Posted by billonthefarm on December 06, 2009 at 16:40:57 from (98.108.64.166):
This was a year like no other in memory. We started in planting late and ran in the rain and mud everything we tried to do all year. We raised a good crop but paid for it dearly with worry and concern. As we could see the end getting closer the sense of urgency became greater and I became increasingly anxious to finish. Sunrise in the heart of Illinois, when I left the house saturday morning it was 12 degrees by the time I took this picture it might have warmed up some. One last field of corn was waiting for us.
We has picked the endrows and had opened it up in while there were snow flurries in the air friday evening. We were in the field and ready to go.
Saturday was a beautiful day, the mud was gone now, with the previous cold days and nights the ground was frozen solid. We had space in the bins and the race to finish was on.
Cliff was in the combine and roaring to go. I was worried about all the frost but he thought with the cold temps it wouldnt be a problem so we went. He was right, it never gave us any trouble. We dont have alot of expirence picking corn in december when it is 15 degrees luckily.
After helping get morning chores done Nick was in the auger wagon chasing cliff the rest of the day.
Logan and I were hauling corn back to the bins about a mile away. Caught Logan at a slow moment. At this point in the harvest we all felt like we needed a little break.
Couldnt have asked for a better day, everything just clicked along the way we wanted.
Wrigley was there to lend a hand!
And this is how harvest ends,the roar of the combine, the last few stalks of corn, three guys standing at the end of the field watching it happen and thoughts of days to come. We are done, finally! Thought harvest would never start and then thought it would never end. We are supposed to help harvest the test plot for the local FFA chapter next week so I am looking forward to that. Always happy to lend them a hand. It will be a nice way to spend a day. As always if not for the help of Travis, who was gone deer hunting that last day but has been helping us for 8 years now and knows the operation inside and out, Nick, who does chores everyday and anything else I ask him to do and so many little things that would never get done otherwise and he is also my backup combine operator, my young helper Logan who joined us in october and has been so valuable this fall and I have enjoyed having him around. Cliff, who claims to be retired but combined all but a few acres of our entire crop, said he would be headed to Florida sunday morning but I checked and he is still in Illinois. Akron services from Brimfield, well, I just can say enough about them. They haul our dried corn from our drying bins to the elevator or river terminals with their fleet of trucks. They kept the bins cleaned out so we could keep putting wet corn back in and get done. Good people and a well run business! We may be done but almost no one else is. Some guys are still picking corn near 30% moisture. Elevators get plugged up with wet corn on a daily basis. There were guys still trying to finish soybean harvest the last couple days. MANY people here will still be harvesting christmas or later. We are currently under a winter storm watch. One inch of snow tonight but they are saying 6 inches of snow with high winds tuesday. That will bring everything to a stop and there will be thousands of acres of corn yet to harvest here. Its been a long year, a tough year, even a hard year and for many its far from over. We have no tillage work done, calves still arent weaned, no manure has been hauled and so many other projects uncompleted it is hard to comprehend BUT we had a bountiful crop and its in the bins so I still have much to be thankfull for. bill
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