If you read yesterdays blog about farmers having “one of those days”, well sometimes they come in pairs. Yesterday as Farmer Joe was trying to start harvesting, a major breakdown on the other end of the header sent him into the combine dealership in Moscow in the hope they had the parts in stock ….. of which they did not. A breakdown on a combine in the middle of harvest is really bad news especially if the needed parts are not available and have to be ordered. So Farmer Joe headed to another combine dealership about 1 ½ hour away from our Genesee farm as that dealer had a brand new header and they “cannibalized” that header for the replacement parts for ours. Whew! Factor in a 3+ hour round trip to get parts, then get the header fixed meant the farmer didn’t get to start harvest till around 4pm. The weather forecast also had us concerned as it had warnings about a chance of thunderstorms too. Last night was the first night the lights on the combine were used and we harvested in the dark in order to get the 2 semi trucks loaded (the warehouse closes at 8pm, so a common practice is to get the trucks filled the night before so they can be unloaded first thing the next day).
I’m hoping for pictures or videos from Thursday’s harvest that I can share. Farmer Joe is hoping to finish the field around our home, then move the combine to another field 4 or 5 miles away.
As for Farmer Jay down harvesting Spring wheat down at the Tammany farm, all is going well despite a plugged up grain cart.
Stay tuned for more harvest tales. Feel free to email me at
idahofarmwife@gmail.com . All my best, Gayle