Thankful

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our lord Jesus Christ:
Ephesians 5:20

We were reminded of this verse during our Thanksgiving Day services.

Its been a little difficult to give thanks for all the rain and mud and slow dry down and late harvest and . . .

But I do try.

I expected to be in the field on Thanksgiving afternoon, but it was still too wet. By Saturday though, we were back at it, cutting ruts and getting things stuck. I missed our first family Christmas get-together. They did bring me a plate of food to the field. We are hoping the first week of December will be a productive one. I wonder what kind of turnout there will be for the Peoria Farm Show this week. I think the exhibitors are a little worried about attendance, since most farmers are still in the field.

We spent this evening with Uncle Bill. Two new jokes.

Q. Where do honeybees go to the bathroom?

A. At the BP station.

If you ever feel like taking off your clothes and running around naked, spray yourself with Windex. It stops streaking!

I have many reasons to be thankful, and I am.

35

After a week of wet weather, finally some sun! We were able to pick a little corn Saturday afternoon, but the field was still too wet to be out. Then we had a breakdown, so we put the combine away until Monday morning.

Saturday night we attended my 35th year class reunion. I didn't realize that I had gone to school with so many old people! I enjoyed catching up with people that I only see every five years. For one of my classmates in attendance, it was the first time we've seen each other in 35 years. I was amazed at the number of classmates that were already retired. After listening to all the jobs they've had and all the places they've lived, I told them that I haven't gotten anywhere in life - I'm still at the same place I started. Someone put together a fun DVD with our old yearbook pictures and 70's music. Lots of memories were shared and and we were fed good food. I look forward to the next reunion.

We lost a neighboring farmer this week. As a child growing up on the farm, one of the highlights of the year was corn shelling day. Don Hunziker owned the sheller in our neighborhood. I was always impressed with watching him operate the machine and coordinating the day. The ear corn was fed into the machine with chain conveyors, and the shell corn was augered into a truck, the cobs went into a dump wagon, and the husks were blown into a cage wagon. The shell corn was then hauled to town and sold, and the cobs and husks were used as livestock bedding. As kids we loved climbing on the shrinking piles of ear corn in the crib, and killing the numerous mice and rats that would be forced from their home. Don was very friendly, and in my adult years I always enjoyed visiting with him. He lost a battle with cancer, but won an eternal victory.

It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.
Ecclesiastes 7:2

Cold, Wet, Dreary

With an emphasis on wet. And cold. And dreary.

We had two very productive weeks here on the farm. The soybean harvest is finished, but there is a lot of corn still in the field. The grain elevators are having a hard time handling and drying the volume of high moisture corn that is coming in. They have been closing early each day and some days not even accepting corn at all! In the afternoons and evenings we haul into our own bin. That is until Saturday when the unloading auger system seemed to disintigrate. And then the weather changed. It is taking us three days to get it repaired and hopefully online by the time the weather allows more harvest.

We are fortunate to have a "new" employee helping us out this fall. He is a former farmer with a lot more experience than I have! Its great not to have to train someone - just give them a job and they can do it.

First firearm deer season is this weekend. It will be the first one that I will miss since I started hunting back in the 1980's. I am hoping that we will be back in the field by Friday and Saturday.

I should be out Christmas shopping on these wet evenings when I can't harvest. But I don't have the motivation yet. Besides, we might still be harvesting at Christmas.

Rest

I am very thankful for a day of rest, and for the very productive week that we were finally able to enjoy. The fields were still muddy, but the weather was cooperative, so we were able to harvest soybeans all week.
I made more ruts in fields this week than I have in all the years I have farmed combined. Numerous times I thought I was stuck for good, but managed to spin and power my way though the soft spots. And I guess the $5000 we spent on new drive tires was worth it! At times I felt like I was steering more with my brakes than with the steering wheel! Late one night I drove the combine into standing water and filled the head with water like a giant scoop. It made quite a mess, but fortunately did no damage to anything.

Out of curiosity I kept track of the number of hours I worked this past week.
93! And I don't get overtime.

I took a nap this afternoon and am looking forward to another productive week.

The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
Ecclesiastes 5:12

Top Ten

. . . . . wettest years on record. Yup, 2009 made it into the top ten. Normal year-to-date rainfall for central Illinois is 30.3 inches. Ytd for 2009 is 45.1 inches. And it's raining as we blog.

We combined corn last night for a few hours to put some in our bin and get the dryers running. We are still driving to the elevator with empty trucks and hauling corn home to feed the hogs. Today we got three loads picked as we spent a lot of time opening up a couple of fields. The corn is wet, the ground is muddy, and the sky is leaking. By 2:30, it was just too nasty to keep going, so we left our marks on the road and put some very dirty machinery back in the shed for another day.

I guess I'll have to start another book.

And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of all the people: and they said, all that the LORD has said, that will we do, and be obedient.
Exodus 24:7

Finally!

Harvest has finally started for us. We got in two and one half days of harvesting soybeans. They were still a little wet, but we started anyway. As soon as the first field was finished, it was disked, and last night I finished sowing our wheat. It is a relief to have the wheat out of the way, so that we can just concentrate on the combining.

This morning I woke to sprinkles, and then it was cool, dreary, and raining all day. And it continues. So much for harvest this week. Two years ago, this is the day that we finished harvest!

The corn still isn't drying down very fast, and we are having to buy corn to feed the hogs.

Our lender served farmers a free pork chop sandwich lunch at the elevator today. And the WIRL noon show was being broadcast live from there. So since none of us could be in the field, we had some farmer food and fellowship while listening to the market report.

Critters

Its mid October, it's still raining, it's muddy, the corn and soybeans are still too wet to harvest, the machinery is sitting in the shed, and I'm starting to feel like a country/western song.

A couple of squirrels have taken up residence in our corn crib. I'll walk inside in the morning to grind feed and there will be a squirrel sitting on top of the feed mill staring at me. Sometimes they make such a racket chasing around in there when I'm working that it sounds like a whole army.

While catching some baby pigs in an overflow pen in the barn yesterday, I looked into the corner of an alley and a skunk was looking back at me. About 4 feet away. Being unarmed, I chose to back away and leave him alone.

When we replaced our landscaping around the house this spring, we used bark mulch instead of the lava rock we used to have. The cats seem delighted that we put in a giant litter box for them!

I guess we need to get a new dog.

And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
Genesis 6:19