We are finally done harvesting our 7th crop for 2016, spring wheat!! 
The process of harvesting is slow for us, mainly because we are working with equipment that runs…but is old and a bit slower than newer machines and equipment. But it gets the job done, and when the weather cooperates, it works well for our farm.
The first step is combining the wheat, or separating the grain kernels from the straw. 
You can see the grain filling up in the grain bin behind my head while I drive. This is where the grain is kept until I have to dump into the truck. Once it gets into the tank we then dump into trucks on the go. The less we stop, the more we get done, and efficiency is key.
Once the truck is full it takes the wheat to our grain bins. Using an auger, we move the wheat from a pit on the ground up to the top of the grain bin and it falls down in slowly filling up with grain.
The tube that you see along the ground is an airation tube. When the grain comes in it can be very warm because of the heat of the day. The tube runs to the outside of the bin and has a fan attached. The fan brings cool air into the bin at night, then as it blows through the wheat it cools it down so it can be safely stored.
Hoot & my mom Karen (better known as Mimi) checking things out while the wheat dumps from the truck into the auger.
This wheat will be stored here until later into the winter when we will truck it up to a seed plant to be cleaned and eventually taken out to farms next spring to be planted again. It feels good to be cleaning the combine one last time of the season.
We are hitting the point here when we get to put things to bed for the year. Homestretch is always a nice term, followed by a long sigh of “there’s light at the end of the tunnel!”
NuttyGrass 