Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Harvest

One of he big guys. It is not uncommon to see 3 or 4 of these big guys  cutting in a row.
       Harvest. It is a way of life here. It is what our small town revolves around. The ground is tilled and prepared for seeds. The seeds are planted and then they grow. Then the wait. The wait for the wheat to be just right to cut. Then it happens.The wheat turns and becomes ready for harvest. There is nothing but harvest. That is it. Nothing else happens until all the wheat is harvested. Hundreds of thousands of acres of wheat. There are some peas and garbonzo beans to harvest too but the majority is wheat. As far as the eye can see 360 degrees. The big combines come out of their resting places and set to work cutting the wheat. Fine white chaff dust sparkles in the air and floats on the breeze. Settling on everything. Not a surface is left untouched. Only good part about this is I don't dust anything until after harvest is done. Usually about 3 weeks. I learned my lesson early. If you dust in the morning, by late afternoon things look as if you never touched them. So we just wait. Hay fever sets in too. Traffic jams occur often. When it's time to move the equipment to the next field that needs cutting the roads are how these big monsters get to where they are going. Sometimes they get a ride on a big trailer but are so wide they hang way over the bed of the trailer and there is only one speed, slow. These traffic jams make me smile. Grain trucks are on the roads pounding gears to get their heavy loads to the elevators and then back to the fields again for another load. This is hot, sweaty and dirty work. For some, harvest may be a time of hanging fall decorations and trees leaves changing color. Here harvest is 3 or so weeks of hard work. 3 or so weeks of combines, tractors, grain trucks and farmers working non stop to get the wheat into the safe clutches of the grain elevators. Then and only then is there rest and celebration. What a celebration there is when it is an end of harvest celebration. Just as the urgency to get things harvested is a viable "feeling" in the air of daily activity, so is there a tangible "feeling" of relief and celebration in the air when the harvest is complete. In a word, HARVEST. It sums it all up.                                                                        

5 comments:

  1. Very true - and be glad you are not corn farmers in the midwest this time of year. Glad the wheat did well : )

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    1. The Pacific Northwest seemed to be one of the few states not affected by the drought. Harvest is actually about 3 weeks late this year. The Midwest hasn't been far from anyone's thoughts though. Close tabs have been kept. Hope all is well with you Michaele. Cyber ((HUGS)).

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  2. It is a pleasure to read of a harvest because our poor midwest has been so hit by drought, I am afrad there will not be much harvesting around here. Do those big "guys" just go from farm to farm? Do you rent them? or how does that work? I have often wondered because I know that farm equipment has to be mighty expensive.

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    Replies
    1. Most of the farmers around here own their equipment. The farmers are from hundred year old families and they are big families. So there are brothers and cousins all taking turns harvesting each others land. There are some small family farms too that are only a few thousand acres that are farmed by just one family and a few hired hands. And yes these combines cost more then my house and are way more high tech then I could ever dream of being. Not to mention the tractors and grain trucks that go along with the whole operation. There are some farming companies that rent equipment also but that is only when there is a mechanical break down that lasts longer then a few days. Then it's time to rent in order to keep moving through the harvest.

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  3. What a great post.
    I love the thoughts that you have about the harvest season too.

    You are smart not to dust until it is all done. You would wear your arm out~~LOL!

    The farmers harvest is down a bit here as well, but, they are still harvesting.
    I love to watch the tractor traffic jams :)

    {{hugs}}
    Kerin

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