Life on the Farm

[M2A]

Looks like you got some nice mellons coming along BJ. Also great looking arrow you sent out for the trade.

Best wishes on your bean harvest.

I had the crew long enough this week to get some golds picked for longer term storage, 30 bins. They are a bit green now but will ripen up slowly over time in the cooler. I hope they will be ready for retail sale come December.
IMG_5101 by Mike Allridge, on Flickr

Only grow a few acres of pumpkins now a days but they are about 2 weeks off yet. Some powdery mildew in them but it looks like an average crop.
IMG_5100 by Mike Allridge, on Flickr

Not really farm related but after a long time of not bow hunting I'm finally going to get back to it this year i hope. So was putting a new ladder stand together in the tractor shed the other evening. Then I heard the buzz overhead. Seems one of the local hives thought they needed to find a better home. Odd time of the year for a swarm and not the best timing for me lol. They would have left me alone but after a bit I figured I better just go home lol. They were there the next morning  still but had left by mid afternoon. One of these days I'm going to collect a few swarms and start a few of my own hives but too many other projects atm and this small swarm was a bit too high to get at easy. Most folks dont have these kind of issues at the office haha.
IMG_5105 by Mike Allridge, on Flickr
IMG_5104 by Mike Allridge, on Flickr         

[bjrogg]

Thanks for sharing Mike.

Those apples look really nice. We don’t have much for apples this year. The ones we do have are very small.

I see quite a few pumpkins on wagons for sale around the area now.

My muskmelons are getting to the end. They were a little small but very tasty. I probably should have watered them earlier but we don’t have enough water in our well for the house let alone the garden.

We e have plenty for ourselves and enough to share with a few close friends.

My watermelons aren’t quite ready yet. My wife and I love eating watermelon standing over the kitchen sink. Em I can’t wait.

Scott you are correct about the being a pain cleaning out the combines when switching bean colors. My son and I probably spent at least a hour cleaning out the navy beans. My nephew spent another half hour cleaning his. We still had a few white beans in the sample and they probably cost us a couple grand. I’m about to give up on Navy’s. The market is shrinking and right now the price is $4 a cwt less than Blacks. They are much riskier to grow and don’t yield any better. In the past they were a premium, but now at a discount it’s not a very good economic decision.

We did finish our beans yesterday and got all the beans my son had ready. One thing nice about no rain is we can sure get a lot of work done.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

In the last field

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Our yields have been higher but our quality is excellent.

Here’s a tease of that beautiful bean footage.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

And then we worked at my grandsons field. He helped me out and things got interesting. Love having him ride along and we took a selfie

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

My son finished up the last of his black beans yesterday. We still have some to do for a couple neighbors but we are done with ours. So far it’s been the easiest edible bean harvest I can remember.
No rain days. At least nothing that amounted to anything.

My brother and I started planting wheat. He has been working at fall tillage working the clover cover crop up. We normally would have left it longer but it’s so dry it hasn’t been growing anyway. He has chemo and radiation next month five days a week so we are going to be missing him then. Might as well get as much done as we can now. We decided to terminate the clover. Spread rye for a winter cover and do our tillage.

I was thinking about no till wheat and letting him stay at fall tillage. I tried about 21 acres but decided to have him work it ahead.

I have a little moisture. Not much. Hopefully I can get this wheat up and it’s gets enough rain to keep it alive. We are still very dry

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Well here’s something I haven’t had in a while. A rain day

Started planting wheat this morning and the sky was looking a little like rain.

The tractor my brother is doing the tillage with is our newest tractor and the one that makes the most trouble.

I’m sure it’s just another sensor, but it just decided it wasn’t going to move and stopped right under the windmill.

My nephew had to help him pull it out of the field.

They know more than got it to the buildings and I got seed wagon and grain drill inside and it started raining.

Really spotty but we got .7” here so that’s good. Wish it was all planted now. It’s okay though. It’s early yet.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

If you look at the base of the windmill you can see my brother in his tractor. Gives you a little idea how big these mills are.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Tractor towed to the yard. Sitting in the rain

Bjrogg

[chamookman]

Thought of You , when I heard the Storm Warnings, that went up for Your area yesterday. Bob

[Pappy]

Very dry here also BJ, calling for a little chance today and then none for another week or so, September is usually a dry month for us anyway but with the dry summer it has made it worse. Leaves are drying up and falling like late fall. Woods are really opening up. I have no crops to plant so I guess it;s ok for now. 
 Pappy

[bjrogg]

Thought of You , when I heard the Storm Warnings, that went up for Your area yesterday. Bob

Thanks Bob. We got lots of lightning and thunder. Just a little bit of a sprinkle. Then when it looked like it was done it decided to drop everything it had and gave us .7” on this field. It was definitely appreciated.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Very dry here also BJ, calling for a little chance today and then none for another week or so, September is usually a dry month for us anyway but with the dry summer it has made it worse. Leaves are drying up and falling like late fall. Woods are really opening up. I have no crops to plant so I guess it;s ok for now. 
 Pappy

There’s definitely a change in the air Pappy.

The windmills are pointing to the north now and a cool chilly north wind is powering them. The temperature had dropped to low 40’s at night even in the 30’s onto a high in the low 50’s. Our clouds are those low fall clouds that remind one of fall.

We fixed the tractor yesterday morning. It was just a sensor.

Had to wait till it dried off a little on top to start planting again. Did some logistics to get wheat seed were we needed it and refilled seed wagon. Did a few little repair jobs on the grain drill and even cleaned my tractor windows .

Got planting about 12:30 pm. Not making any dust now.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Been a busy week.

The weather has definitely changed. We are still dry as soil conditions go, but It’s been cool, damp and occasionally drizzle and mist. Not the nice bean harvesting weather we had just a little while ago. Lots of beans out there yet and now the struggles of harvest are leaving them out there awhile longer. Which also prevents them from planting wheat.

I was hoping to get Sunday off, but with the weather forecast I decided to work at finishing planting wheat. Got done and I’m really glad to have that job checked off the list.

Also got my son’s corn silage chopped. When we had cattle we had a chopper. Now he hires a neighbor.

Wow these new choppers are amazing. 800 hp and a twenty foot head. It runs through the corn. Makes our old whopper chopper look like a toy.

Glad to have my son’s corn chopped. Will soon be time to harvest the high moisture shelled corn. He’s almost out. Hopefully corn is ready in a few weeks. At least enough to get some harvested to feed the cattle.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Bjrogg