Summer Time

This year has been one of unusual events. I'm not saying that we haven't done the things we would normally accomplish during the summer. It is the fact that the season came so soon.
When it was close to oh....mid May the winter wheat was already turning shades of golden yellow. This was very surprising to many farmers around the area. We had a very warm and mild spring, with not much rain at all and so the wheat was ahead of schedule.  On a normal year we would expect to see the wheat begin to change at the end of May. The wheat was changing fast with warm weather and little rain, and so the pastures had already also greened up in early April. We didn't put our cattle out early though since the circumstances of the grass becoming sparse if we had a dry summer again were possible. But back to the wheat, we were fast approaching the summer wheat harvest whether we liked it or not. It was coming and upon arrival it would seem to become fast and furious.
When the winter wheat was ready to be thrashed, combined, or cut, which ever you would like to call it, it was May 28th. Many of you may know May 28th as Memorial Day, on which we remembered, but we also worked. As you may know the farmer and rancher's work never ends because they are without day light or because it is a holiday we work all the way through them. The day was one that started slow because we only had one combine operating at that time.  Our second combine was presently in the shop having repairs done so that it would be ready when it was time to harvest. Well that didn't work did it?! We continued to harvest and on Wednesday May 30th we were caught in mid harvest. There was a line of storms coming our way. During harvest we are somewhat reluctant to see thunder-heads in the distance, a sign of storms coming, but then yet again being dry this spring we were rejoicing as well. The storm that was on its way was packing a punch, it was heavy rain and hail as well as straight line winds. All of those combined together was a disaster waiting to happen, especially when the wheat crop was ripe for the cutting. Thankfully there wasn't any major hail or winds that came near us. We did receive some much needed rain! Although the rain didn't accumulate much it brought cool weather which was awesome. This gave Katelin time to check pastures while it was cool and comfortable. While checking pastures others were working on making some last minute repairs and getting things set for when harvest would resume. Soon harvest was back underway, and things were going fast. There weren't any major breakdowns thankfully but everything continued to roll on.

Mark and Co-pilot Sarah

Warren and Co-pilot Jenna

Grandpa Ron driving grain cart

Waiting in line to dump our wheat.

Cutting into the night

Sleeping Trucks

Moose and the new rock at Mark's house

Grandma Dora Driving truck.

Trying to beat the storm (talked about in the blog)

Nathan driving truck

Warren and co-pilot Kyle

Trying to stay cool

See the heat?

Barb driving big red

Baler coming to bale the dropped straw.

Moose even got to take a load into town.

As for the overall harvest, it was a good one.

Right now we are trying to stay cool, as it is a scorcher outside and over 100 degrees currently. We are keeping the air on and keeping the animals as cool as possible. The ponds seem to take the worst of it, since there has been little rain. We did receive a couple of inches that came in two rains. This helped the corn and beans but didn't give us much runoff into our ponds.  We are continually checking the pastures to ensure that we have adequate water for the cattle.
It has been a fast and crazy summer already and who knows what the rest of summer will bring. Hoping that you will stay cool and enjoy your summer!