Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Harvest on the Anderson Farm


08.19.09

We got back in the field around 4pm on Monday. Yea! Rain and wheat are not a good mix and the rain can damage the wheat. We will not know if there is any dockage on our wheat until the warehouse tests it . The crops look good, seems to be a little above average, so that is a plus. The crew was harvesting in one of the fields around our house yesterday, and you can smell that heavenly scent. Wheat has a smell all it's own, not over powering, just an aromic, earthly smell. Trucks were scurring up and down the gravel roads taking their golden knernels to the warehouse or their own home storage. We don't use home storage and haul everything into the warehouse.


I sort of miss driving the grain trucks into town and all the activity in the fields. Back in the mid-1990's when combines and trucks were on a smaller scale, most everyone used 2 ton trucks to haul the grain into the warehouse. I would take my vacation from my full time job to drive truck. I loved it, no phone, faxes, email, clients..... it was hot, dusty and perfect. I'd bring magazines or books into the field and read while waiting for the combines to come fill my truck. Once in town, I'd always stop at the impromptu "lemonaid stands" run by entrepeneurial kids. It was just bad karma to not stop, so I'd have lots of quarters with me, even tho I rarely drank the product, I just liked to stop and make my purchase and chat with the eager kids trying to make some money. At the warehouse, I'd have to re-learn the route to go to the correct dumping pit, sometimes making one of the warehouse guys have to chase the truck to route me to the right place. I don't know my directions, so go to the north pit on the east side doesn't mean anything to me.... I need more specific directions like take a right and go behind the warehouse and unload at the first stop. So the warehouse guys learned to help guide me on those first hectic days of harvest. =) Plus they liked me cause I'd bring cookies with me, bribes help. My husband and brother in law also learned to be more specific when coming back into the field after a trip to town. Lots happen when you leave to dump the truck and then make it back, as it takes a while to get into town (can't drive fast or the grain will fly off the top of the truck), there are lines of trucks waiting to get dumped & lemonaid stands to visit. So once back in the field, the terms like head South, go over the saddle and turn North would make me retort back that I needed the "english version"... plus I made my husband's lunch, so he also made it a point to not be cranky with me. Now that combines are bigger, we use semi's to haul the grain in, I didn't want to learn to drive the semi's so I enjoy harvest while riding in the combine or taking refreshments out to the field.