Category: Country Life

Wheat Field Fire

We did have some small amount of excitement this year while harvesting wheat.  It was the perfect storm in many ways, mostly in good ways thankfully!

It was on one of those really super hot days we have been having here at the tail end of summer.  Probably in the high 90’s and we were two rounds into a field of standing wheat. Hoot had just climbed in the cab with Matt and I to make a few rounds (to make sure we are doing it right of course!) and as we turn the corner in the combine he starts to yell and point, “Burning Mommy!”  And sure enough I looked to where he was pointing and saw flames 15 feet in the air….chaos quickly ensued.  “Fire!” over the radio, meanwhile one of our guys saw the flames and was running to his rig to get extinguishers.  Equipment driving out of the field as fast as possible, a call to 911…it was all very crazy!

Here are the things that went wrong…our best guess is that the sickle bar hit a rock and caused a spark, which caused the field to start on fire very quickly.  The wheat is incredibly dry when we are harvesting so it doesn’t take much for fire to start and spread very rapidly.final

But here’s what went right.  Firefighter Hoot was on scene and spotted the blaze quickly!  We had everyone there!  Both truck drivers, my dad, Matt and myself were all miraculously in the field at that moment.  90% of the time it’s just the combine driver and maybe a truck driver, not much for manpower.   The wind was blowing away from the standing wheat so it spread the fire as far as the headland and then stopped.  We had plenty of fire extinguishers and the guys moved fast to wet the standing wheat and put out small spot fires.  It was a great job done by everyone!final-2

We were lucky that day, this whole thing could have been a very different story if the wind had shifted, if it had happened just 30 minutes before…really the what-ifs are endless.  I have never harvested looking back in my mirrors so much in my life!  It was also a little nerve wracking harvesting next to the burned area on the next round, I am pretty sure I was holding my breath!  final-1I can honestly say this year I was glad to put the combine away on the hottest days that were yet to hit a few weeks ago.  Here’s to hoping that never happens again, and if it does, we get all the things that “went right” again!

Harvest Excited, Harvest Tired

I finally sat down and took a deep breath today. We are in the heart of harvest here and there’s a part of me that thrives on all that we accomplish in a day.  And there’s a part of me that’s just exhausted and wishes I could sleep for days.  I am harvest excited and I am harvest tired.

Catching a quick lunch in the shade of our seed truck.

There’s a part of me that sees harvest as dragging on forever then there’s a part of me that laughs at that part because we aren’t even close to being done.  There’s a part of me that gets so excited with good yields and very frustrated with fields that aren’t producing.  Because for us, this is it, this is when it all either happens or doesn’t for our whole year.

final-129A very rough, very awful cabbage field….wondering where the crop is? So were we unfortunately.

Harvest has been long, long days, long nights.  Days filled with paperwork that still has to get finished, bills that still need to be paid.  Logistics of who goes where and what needs to get done, what fields to irrigate, what fields to harvest…a constant triage of priorities.  Then evening comes, the boys in tow, and dinners and family time out in the field.  Which moves us straight into nights of infant cries, and the many needs of a toddler at 3am.  We are smiling, because that crazy spirit in us, that now 4 generations of harvest, heat, dust and dirt…we just can’t shake it.

And the truth is, I already know I’ll be sitting in the same pickup, watching the same beautiful sunset next year, looking forward to the harvest on the horizon.  I am continually excited at the potential, and feeling of a years worth of hard work, just hoping it all pays off.  This farming thing, it isn’t easy, it’s tough on levels that you put your heart and soul into.  It’s something that maybe only a farmer understands and only a farmer would sign up for.  It’s our life though, at times it’s beautiful, at times hard…but either way here we go again for another day!

Photo Friday, Grass Seed Harvest

Grass seed harvest has begun…well then it started raining so it stopped.  But it will pick up again once things dry out.  Until then here are a few photos from the first few days.


This is tall fescue seed that is being harvested.  It has been cut and cured on the ground for about a week.  Once harvested the seed is trucked to a cleaner, tested for weeds and germ, then sent all over the world for golf courses, laws, sports fields, etc.


Here are some photos from day 1 of harvest out in the field.  We run two combines, one John Deere and one New Holland.



Davor is learning the life of harvest, which means family time is spent out in the fields.  The boys and I bring dinner to the crew every night, and sometimes Hoot and I get to drive the “bines” (as he calls them) while the drivers take a break.  I use the term “sometimes” very lightly, it’s hard to keep that boy out of those combines!



 

 

So while this break because of the weather is frustrating, we will get back out into the fields soon.  Until then we will enjoy a little slower pace this weekend, and pray for more sunshine to show up…very soon!!