Wheat Harvest 2020

A proper 2020 Wheat Harvest Crew

Sunny, 87 degrees
Humidity 70%
Dew Point 70 degrees
Wind ENE @ 10 mph 
Forecast: Sunny, Highs 80s
This has certainly been a weird Wheat Harvest. 
For as long as i’ve been going to the Farm Wheat Harvest is a big family affair. People actually schedule vacations around Wheat Harvest. There was one occasion i can remember with 32 people around the dinner table at Grandma’s house. Well actually, 
            some were around the kitchen table. 
            Some around the card tables in the ‘new room’. 
            Some around the card table in the dining room. 
            Some around the dining room table. 
Not this year. 
Everyone stayed away. Well almost everyone. 
            No sense bringing COVID-19 in from all around the U.S.
Generally, Carolyn and i were the only ones around the dining room table. 
            And kitchen table. 
            And we didn’t even bother to get out the card tables. 
And we were the only out of towners. 
Bruce & Joyce live at the Farm.
John & Jan live a few miles away.
William lives about a mile away. 
            All members of the 2020 Wheat Harvest team. 
About the only time we came close to having a shoulder to shoulder dinner was in the field.  And the pickup tailgate was well bathed in UV and a had good cross wind. 

Sure looking forward to heaps of family and a COVID free Wheat Harvest in 2021.

Social distancing in a wheat field

Sunny, 87 degrees
Humidity 47%
Dew Point 61 degrees
Wind S @ 8 mph 
Forecast: Sunny, Highs 80s

Social distancing in a Western Kansas wheat field is….
            well it is the norm. 
If the crew is ‘on a roll’ then the closest we get is about six feet. And that interaction has one person in the grain-cart tractor and the other person in the cab of the semi. We use handheld radios so we can talk while staying cool in separate cabs. 
Bruce and John trade off cutting. So, they occasionally come closer than six feet. But being family they have been around each other enough to have shared all of the COVID-19 they have. 
Driving the grain-cart and semi can be very alone(ly) work. 
            (Apologies to E.E. Cummings).
The semi driver can spend hours without physically interacting with another person. And if the driver is in the white semi, the driver doesn’t even have to get out of the cab to tarp and un-tarp the trailer. But the grain-cart driver gets top billing for being alone. 
            Perhaps this is one of the reasons i enjoy the job. I don’t mind being alone. 
            Especially if i’m in a crowd. 
Eight, 10, 12 hours a day. A jug of water. A sack of food. Throw in paper. Pencil. A book and i’m happier than Christmas morning. And 21^st century technology means that i carry over 100 books with me. 
So, all and all, a wheat field crew practices social distancing by default. Not only this year but last year. And the year before. And next year. And…..

Wheat Harvest 2020 is in the bin

Cloudy, 82 degreesH
umidity 80%
Dew Point 74 degrees
Wind SE @ 11 mph 
Forecast: Clouds, Highs 90s

William has just left with the black semi. Last load of the day to go to town. After he gets back from town he’ll head home. He lives about one mile from the Farm.    
            William is kin. Joyce’s sister’s son. 
During harvest he often helps by driving semis. During the day he works for the city. After five works for Bruce. 
            At least during harvest. 
We are back on the field ‘Up North’. This is where we started. After the rains on Friday evening (6.26.20) we moved West and have been there until today. 
Now that the cows are found and all of the equipment is here we are going to cut until the cows come home. Although that doesn’t sound quite as funny after today’s adventure. 
After dinner John headed home. 
William headed to town. 
Bruce and i headed to the field. 
            Up North. 
Got to see another great sunset. 
I’ve been competing with my cousin Jen in Chattanooga. 
She sends photos of the sunrise over the Tennessee River. 
            She rides her bike early in the morning. 
I send photos of the same sun going down in Kansas.
            I ride a John Deere 8410 late in the evening. 

By 9:30 pm the last load is in the white semi. As soon as it is tarped and the trailer lights are off i head to the South side of the field to find Bruce.
He unloads the last of the wheat onto the grain-cart. Shuts down the Moose. Climbs in the grain-cart tractor with me. 
As twilight moves in we head for home. Tomorrow we’ll get the semi into town and combine home. Unload the wheat. Secure the cover on the top vent of the grain-bin and call this wheat harvest done. 

Going to hell?

Sunny, 90 degrees
Humidity 70%
Dew Point 70 degrees
Wind ENE @ 10 mph 
Forecast: Sunny, Highs 90

‘Bob do you see the cows?’ 
Usually a totally crazy question to get in a wheat field. But Bruce said he was going to go check on the cows. 
            A bunch of Clayton Michael’s cows are pasturing just North of where we are cutting.
‘Well there are some standing by the fence on the East side of the pasture across from us.’
‘No those are Jolene’s. Already checked them.’ 
            Actually some of Clayton Michael’s cows but on Jolene’s pasture. 
‘OK. We’ll i’ll keep a look out.’
            John is ‘cutting’. 
            I’m in the grain-cart. 
            Bruce is driving semis.  
And since things are a bit slow he’s also looking for cows. 
If cows are around you just naturally make sure they are where they are supposed to be. ‘Jolene’s cows’ i’ve gotten used to watching. Well….not actually watching….just aware that they are there.
This time of the day, usually by the East fence. 
Back when Trego Center Dairy was a dairy the dairy cows got checked twice a day.
At least the ones getting milked.
Those about to calve maybe more. Those ‘out to pasture’ a couple of times a week. 
Beef cows are more like the ‘pasteurized’ dairy cows. They get checked a couple of times a week. But since we are cutting wheat right across from Clayton’s beef cows we check them pretty much every day. 
Just to make sure they are alright. Looking healthy. 
Today they are looking 
            gone.
About 10 minutes later i hear from Bruce the wayward cows are found. 
He followed some cow tracks where they crossed the dirt road just East of ‘Aunt Leona’s’. The tracks headed East.
            So did Bruce. 
Found the cows under some shade-trees near a small watering hole.  Of course, where they came from had shade-trees and water, but the grass is always greener on the other side. 
Bruce called to say that he has called Clayton Michael & Carolyn. They are coming to help relocate the cows. John & i are to finish cutting this wheat. Then Head East
guitars in hand.
to the field ‘Up North’ (it’s a mile North of the Farm)….about six miles East of here.
A few minutes later i hear from Carolyn. 
She is on the way to the ‘great cattle round-up.’
Although her text message seems more ‘commentary’ than ‘informational’.
Since Carolyn is on the Ranger (4-wheeler) she is using Siri. Siri has a well known ‘sense of humor’. And Siri totally brightened up my day.
Left me laughing hard enough to fall off my seat in the grain-cart tractor. 

The Car Wash

Sunny, 83 degrees
Humidity 74%
Dew Point 64 degrees
Wind S @ 10 mph 
Forecast: Sunny, Highs 80s

Trucks get dirty. 
            Guess that’s obvious. 
Farm trucks can get really dirty. It’s what happens if you live on dirt roads. Especially if you have a big truck. With big tires. And a good rain. 
Bruce was out last week in the F250. And it got dirty. So after Carolyn and i made a landfill run last Saturday afternoon, we decided it would be ‘neighborly-family’ gesture to go on into town and clean the truck. 
            ‘Just knock the really noticeable dirt off’. 
A quick ‘quarter count’ led us to use a credit card. Between us and the truck 
            in the ashtray, cup holders and armrests 
we did not have enough quarters to significantly make a dent on the dirt. 
I made the first pass around the truck. Then Carolyn took over. She attacked the wheel wells. 
            They fought back. 
Pretty soon most of the dirt from the truck was on Carolyn. But she kept after it. Right up to the point where the car wash cut off the water.
            I’ve run out of quarters before but never hit a credit card limit.
Fortunately, Carolyn was just finishing hosing herself down. 
A few minutes later we were heading down the road toward the Farm. Cruising in a truck that is ready for Sunday morning church. 
Carolyn not so much. 

Shelbourne Header

Sunny, 87 degrees
Humidity 23%
Dew Point 36 degrees
Wind S @ 15 to 20 mph 
Forecast: Sunny, Highs upper 80s

We’ve got a new Header for wheat harvest.  

A Shelbourne Header. 
            A new way to ‘cut’ wheat. 
Well actually it doesn’t ‘cut’ the wheat stems. it ‘pulls’ the grain (AKA: berries) off the plant. 
The Shelbourne has eight rows of teeth 
            running a little over 600 revolutions per minute
that ‘strip’ the grain off the wheat stems. 

The grain is then ‘thrown’ to the back of the header where it is picked up by a traditional combine auger. The auger moves the grain to the center where it goes into the combine. Normal stuff. 
Not normal; 
            ‘stripping’ the grain off the stems. 
There is no sickle bar to cut the wheat stems. 

(Read about repairing broken sickle bars https://tregocenterdairy.com/2012/06/22/broken-sickle-bar/ )
The whole header is ‘sealed’ so it creates a slight vacuum. 
Upside:  1)  It leaves more of the wheat stock standing so better for ground water retention. 
               2)  A lot less ‘chaff’ to process by the combine. 
               3)  The combine moves a lot faster. 
We can run the combine at 5, 6, 7 maybe 8, 9 miles an hour. Maybe more. So far Bruce hasn’t found a point where the combine will slow down because of the increased threshing it has to do at higher speeds. There is almost no threshing!
            (Threshing: separating the wheat from the chaff).
Downside: 1) Sitting in the combine there is no way to see the wheat being cut….so there
is a new ‘learning curve’ on ‘visual cutting cues’. 
                  2)  If anything gets clogged you just about have to take the header apart. At least climb inside the housing. 
             3)  The combine runs at higher speeds.  So, the grain-cart driver has a lot less
time to relax and enjoy the beauty of a Western Kansas wheat field. 
Or sunset.

First Day

Partly Cloudy, 87 degreesH
umidity 32%
Dew Point 51 degrees
Wind SW @ 12 mph 
Forecast: Sunny, Highs 80s
We, Carolyn & i, are heading West. Currently about 100 miles West of Lawrence, Kansas. 
            Heading Wester.
We get a text from Bruce. He’s heading up North to see if he can start cutting. Somewhere along the way John joins the effort. They get some cutting done. A fair amount, considering it is slow going. 
            New header. 
            A Shelbourne.
It’s a stripper header. It doesn’t actually ‘cut’. There is no sickle-bar that slides back and forth cutting the wheat stalks.  So, there is a real learning curve for the ‘Cutters’….who probably should now be referred to as ‘Strippers’. But i just can’t see going there! At if i want to keep coming to the Farm. 
By the time Carolyn & i get to the Farm, and get our stuff unloaded, Bruce & John show up. 

The cutting is done for the day so just to keep from getting bored we clean out the last of last Fall’s corn from the granary up by Bruce’s house. The corn is going on the grain-cart. So, it can go on a semi to be hauled off to feed some cows down South. The semi will be by in the morning, so the corn needs to be moved. 
Of course, being the ‘all-time-city-boy-brother-in-law, i get in the granary to help Bruce push the corn to the auger. Once in the auger it can begin its journey from bin, to grain-cart to semi, to cow. 
Carolyn comes along to see how it is going. Looking out of the grain bin, to talk with Carolyn, i see that the grain-cart needs to be moved. It seems, at least from inside the corn-bin, that the corn is piling up too high in one spot and may end up on the ground. Grain-Cart-Drive Rule # 3: Don’t spill the grain

Immediately, i realize that my well-honed grain-cart driver skills are needed outside of the grain-bin. With a smile and quick explanation i climb out. Carolyn says she’ll take over y shovel and climbs inside the grain-bin. Soon she is inside pushing corn and i’m outside 
            in a blessed cool breeze 
pushing buttons. Once the grain-cart is moved i check back in at the grain-bin but it is obvious that Carolyn & Bruce have the situation well in hand. Certainly, adding another person would just get in everyone’s way, so i stay outside.

Did i mention the blessed cool breeze