Slow Start

When the temperature dropped to 57 degrees in our bedroom the other night, we decided it was time to start the furnace.

Harvest got off to a slow, late start and has been stretched out since.  By the end of September we only had a little corn out, but did get a good start on soybeans.  We were able to get the wheat sown before the end of September, and it came up quickly and looks to be off to a great start.  We finished all of our soybeans except our double crop beans before we had more than 25% of our corn done.  The replant corn has finally dried down, so we can work on everything now.  That is, when the machinery is running! 
The 10 HP motor on the wet corn auger that feeds our leg quit, so that set us back a half a day.  On our last field of soybeans, the bottom of the platform peeled off so it spent a day and a half in the shop.  Then the semi tractor lost its transmission while hauling a load to the elevator.  It had to be towed to a repair shop and we had to find a replacement to rent.  Penske came through.  Then, a few days later an axle broke off the frame of the grain trailer while loaded.  We were able to chain it in place and limp it to the elevator to dump.  A trailer was borrowed from a farmer that was finished already so that we could keep going.  We had been making good progress on the rest of our corn, when this afternoon we started hearing a screeching, clanking, metal on metal sound in the unloading system on the combine.  We got the tank unloaded, but unwilling to have a breakdown in the field with a full hopper, we chose to take the combine to the dealer's shop for inspection. So we have the evening off and don't know how many days we will be down if they find what we suspect.
Fortunately, the breakdown happened after the landlord drove by to check on us.

I lost three friends this fall.

I knew Denny in the Young Group, but got to know him better when our kids were in High School together.  We were band parents together for a number of years and I enjoyed his upbeat personality.  He had fought a several year battle with colon cancer.

I spent a lot of time with Alan during high school days.  Alan, Doug, and I would get together to play guitars, go to Sunday School activities at each other's churches, go to movies, and even triple date. We didn't see each other regularly since, but always had good visits when we did.  He only lived one month after his cancer diagnosis.

Jim and I met in Ag classes at ICC.  He was a farm kid from Camp Grove, and we ended up living together at the U. of I.  We spent a lot of time together in college, and though we didn't see each other often since, I always enjoyed visiting with him.  He had numerous medical complications that started with a bad car accident many years ago.

The fields are ripe for harvest.

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
John 4:35