Life on the Farm

[chamookman]

Thanks BJ - What view, WOW !  Bob.

[bjrogg]

Not many of those sunny days this season so far and lots of wind and drizzle. Either it’s been too windy and raining or the rare times it isn’t I have work that needs to be done.

We still haven’t gotten a chance to get our soybeans off yet. They never got dry enough. They are ripe now so hopefully we get a couple sunny days in a row so we can get them.

Michigan Sugar announced that permanent piles will start 10-18-23. We still have soybeans on our headlands yet. We do have one beet field that doesn’t have soybeans on its headlands. If it isn’t too wet we might try to finish it. I would really like to see the sugar content go up a little yet though. I’m not really excited about harvesting them yet.

I was over to my brothers house this weekend and he showed me his Muddy Bull Box Blind. Gotta admit I wish I had something like it now. I think I could shoot pretty comfortably from it. He loves it. Has taken a lot of deer from it with his compound. I think by next year I’m going to have some kinda blind I can shoot my selfbow from. Most of the time I get to hunt it’s not very nice sitting in a tree.

I did have a doe given to me. Vacuum packed the back straps. Canned eight jars and making a batch of jerky.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Last night I sat in my most comfortable stand.

It wasn’t raining and the wind was right.

It was still a bit on the windy side, but much better than it has been. The deer were still nervous and didn’t seem comfortable with the wind. I did see several though. Didn’t get busted and even passed on a shot at a really small four point. Might regret that later, but it seemed like the right thing at the time. Didn’t have much time to think about it as he walked down the trail right by me.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

7:00 am this morning the piling grounds opened for permanent piles. These piles will be used to store our sugar beets until they can be processed. We probe the beets temperature. When it gets above 52 degrees F. we stop piling until the beets cool again. It’s a real crap shoot. We can’t pile frozen beets either so our window is kinda narrow. Today they closed at 2:30 pm.

We didn’t dig beets today. I helped my son with filling his bunker silo with corn silage. I used a big four wheel drive tractor with a blade to push the silage up on a pile and pack it to get the air out of it.

The chopper cuts the whole plant into tiny pieces and blows the out it’s “gooseneck “ to the truck. Usually the truck drives along side, but when you start the field it has to drive behind.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

We finished chopping, but then we had to move the edge of the pile and put it on top. You can’t make the edge straight up and down while you are making it. We use a telescopic loader to scoop up the edge.

We need this area later for high moisture shelled corn.

My brother and nephew got the soybeans off our sugar beet fields.

We did good. We are in a lot better shape now than yesterday. It’s supposed to rain the next three days.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Got another.4” of rain yesterday. Cloudy and drizzling this morning.

Did get the soybeans unloaded yesterday but they were still too wet to harvest. At least they are off the sugar beet headlands. The headlands are where we turn at the ends of our sugar beet rows.

Despite a steady rain and pretty good breeze. We managed to get my son’s silage pile cover with plastic and held down with lime. This is a great feeling. I can remember doing this with Cass and so many others on this same pile. Many of the people who helped have passed and the new generation is now proving to be up to the task.

I didn’t get any pictures. Honestly it was a tall skinny pile and with rain making my windows and mirrors less than ideal it was a little scary. Add to that a dozen or so people who are laying down the plastic and shoveling lime from my bucket to hold the plastic down. It was a huge relief when it was all done.

We still haven’t dug any permanent pile beets yet. They have been getting shut down for beet temperatures above 52 degrees F every day and we were really hoping that the sugar content would improve.

The leaves on the trees are really starting to turn now. Usually the sugar content in the beets improves about the same time.

Supposed to rain next couple days so I don’t think we will dig beets till Monday.

Bjrogg

[Pat B]

It's always a crap shoot at planting and harvest isn't it, Brian. Best of luck to you and all farmers at the critical times.

[Marc St Louis]

Was a strange year for the garden up here.  Somethings did OK and others did not.  Lost half my garlic to rot and the lettuce refused to grow

[bjrogg]

It's always a crap shoot at planting and harvest isn't it, Brian. Best of luck to you and all farmers at the critical times.

Yes it is Pat. It’s funny because we basically start out with the same agenda every spring or at least close to it. I’ve been doing this full time for 40 years and grew up with it before that. I don’t remember two years that were the same. Sometimes they are similar but never the same.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Was a strange year for the garden up here.  Somethings did OK and others did not.  Lost half my garlic to rot and the lettuce refused to grow

It has been a strange one here to Marc. I think a lot of it had to do with the smoke from the forest fires. It definitely cut our photosynthesis a considerable amount. Some plants seemed to like that and others didn’t.

Most of my garden looked great. But then the diseases took over and the plants died before they matured. They were very slow maturing.

We were extremely lucky. Normally by the middle of summer there are a couple dozen things I would have done differently. It’s almost November and I can only think of two things I would have done differently. I would have applied the first preventative for white mold two days earlier on our pinto beans ( or maybe just planted all black beans instead) and not planted as many soybeans. Still don’t have them harvested. I’m afraid many in this area weren’t as fortunate. Still a lot of edible beans out there

In my garden well I certainly wouldn’t have put the effort into my muskmelons and watermelons that I did. They grew lots of vine. Set lots of fruit but I don’t think I’m going to get a single rip melon.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Friday I helped my son in the morning with his cattle. When I got done with that I decided to go hunting. It was too wet to do much of anything else. I sat in the same stand as the last time and the wind was right again. I didn’t get a shot but I saw five small spikes and a pretty nice six point. I call that a good day.

The colors are definitely changing now. I think we might try to harvest some sugar beets this afternoon.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Yesterday morning I modified a tree stand I never really felt comfortable in. I took an old climber stand I got from Dbar and a ladder stand I got from my neighbor and put parts of them together.

The ladder stand never had arm rests or a rail. I have another one that is similar but it does have a rail. I never liked the rail. It’s made more for a gun or cross bow and to far ahead for my liking. I like shooting from and sitting in this one now. It’s a little trickier to get in but not bad. The rail both a comfortable armrest and safety rail. I can comfortably shoot sitting or standing and the rail isn’t in my way.

Then I went to a good friend’s wedding.

I think this afternoon we will probably start harvesting sugar beets

Bjrogg

[chamookman]

Thought of You yesterday BJ - lot's of Combines and Grain Trucks going by the House. Good Luck with the Beans !  Bob.

[bjrogg]

Thought of you to Bob. We didn’t combine beans. It was cloudy until about three o’clock here and then the sun came out. We did dig sugar beets.

It went pretty good. Had to load trucks on the road. Field wasn’t terribly wet, but sticky and a little soft. We did pretty good for half a day. We got 19 acres dug. I did a yield check. It came out 42.9 tons per acre. Lots of truck loads to go yet. Hopefully the sugar percentage is good.

Bjrogg

[M2A]

Hope it all goes well for you this harvest. Sugar seemed pretty high in the fruit here so hope you have the same with your beets. Need to do some catch up on your thread here.
Mike