Finally!

We had finished corn a week ago Saturday, but we still had our double crop soybeans to harvest.  We had tried them a week earlier, but they were still way too wet.  Last Sunday and Monday were both sunny, windy days, so we thought they might be fit on Monday afternoon.  They weren't.  We tried them and they were still 20 percent moisture.  The local elevator said they couldn't handle them that wet, but the manager agreed to take them if we hauled them to another branch elevator further down the road.  So with the weather forecast looking bad, we went ahead and took them out wet and accepted the huge dock from the elevator.  We are finally finished with harvest 2019!

About three weeks ago we had record cold move into the area for a couple of days.  We didn't go to the field at all for two days.  I saw 11 degrees on my thermostat, but Peoria said it got down to 9.  We did not have any additives in our diesel engines yet, so we were worried about fuel gelling.  Then we had more snow and wind that kept us out of the field for a day or so until it melted off. 
We tried to harvest some or our downed corn before the snow had completely melted off.  That was a mistake.  The wet snow that clung to the leaves fed into the machine, and combined with dirt and chaff, completely plugged up the inside of the machine.  We spent the next day inside the bowels of the combine scraping, brushing, vacuuming, and power washing.  We had to pull the chaffer and sieves out to be able to get inside to do a complete job.  I have the head wounds and knuckle scrapes as attestation.  Remind me never to combine in snow anymore!

Down corn is dirty and tedious to harvest, as we were only able to drive about 1.5 MPH.  But we were thankful that it fed into the machine easily as long as we could get the snouts under it.  We worked in one 80 acre field on four different days until we finally finished it.

The majority of our corn came out of the field wetter than normal, so we will have a high drying bill this year.  As you drove around the country late fall, there were large clouds of steam surrounding all the elevators and farm drying setups.  Including ours.  It was rather eerie at night!

In our last cornfield, the combine chased out dozens of rabbits, three coyotes (one with rabbit in mouth), and there was a bald eagle circling overhead dive-bombing for a rabbit.  I wasn't able to pay full attention to the eagle, so I don't know if he succeeded with his dinner plans or not.

Anyway, we are very thankful to be finished with this trying year, and also thankful that the yields were better than expected.  Not great, but still acceptable.  Now to see if the weather will cooperate enough to let us get our tillage done.

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
Romans 5:3,4