Harvest is over!

Harvest is officially over! It actually went relatively quick, but it seemed awfully long! Learning to be a farmer's wife with a baby is a lot different than just being a farmer's wife.  Lots of very long, lonely nights with not much help....however, we had lots of fun nights riding in the combine or the grain cart and getting family time then. Eli got to spend a lot of time with both of his grandpas, as my dad likes to come up and help run the grain cart since Seth and Grant both work full time and aren't available during the day. 

Three generations of White farmer men!

One of the nights I took Eli over to Seth's farm in the next county over, and we got to ride with my dad in the grain cart.  It was a very cold and clear night and we kept seeing a funny haze over the sky.  At first I thought it was dust from somebody combining beans, but then realized it was too wet for anyone to be harvesting anything but corn.  The haze turned green and started to move and we finally realized that we were seeing the Northern Lights! I don't get to see these often, but I see them more than most since we vacation in Minnesota and they are so beautiful! It was like God gave us a good show to help the guys press on to finish up, even if it was at 1 am.

On another weekend, one of the doctors I tech for in surgery brought her family of 3 boys to ride in the combine.  They wanted to full farm experience so everybody got to ride in the combine, grain cart, and take a semi ride to see where the grain is unloaded. They were so much fun to have there, and I think we made a farmer out of her oldest son, Jaxon.  I was a little worried they may not like it at first, because they followed me up from work in Kokomo, and its a little bit of a drive!  When we stopped at our house so I could run in and change I got a text from Dr. Cooper saying that her husband was wondering if I was going to have on overalls and a straw hat when I came back out! I think he ended up thinking it was pretty cool and he got to take a spin on the racing lawnmowers we have!

Zander, the little semi driver!

The Hanson family comes to experience a day on the farm!

All in all harvest went pretty smoothly. As far as yields...well....we just won't go there! Beans turned out pretty good, but the corn was pretty bad.  This was a conversation on my drive home one day while Seth was harvesting corn in his field:

Me: "How's it going?
Seth: "Guess what my yield is"
Me: "200" (bushels per acre, I was trying to be optimistic)
Seth: "Guess again. Here's a clue, it's the same number as what you weigh"
Me: "Well, then, how much is that?"
Seth: "130! Isn't that awful!?"
Me: "I love you. You're the best husband in the world. Sorry the corn sucks." 

And then I went home and made him his favorite dinner.

Next year will be interesting since it will be the first time we will be harvesting the new field that Seth and I purchased! Fingers crossed that next year will be a better year!

Celebrating harvest over by finally making it to evening mass and dinner out with my mom

Father and son heading out to the fields. By this time next year, that little guy will be able to hold Seth's hand and walk beside him!

Harvest is finally here!

I haven't even begun to post on harvest, which is like the Christmas of farming! We just started last week and we are FLYING through it thanks to wonderful dry sunny perfect fall weather.  I love harvest so much. Seth is so happy during it, it means fall is here, and I love riding alongside in the combine.

For those of you who don't farm or aren't familiar with crop farming, I thought I'd do a "who's who" in harvest.  Every member of the team is vital when it comes to harvesting, so I thought it would be good to introduce them!

The combine driver:  The combine is obviously the heart of harvest. If its broken down, you're out of luck.  They are remarkably huge, comfortable to ride in, and require a lot of maintenance.  Since we harvest both corn and soybeans, the combine has two different "heads" that attach to the front of it. One for corn (they are the ones with the pointy things on the front, some people have 6 row heads that pick 6 rows of corn at a time, and some people have 16 row heads, which pick 16 rows at a time) and then there is the bean head for the soybeans.  Our combine driver is usually Ted, but he lets Seth and Grant drive too, especially if their lovely lady friends come to ride along. :) That was basically Seth and my first "real" date, which made him happy he could show off for me.

Last year's combine with the corn head (8 row)
 

I found this old picture to show what the bean head looks like. Seth was a senior in high school when this was taken. Isn't he so cute?! I think so!

The grain cart:  The combine has a small hopper (what holds the grain) on it, but when it gets full, you have to put it somewhere else. This is what the grain cart is for. The cart is attached to a tractor, and the driver pulls it alongside the combine as the combine is still picking to collect the grain. This way the combine never stops moving.  After the grain cart gets full, the driver dumps that grain into the semi. This job usually belongs to Seth, Grant, or my dad...but sometimes if Ted is in a pinch Taylor and I man the grain cart. She's brave enough to unload on the semi, but I haven't worked up to that yet. I'm too scared I'll spill grain, and if you spill grain, you have to shovel it into the semi, which is nearly impossible! Its fun to drive though!

The combine unloading on the go into the grain cart



The grain cart is really heavy and causes a lot of soil compaction, so you want to try to run it efficiently so you're not driving it on the field more than needed

The semi:  The semi driver has to do a lot of hurry up and wait. After the grain cart empty's into the semi trailer, the semi takes off for the farm where it will dump the grain into the storage bins, or where it will go through the dryer system.  Corn is often wet when its picked, and if its stored wet, it will rot and you will lose all that grain in that bin. So the corn goes through a dryer if its above a certain moisture level.  After the semi driver is done dumping the grain and turns off the auger, he then has to hurry up and get back to the fields before the grain cart is full again. Sometimes that means 2 semi's are on the go, especially if we are at a field far away. Steve, or "Super Steve", is usually the semi driver and his little boy, Tanner, usually rides along too.



The semis: The Bumblebee and the Brown Semi. Riding in the bumblebee is pretty fancy, there's a tv, fridge, and the bed in the sleeper cab is so comfortable for naps when riding to the elevator.

The short order cook:  Men working in the fields get incredibly grumpy when they are hungry, and require a lot of fuel to keep them going just like the tractors and combines need fuel.  Thankfully, these men have wonderful women back at the home front who love them and are willing to cook up quick meals to run out to them in the fields! Vicki is a pro, and I am still in training. But so far no one has complained about what I've fixed them, except that I only gave 2 Oreos per person.


Harvest is crazy busy, and you can get burnt out quickly...which is why I am hoping it will rain soon to force the boys to take a break. This is when accidents can happen, but luckily everyone is usually pretty excited and positive about the whole process, as well as safe. We definitely have fun out there though, taking turns riding with the drivers to keep them company, watching the semi driver and grain cart driver play football between dumps, and overall, just enjoying one another's company.

Family fun in the combine!

If any of you live in the area, and wanna take a ride in the combine, let me know! We love having company, and you may score one of Vicki's sack lunches out of the deal :)