Feeding America, Day 9 of Harvest 2011

From my kitchen window, I've been seeing a flurry of activity as the farmers around us in Genesee are either getting ready to get in the field or they are already harvesting their crops.  It is a busy time and many farmers including us have seasonal help from our high school kids to help get our crops in.  School starts next week and due to the late harvest, I've heard talk that the school officials may delay the start of school until after the Labor Day holiday to aid the farmers.   This would be a good thing for us as well our other farm friends.

The video below is narrated by Farmer Joe who, along with Farmer Jay have their CDL license to drive the semi trucks.  This was Joe's turn and you get to see what he sees  as the grain is loaded into the semi, a view of driving down the road, and when the semi unloads at the grain terminal. 

Our high school seasonal help, Ryan who drive the tractor
that pulls the grain cart

An employee that unloads the grain posing for Joe 

A blow out on the truck, this was the 2nd one within 2 days

Farmer Joe snapping a picture of the damaged tire

Stay tuned for Monday's harvest blog as a songwriter/producer is going to film our wheat harvest for his music video.  Once I get permission from Kevin, the artist, I will post it!  As always, thanks for stopping by and email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com if you have questions or comments.  Plus leave posts too.  All my best, Gayle

Feeding America, Day 8 of Harvest 2011

Coming home tonight I got behind a combine on highway 95, so now I know harvest has officially started on the Palouse, here in North Idaho.  

On Thursday we harvested about 200 acres of winter wheat and have a little over 100+ acres left.   Again we will not know what this field is yielding until all the weight tickets are totaled.  Once this field is done, Farmer Jay will stay in Tammany with his “level-land combine” as the ground is flat and Farmer Joe will move his “self-leveling combine” up to the Genesee farm as our ground has the “rolling hills of the Palouse".  Farmer Jay, Cody (our hired man), Ryan (our summer high school help) will be Jay’s crew down at Tammany.  Farmer Joe will start on the winter wheat fields at the Genesee farm and we will have to hire 2 temporary people to help drive the other semi trucks and the other grain cart.  Luckily we have a recently retired friend, Hale, who is willing to drive the grain cart and hopefully our hired man’s dad, Roger, can take some vacation time from his job and drive the semi trucks.   
The colors of the crops this time of year are so varied, as you can see below.  This year we planted a new variety of hard red spring wheat that has a very distinct color.

Our green garbanzo field is along side our reddish color wheat and the neighbors
golden wheat field

Here are two wheat fields along side each other, the reddish color
is our hard red spring wheat along side the normal golden color

Once again, thanks for stopping by and email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com if you have questions.  All my best, Gayle

Feeding America, Day 7 of Harvest 2011

Wednesday was a better day for our harvest crew and below are short videos of our day.   We finished the field and moved over to the next 300 acre field to harvest.  The weather forecast is for sunny and hot temps, so all is good in our little harvest world.

A view of what a loaded semi truck looks like just before heading off
to unload at the grain terminal

As always, thanks for stopping by and email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com if you have questions or comments (or post a comment too).  All my best, Gayle

Feeding America, Day 6 of Harvest 2011

Well my friends, after moving back down to the Tammany farm, we again got "greened out", which is farmer lingo for wheat that has too high a moisture count for the grain terminals to accept it.  That definitely puts a crimp in our harvest plans for the day.  So Tuesday, August 16 we will not be harvesting and the crew will spray Round-up on weeds, cut thistles and other odd projects while we wait and hope for the grain to ripen a bit more and the moisture count to reach the acceptable level.  Farmer Joe was saying he didn't know who was more frustrated, the farmers or the grain elevator staff, as the farmers want to harvest their crops and the grain terminal staff have the difficult task of holding their ground and not accepting wheat that is above the moisture ceiling level, which is 13%.  At the grain elevators, each truck load is carefully tested for its moisture content and no one wants to return back to the field with a loaded truck because the warehouse will not accept the grain, but that is sometimes the case (but it is rare). (To clarify -  depending on the grain terminal, they usually will accept the grain that is above moisture count, but the farmer will get docked {sort of like a really stiff "discount"}, our combines have the technology to determine the moisture count so we are aware of  the moisture content of the grain).  The reasons why terminals don't want to accept moist grain is to protect their wheat inventory from rotting, bugs or fire as moist grain can mold, or create a bug infestation, as well produce heat and become combustible.  So it was a frustrating and disappointing day for all, but as Scarlett O'Hara says, tomorrow is another day.

From my Twitter account, I just came across a YouTube video of the Urban Wheat Harvest project that we participated in last year in Washington DC. This was to help educate urban America how a wheat plant develops and shows the stages of wheat and how it ends up in products you find in a grocery store, this project was sponsored by WheatWorld, so take a look and enjoy.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb9vda1bfo8&feature=player_profilepage

As always, thanks for stopping by and email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com or post a comment. All my best,  Gayle

Feeding America, Day 5 of Harvest 2011

On Friday we finished the Genesee rim wheat field and we were pleased with the yield of 109 bushels of wheat to the acre.

A view of the combine unloading the wheat from its auger
into the waiting grain cart

The prior and first field harvested (from the Tammany farm) yielded 96 bushels, and that was a record as it is one of our drier fields with less rain fall. These numbers are very welcome as we have had to incur extra expense in either additional fertilizer and/or spraying the crop to stop the Rust disease so it is really nice to see the bigger yields.


So the crew moved back down with our mini parade of farm equipment.  Although I was hoping for some shots on the narrow steep gravel road, it probably would have been too difficult to do that, so Cody our hired-man took a short video clip (below) closer to our Tammany farm.




Farmer Joe's pick-up with the oversize load sign and
pulling the combine header behind

As the combine header is too large (40') it must be removed from the combine each time we move equipment from field to field.  The header is loaded onto a special trailer and pulled behind the pick-up which is the flagging vehicle.

A couple of our semi trucks that will be driven down to the next field

The field that we moved too needed to ripen a bit more, so we were shut down for the week-end.  Typically we don't get week-ends off during harvest, but that is how it worked out.  The crew is hoping to be able to get back on the combines and tractors and harvest more winter wheat first thing Monday morning.

As always, thanks for stopping by and if you have questions or comments, please email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com or post a comment.  Stay tuned for more on the Anderson harvest.  All my best, Gayle

Feeding America, Day 4 of Harvest 2011

Today we are harvesting Hard Red Winter wheat up on the Genesee rim.  Farmer Joe was making this video from his phone, so the quality is not  as clear (sorry).   It was a hectic day for him as he was fixing an oil leak on his combine... and in his haste to get things fixed & back into the field,  his camera was left in the pick-up.  As Farmer Joe narrates, the wheat is yielding well, but the protein content for this particular kind of wheat is not quite at the optimum level, which will affect the price the farmer will get for the crop.  This wheat is graded on it's protein count.

 

Different kinds of wheat are grown and used for different kinds of baking, so here is a quick run down:

• Hard Red Spring – Hard, brownish, high-protein wheat used for bread and hard baked goods. Bread Flour and high-gluten flours are commonly made from hard red spring wheat..

• Hard Red Winter – Hard, brownish, mellow high-protein wheat used for bread, hard baked goods and as an adjunct in other flours to increase protein in pastry flour for pie crusts. Some brands of unbleached all-purpose flours are commonly made from hard red winter wheat alone.

• Soft Red Winter – Soft, low-protein wheat used for cakes, pie crusts, biscuits, and muffins. Cake flour, pastry flour, and some self-rising flours with baking powder and salt added, for example, are made from soft red winter wheat.

• Hard White – Hard, light-colored, opaque, chalky, medium-protein wheat planted in dry, temperate areas. Used for bread and brewing.

• Soft White – Soft, light-colored, very low protein wheat grown in temperate moist areas. Used for pie crusts and pastry. Pastry flour, for example, is sometimes made from soft white winter wheat.

As always, thanks for stopping by and email me if you have questions or comments at idahofarmwife@gmail.com or post a comment too.  All  my best, Gayle

Feeding America, Day 3 of Harvest 2011

What can we say?  We like "red machines" on the Anderson Farm

Day 3 of winter wheat harvest ended with us finishing our first field down at the Tammany farm.  The weight tickets have not been added up yet for us to know what this field yielded, but it was enough to keep 3 semi trucks busy all day.  Having enough semi-trucks is important as time is money and it is not efficient or wise to keep a combine lingering in the field waiting to be able to unload the grain.   Typically we will have either Farmer Joe or Jay in his combine, then the other farmer will drive one of the other semi trucks, while Cody, our hired man, will drive the other combine.  We also will have Kirk, the hired truck driver with his semi truck out in the field as well.  The two combines keep Ryan, who drives the grain-cart busy as the combines will unload grain (as shown in yesterday’s video) into the cart, and then Ryan will dump his loaded grain cart into one of the semi trucks. 

This is one of several fields that we farm and it is 37 miles from our main farm.  The climate is warmer and milder by about 10 degrees and thus this area is usually the first to be harvested.  As the other Tammany wheat fields are not ready, we had to move the equipment up to another field closer to Genesee.  Moving from field to field is like a mini parade of farm equipment (minus the crowds, confetti & candy), 2 combines, 1 tractor pulling a grain cart, 2 or 3 semi trucks plus our pick-ups.  The normal driving time from one farm to another is about 1 hour, but when moving equipment at speeds of 15-20 mph, you can easily add another 1 ½ hours to that time.  To get to the next  field, we will go up a steep gravel canyon road and one of the pick-ups will flag for us to alert other vehicles on the road  that we are en route as often times there is no place to pull over and the equipment takes up the entire gravel road.  (Next time the farmer promises to have a video clip of this mini parade).

The video clip above shows Ryan blowing off the combine before we move out of the field, and as Farmer Joe narrates - 2 things are important: 1) keeping the wheat chaff cleaned off prevents it catching on fire and 2) sanitation purposes so we don't infect other fields with any foreign or unwelcome weed seed. Some of the weeds that are common to the Tammany area are not up in our area and therefore, we do not want to be a "carrier" and contaminate our other fields.

Ryan blowing off the equipment.  Proper eye, ear & breathing protection
are mandatory safety requirements on our farm

As this area is in a lower elevation than where we live, reptiles can sometimes be seen.  Ewwwww, as you can tell, I am not a fan of snakes and glad it wasn't me that discovered this little surprise.

A rattle snake.... that had been run over and was found next to the
combine just before we were heading out to move.

 As always, thanks for stopping by and please email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com if you have any questions.  I love posted comments too.  Stay tuned for more on our harvest.  All my best, Gayle

Feeding America Day 2 of Harvest 2011

Day 2 of the winter wheat harvest went better for our crew and we were able to get into the field after lunch.  Above is actual video that Farmer Joe took on his camera.  The yields look good, some parts of the fields are yielding better than others, so until we harvest the entire field, we will not know what the average bushel to acre is, but we anticipate it being good.

Here is another video that showing Farmer Joe unloading the combine into the grain cart.  As the farmer said in the video, he is unloading the grain from the combine into the grain cart which is pulled by a tractor (and driven by Ryan) of which it will then be unloaded into a waiting semi-truck.  Once the semi is full it will head to the grain terminals which are located on the Port of Lewiston.

Ryan (sitting) and Cody on hand to help the mechanic if needed
while repairs are being made to one of the combines



The semi-trucks in the field waiting to be loaded

 As I've said before in my blogs, it takes a lot of equipment to feed America.

Farmer Joe and his big red combine

Thanks for stopping by and please email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com if you have questions, or post a comment.  Thanks and keep watching for more updates on the wheat harvest.  All my best, Gayle

Feeding America, Day 1 of Harvest 2011

It’s harvest time and there is a certain smell in the air that I can’t explain, but it is fresh and earthy.  Farmer Joe was excited to get into the field and begin cutting, (it’s a lot like the first day of school as for excitement level), and so as I packed his lunch, the dog and I sent him off with well wishes..... 

Josie, the spoiled dog, is the "tester" of the lunch meat, her favorite job!
She likes to make sure it is the best & tastiest for her beloved  master

Lunch box in hand, sipping the last cup of coffee
Farmer Joe is ready to head out for the day

The harvest crew that I will be talking about are, Farmers Joe & Jay along with Cody
(our hired-man), Ryan (our seasonal help who drives the tractor & load-out wagon) and Kirk, who drives his own semi-truck, along with our fleet to take the grain into the terminals.   Around noon I called to check to see how things were going and found out, the job of feeding America got off to a slow start.  After cutting our first semi-truck load of winter wheat, the moisture testing came in at 13% which is the highest amount that the grain elevator will take.  This is not a good thing to be at the highest level right at the beginning.  Moisture samples indicated the rest of the field was measuring at 14% so we had to shut the operations down for the day. =(  We were experiencing a few mechanical issues, so the combine repairman was called out to our field to fix an issue with Farmer’s Jay combine.  Farmer Joe was fixing some other minor mechanical issues on his machine as well so we will hope to get into the field later on today (Tuesday, August 9^th).  The forecast is for sunny and hot temps, which can mean that the moisture percentage will decrease and be in the acceptable range for the warehouse to take the wheat.  Farmer Joe took his camera and plans on getting pictures and videos that I can upload for you, so stay tuned.   As always, thanks for stopping by and if you have question or comments, please feel free to email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com or post a comment as well.  All my best, Gayle

Waiting for Harvest

Good Morning everyone!  All is quiet on the home front for now....

A view of my lavender and the wheat field that starts just
inches from where our yard stops and the fields start

Farmers understand the art of patience…. as everything we do depends on the weather, and we all know - you can't hurry it up or make it do what you want.  The late cold spring delayed the planting of the crops and the cool summer weather has meant that harvesting the crops is also late by about 2 weeks.  So here it is the 1^st of August and not a combine in the field.  We are hoping to move our combines down to the Tammany farm which is 37 miles away from our main farm here in Genesee.  In normal years we would be about ½ way through harvest down there and gearing up to move up to Genesee to begin harvesting the home place around August 10.  But this year we are hoping to begin on Monday, August 8^th.  But as Farmer Joe says, a late harvest usually means better crops, so he is patiently waiting for the crops to ripen.  So the combines are out of the machine sheds, have had a good checking over and are ready to go once the crops ripen.  Before the combines roll out, I wanted to take a few pictures,  so last night I took out my trusty 1950’s bike with its fat tires that makes navigating the wash-boardy gravel roads easier and rode the ¾ of a mile over to the farm shop.



The crops are starting to ripen, here you can see the parts of the
field are starting to turn golden, but lots of green can be seen



Here is Farmer Jay's combine parked by the shop

A view from underneath the "header", the tines shown help gather
up the wheat as it is cut  by the row of shears on the bottom of the header

Farmer Joe's combine in the forefront and Farmer Jay's combine in the back

One of the Anderson farm semi trucks parked by the farm shop and
waiting to be called into action once harvest can begin

Another view of Farmer Joe's combine by the barn and
shown in front of the garbanzo field. This field will be ready
for harvest mid to late September

So as I peddled home, I stopped to take a picture of our house from the road (below). This is our neighbor's field and again you can see the gold and green colors of the wheat.   I love harvest, but I know once it begins the days fly by in a flurry of activity and before I know it, Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  On our farm, once harvest begins, we will harvest wheat in August, then the garbanzo bean harvest is on its heals and harvested in September.  In October is when the Fall seeding takes place and usually takes the entire month.  Then once all the equipment is put away, it seems like it is almost time for Thanksgiving.... whew!

Our house in the middle of the wheat fields

When I looked the opposite way, here is the entrance to the church that we attend and were married in, where our daughters were baptized,  where oldest daughter Jen was married and where  the youngest daughter  Kaitlyn hopes to be married as well.  As you can see this beautiful church has very special ties to our family. 

My bike parked at the entrance of our beloved church

Genesee Valley Lutheran Church, a very photographed
church with it's picturesque setting

As always, glad you stopped by and if you have questions or comments, feel free to email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com or leave a comment.  Stay tuned as I'll be posting more pictures of harvest once it arrives.  All my best, Gayle