pouring wheat….not rain.
From the time i first heard the ‘rain’ until the wheat stopped unloading was about 2.5 seconds. Very little wheat lost. I was proud. Even a bit haughty. I certainly never took a moment in my drive around to the other side of the combine, where the wind would push the wheat into the semi and not back into my face, to reflect on Proverbs 16:18.
The general accepted practice is to unload the grain cart on the side of the semi away from the rolled up tarp. The semi has a tarp that covers the load of grain, so the grain does not flay out while driving. When not in use, the tarp, which is the length of the semi, is rolled up on one side. It is harder to unload from the tarp side. It is harder to see into the semi and the tarp can get damaged from the gain cart auger. But if the grain cart is tall enough and the driver is really good, it can be done. Besides we installed a camera on the end of the auger last year.
Everything was going perfectly. All the wheat was going into the semi. None on the ground. I was certainly feeling haughty. Right up to the point when i realized the auger was up against the rolled up tarp. I stopped. Backed up the grain cart a few inches so i could pull away from the semi. That’s when i heard the loud ‘Ping’.
I hadn’t torn the tarp. Hadn’t bent the auger. Hadn’t bent the edge of the semi trailer. But i had broken one of the tarp holders, there are about eight running the length of the semi.
It is hard to be proud or haughty after breaking both of the top Grain Cart Rules in less than 16 hours.

Speed cutting

6.23.15 @ 1530
97 degrees, Sunny
Dew point: 60 degrees
Humidity: 30%
Wind: S @ 15 mph
Forecast: Sunny, increased wind

John just drove by. Strictly speaking John just rode by.
We’re about a third the way done cutting the field just East of the Farm. It is a large square, flat field. The terraces are very subtle. We can do long straight runs with the combine. Just now i realized that it really is the combine.
When John went by he wasn’t touching the steering wheel. He passed by with one hand on the on the header control arm. Exuding an almost Zen like calmness.
The combine, like the field tractor, has GPS and Auto-steer. Once a pass has been made the combine will keep following that track only offset the width of the header.
The system works well on almost any field, even one with significant terraces and contours. On this field we can get down to some serious cutting.

Another One Bites the Dust

5:20 pm
87 degrees, Sunny
Dew point: 61 degrees
Humidity 49%
Wind: ENE @ 11 mph
Forecast: Clear, increased wind

Another field done.
We’ve just moved about six miles West, and a little North. We’ll be here until after sunset and all day tomorrow.
Other folks are just getting started. There are increased lines of grain trucks at the Co-Op. Yesterday he had it all to himself.
Jupiter and Venus are only a few degrees apart in the lower Eastern sky. They are awesomely bright. Something we just don’t see in the city.

First Field Finished

6.23.15 @ 1200
86 degrees, Sunny
Dew point: 60 degrees
Humidity: 41%
Wind: SE @ 11 mph
Forecast: Sunny, increased wind

Almost finished with the field across from Grandma’s.
Carolyn & Jan, with muscle from John, are cleaning the basement. Cleaning closets. Cleaning drawers, boxes, bags and beds. One of the things they moved was the old freezer chest. It has been in the corner for a couple of years. Well actually a couple of dozen years. Carolyn & Jan got a scoop shovel from the Quonset to ‘clean’ up where the chest had been. It is now on the opposite wall and looking good.
Being advanced practice nurses Jan & Carolyn considered various floor cleaning options and finally settled on a nursing 101 basic: Clorox. Now the floor looks good and smells good.
Back in the field we moved to the field just East of the Farm. It’s always a major psychological boost finishing the first field. There really is nothing better, except….that bone deep satisfaction of finishing the final field.
It’ll come.
It’ll come.

Back in the Saddle Again

6.22.15
90 degrees, Sunny
Dew point: 63 degrees
Humidity: 29%
Wind: SW @ 7 mph
Forecast: Sunny, hot

Carolyn and i got back to the farm at 2:30 on Monday afternoon.
As we turned on to the farm dirt road, off the state ‘super two-lane’ (bigger than a two lane, not quite a three lane) we could see a dust and chaff cloud across from the Farm. The tell tale signs of wheat being cut
This is the first sign of cutting we’ve seen in our county. Heard of others down South and East but to far away for us to see. Driving from Colorado border to the Farm we only saw two people cutting wheat. One, just two miles from the Farm. Seems they were ‘test’ cutting. Trying to decide if they should ‘begin harvest’ or not. A few hours later when Bruce took a semi load of wheat into town these folks were no longer cutting, so i guess they decided to wait

When we walked into the house i stopped. It smells like Grandma’s cooking. This the second time in two days i’ve smelled a memory of Grandma’s kitchen. Yesterday we (Carolyn & i) went to church with the Kearby’s. Don is the pastor. A contemporary very friendly Presbyterian church. When we walked into the Kearby house after church yesterday i was slapped in the nose with a houseful of Grandma’s cinnamon rolls. Actually it was chicken with a cinnamon curry. But for just a few moments Grandma was back in the kitchen finishing up a batch of cinnamon rolls.

John and Bruce had obviously been spending some ‘pre-harvest’ working around the Farm. The grass looks great. All my worry about the row crop header are put to rest. It is sitting next to the shed surrounded by a perfectly manicured lawn.

We unloaded the truck from our Denver weekend run and talked to Jan & Joyce. Well actually Carolyn did most of the talking to Jan & Joyce. I eagerly put together my ‘field pack’. This is the backpack i carry in the field. It’s an old backpack w/all the ‘necessities’ for a day of cutting wheat.

Leather work gloves.
Driving gloves.
Pliers. These end up on my belt.
Field knife. Also have a small pocketknife, which is in my pocket. It’s hard to have too many knives.
Leatherman knife. Ends up on my belt.
Phone charger. Well actually the adaptor that plugs into a cigarette lighter.
Phone charger cable.
Water bottle. Also carry a thermos with water to refill the water bottle.
Crystal light. A double handful. These go into the water bottle, one packet at a time. Generally i don’t like ‘plain’ water. So the crystal light makes it easier to drink the amount of water i’m supposed to drink every day, at least according to my Irish Cardiologist.
Bandanna.
Field/Fishing wallet. This is a very simple nylon wallet for my driver’s license, a credit card, some folding money and fishing license (never know when i just might ‘get lucky’).

Changed into field clothes and headed to the field. Carolyn gave me a lift in the field truck over to the 4-wheeler. Left the field truck by the edge of the field and drove her back to the house in the 4-wheeler. Then i spent a little while tooling around the field taking pictures of John & Bruce. They were both in the combine.
They headed over to the grain cart. So i followed and got some good video of them unloading the wheat. Was very surprised to see Bruce head off in the grain cart and John went back to cutting. So i naturally followed the grain cart, a bit like a mother duck. The Black-Semi was parked at the top of the pasture. By the North/East corner of the section. Hadn’t seen it since it was hidden by a hill on that part of the pasture.
Bruce climbed out of the grain cart tractor walked over to the 4-wheeler. ‘I’m going to take this into town. How about you park the 4-wheeler here and take the grain cart back to where John’s cutting.’

3:35 Monday afternoon
I’m finally in the John Deere cab of the grain cart.
Ahhhhhhhh…..
‘Back in the saddle again. Back where a friend is a friend….’

Harvest 2015 begins

6.21.15
98 degrees, Clear
Dew point: 61 degrees
Humidity: 24%
Wind: SE @ 7 mph
Forecast: Sunny, hot

Got a text from Jan.
She and John have been at the Farm since Friday. Carolyn and i spent Thursday night at Grandma’s house then headed to Denver early Friday. John & Jan got to the farm early Friday afternoon. Getting ready for harvest. Inside Grandma’s house and out.
Harvest 2015 has started.
Bruce & John began on a piece of ground not far from the house. Not something we usually cut, but they are helping out a neighbor. From a perfectly selfish point of view i don’t consider this the beginning of harvest. Harvest begins when we cut ‘family’ wheat. Wheat that actually belongs to the Farm.
Harvest 2015 has started!
Bruce & John are now across from Grandma’s house. This is ‘Farm’ ground. I did notice that Bruce couldn’t bring himself to text me….that they had begun without me. But once i texted him he gave me all of the details of how it was going. And it is going a lot better than it did last year. Of course almost anything would be better than last year. The rain this Spring did a lot to turn the drought around. But there is a way to go yet. For now though….
Harvest 2015 has started!

Waiting for Harvest?

6.20.15
101 degrees, Clear
Dew point: 40 degrees
Humidity: 16%
Wind: W @ 18 mph
Forecast: Sunny, hot

Carolyn and i are in Denver. An awesome guilt free, harvest hasn’t started yet, visit with family and friends.
I sent some photos of the Denver family out to the farm. Not bragging, of course, just informative. Dance recital, basketball camp, new house, party, etc.
Bruce sent back a photo, actually a short video clip, of he and John getting ready for harvest.
Almost all of the photos and texts from the farm make me envious. Even hearing about milking in the snow….at 5-degrees below 0….with a wind straight from the North. But this video snippet of Bruce and John getting ready for harvest filled me with green-eyed envy.
They’re on the lake.
Fishing.

Ready for Harvest?

6.18.15
90 degrees, Partly cloudy
Dew point: 60 degrees
Humidity: 36%
Wind: SW @ 14 mph rain

Parroting the old Elvis Presley announcement: ‘the East Coast folks are at the farm’. But not for long. Harvest won’t start until Monday at the earliest. At least Bruce will try some ‘test’ cutting on Monday afternoon. Unless, of course, it rains.
So we’re heading to Denver for the weekend. Visit family and friends.
We pulled into the front yard of ‘Grandma’s house’ and started unloading. Saw Bruce walking across the drive, the big open gravel area behind the house and in front of the Quonset, Shed and milk barn. We walked around to meet him. A hug. A few ‘how are you doings’ then i stopped dead in my tracks.
Over by the Shed sat the combine. Not unusual. We’re getting ready for harvest. It should be out of the Shed.
Still can’t get over what a beautiful machine it is. Massive. Shiny. Sculpted lines. Just sitting there in the sunset it radiates power. But something just wasn’t right.
Even an East Coast city boy can tell that the header the combine is wearing is not the one to use on wheat. The ‘Moose’ has on the row crop header.

Can understand we’ve got time before harvest starts. But that is the first time i’ve seen the row crop header on the combine. Especially a few days before wheat harvest starts.
Usually don’t see the row crop header until Fall. And usually i’m back in school teaching. After harvest, wheat, corn, beans, whatever header is on is taken off. Cleaned and stored. Sooooo, why is the row crop header on the combine. Bruce IS one of the most innovative farmers anyone knows. But this header looks like it would crush more wheat than cut it.
My incredulous look attracted Bruce’s attention. ‘Just had to move the header so i could get the lawnmower next to the shed’.
OK i guess that makes sense. But for just a minute the city boy was working hard to figure things out.
I pulled out my phone and opened a well-used app. 792 days, 9 hours, 52 minutes and 27 seconds until i can ‘officially retire’. Then i’ll get to see the Moose cutting with the row crop header.

A Little Further Bus

6.17.15
84 degrees, Partly cloudy
Dew point: 77 degrees
Humidity: 80%
Wind: S @ 4 mph
Forecast: Partly cloudy, occasional rain

‘Carolyn, get your phone. Get a picture of this!’ She had been driving and we’d just traded out on our yearly road-trip to wheat harvest. We were on I-57 near Benton, Illinois. Early afternoon. Sunny with some clouds forming in the North and West. We were just coming up on a flatbed semi carrying several cars covered with a tarp. The one in back looked like an old hippie van….painted with swirling, bright colors .
The closer we got the more the cars and van turned into a bus. An old school bus facing backwards on the trailer. A real hippie school bus covered with a tarp except for the wheels and hood. The whole bus was a rolling testament to a long gone Hippie life style. And maybe….just maybe….it was THE Hippie life style!
‘Please get some shots.’
Passing the flatbed i slowed down as my heart sped up. Could we really be 10 feet from the ultimate Hippie bus?
The Further bus!
The bus Ken Kesey (with Neal Cassady in the driver’s seat) and the Merry Band of Pranksters drove from La Honda, California to New York City for the 1964 World’s fair. I had heard that the bus had been resurrected from the Kesey family farm in New Hampshire by Kesey’s son Zane for the 50^th anniversary memorial of the Further trip. Could this really be the bus riding in style on the way back to California? Could i really be this close to THE bus?
The bus that heralded the ‘hippie’ life style?
Kesey and several Pranksters documented the Further trip and exploits of the Merry Pranksters on eight-millimeter video. The video was never ‘completed’ until Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood put it altogether in 2010 as the movie ‘Magic Trip’.

Carolyn got the shots.
Good ones.
Just after we passed the bus on the flatbed, 21^st Century technology intervened with my ‘flashbacks’. Carolyn Googled ‘the Further bus’ and in 0.57 seconds found hundreds of photos of THE bus. THE bus with Kesey and the Pranksters.
Ah well.
For a few interstate miles i was thousands of road miles in the rear view mirror.

Inside a combine

6.14.15
74 degrees, Cloudy
Dew point: 65 degrees
Humidity: 72%
Wind: SSW 8 mph
Forecast: Scattered thunderstorms

Well the rain has come. Which, of course, is a good thing. It would have been a lot better thing a month ago. Now its time for wheat to dry out for cutting.
Last year it was dry. Too dry. Drought. Then it rained. Just about this time. Which was really good for the weeds. Not so much the wheat. Made cutting hard. Some folks had to leave fields uncut. Too many weeds. Not enough wheat.
Back on the East Coast it is 95 degrees without a cloud. Will be 95+ with a Westerly wind of about 10 mph all week. Good for the East Coast wheat farmers.

Carolyn & i have been doing some ‘Spring’ cleaning. Early in the morning or late in the evening. In the attic, in the storage room, in dresser drawers, generally going through stuff. Some will be thrown away, some will be passed on to others, some will be repacked, and some will be unpacked and displayed. In the midst of it all this were some 3 X 5 cards i had made back in 1989. Lists, with circles and arrows, showing who in the Mai family is related to whom (see blog ‘Kin’, August 12, 2011). It brought back memories of getting ready for my first wheat harvest. Hot. Sweaty. Dirty, dusty memories.

Raining

6.12.15
60 degrees, Cloudy
Dew point: 63 degrees
Humidity: 80%
Wind: NE @ 10 mph
Forecast: Cloudy, 60% chance of rain

Last year’s crop was horrible. Worst in living memory.
Just too dry.
Now the rains have come. And it has done the wheat some good.
But a few weeks ago there was so much rain that it was impossible to get into the fields to work or plant. It was even too muddy to even go fishing.
Can’t farm. Can’t fish. Might as well get a job in town. Or play Pinochle.
So is the drought over? Well according to government Western Kansas is ‘abnormally dry’. Which beats ‘exceptional drought’.
Looks like wheat harvest will start around Father’s Day. And it looks like it will be a lot better than last year. Good Father’s Day present.
May even be done by July 4^th.

Last July 4^th we were finishing up wheat harvest. Clayton Andrew brought out some American flags he put on the mirrors of the equipment. Pretty cool.

Now if i can just talk him into painting the semis and trucks so they look like Holsteins.