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We're down to 50 acre days right now because we're in the oats. This is not good as it is about half of what we should accomplish in a day, which is stressing me out as we have stuff to do next weekend. And we won't be done. Wish I could just make the calendar stop for a while. It is, in fact, DH's birthday. Apparently some people are celebrating thanksgiving. We are not celebrating - just another dusty workday on the farm, which is sad too.
I am thankful that we're going at all, which is probaby a more appropriate Thanksgiving than celebrating a harvest that is not complete. And in an odd way, the shorter days are allowing more sleep, although I am getting kind of used to the bone-tired exhaustion that harvest brings.
But, back to the sensory experiences of harvest. There is a lot of time to think about all this while the repetitive work of combining and the physical work of trucking goes on. Obviously there is a lot to look at - sensors, the crop feeding, everything that you normally look at while you're driving. Sometimes you get to take a wee break and look at the fall scenery...or the stars at night.
And, harvest is, by nature, noisy. Combining is a violent process - the grain has to be separated from the chaff, stalk and other plant matter by grinding it between a rotating rotor and the slotted concave. Then it is sieved through vibration, the chaff blown away by a rapidly rotating fan, the straw chopped by knives and spread fifteen feet in each direction by the spreaders. Add to that the feeder chain, the rotating canvases and the huge engine that drives the whole thing and it is just loud. However, the operator needs to be listening for "unhappy" combine noises - those are usually feeder chain problems, or backfeeding, or the annoying alarms that will come on if you miss all of the warning noises.
The violence of the combine harvester leads to the feeling part of harvest. You can feel that rotor turning (the cab is right on top of it) and you can feel if the straw is tough. The motion comes right in through the floorboards - it is kind of like sitting on top of a washing machine, but on a much grander scale. And, if you happen to be trucking, you can feel every muscle in your body - or at least I can. The obliques are sore from using both hands to shift (it is complicated). My poor calves are barely moving from stretching to reach the pedals. And the shoulders - I have found new muscles there by turning the large steering wheel. Then there is the dust. It gets into everything - clogs the pores, making for sore skin. If it is oat dust, it is so itchy that it is almost beyond description.
Smells are also a big part of harvest. The smell of the dew falling means that it will be getting tougher to combine soon, and we may have to quit. Smelling "hot" or smoke will make me stop the combine and check everything out.
Taste - well, that is the toughest one. But, as I enjoy my umpteenth cup of chaffy coffee, I know that it is harvest time. And I'll go eat another sandwich...it is no wonder that I don't like having those for the rest of the year, but they are just the most practical thing for in the field.
Anyway, hope we can get started soon, it would be nice if the wind would get up so that we can get a bit more accomplished today!
Please excuse me if this is a little incoherent today. I didn't want to leave this post too long - I'll probably end up forgetting half of what I want to say by the end of the post, but at least some of this stuff will be down for posterity.
We have been combining more or less non stop since my last post. It is always an interesting experience, this year is no exception.
Day one - do I remember how to do this? What did I bring to the combine last year to make this more comfortable? Combine until eleven and happily go home to bed.
Day two - do I remember how to fix this? Always have a few glitches out there - I'm pretty sure that was the day that I got to get intimate with the rotor (Dale plugged the combine) again. Combine until 2. Sleepy, but ok.
Day three - finish the first field. Yay! Move on to the next half section right at dusk. I notice that we do that a lot. Keep on combining - I think we went until midnight or so.
Day four - I actually went back to bed. For the first time in my memory, I got up, said bye to the kids and then went back to bed. Only to be woken up by a grain buyer who wanted a meeting, at my kitchen table, 3 minutes after he phoned. Combined until twelve thirty, when it drizzled. Trouble falling asleep, unfortunately - we had planned to go a bit longer.
Day five - Kids came for a combine ride! That is always fun. Finished the second field, moved onto the next one and...the combine dies. Like dead. Won't start. I sat in the dark for a while waiting for Dale to come, started it, it moved 25 feet and died again. Eventually we got the mechanic out - we had killed the alternator. Expensive, but easy to fix.
Day six - finished the little field we had started and went to move into the wheat. That involves a bit of adjustment...and we were doing it, of course, at dusk. The wheat ended up still being too tough (wet), so we moved back into the canola - undoing all the adjustments. And continued on until two.
Day seven. Finished up that canola - it was Norm's, so he's done harvest. Moved to the next canola field, at dusk. Again. Tougher going there - the canola is harder to put through and Dale was trucking it away, so it was a long haul. Quit round about one, when I was only able to drive about 2 miles per hour to get the crop into the machine.
Day eight - a few hours of canola and then back to wheat. The sample wasn't coming out right, so Dale made adjustments. For 3 hours. And still wasn't happy, so he went to buy a new part for the combine that is supposed to make it better. Somehow managed to get a bin of wheat finished...about one thirty.
Day nine - well, it has just started. I have done a load of laundry, gone to get chemical, met with a chemical rep about some chemical trials that we did this year and have mostly been trying to figure out why I'm so tired. Dale finished filling a bin, moved the truck, tried to put the new part in the combine (but has quit trying as it will involve much drilling and we don't have time for that) and now he's gone to combine the plots. They are canola variety trials - he'll do those up and then I'll be back into the wheat again.
Oh yeah, and Auntie Pat and her sister Joan are due to arrive in a few hours - I'll try to squeeze in a visit over suppertime. The house will be how it is, just hope that we're able to keep everything else together until then.
Everybody gets those earworms. I have one, despite the fact that I haven't heard the song in...almost 10 months.
It seems a real crime when all that goes through my head in this lovely autumn weather is a Christmas song. Specifically, 'White Christmas'
If you ever had to sing the song all the way through, you would know that the introduction goes: "the sun is shining, the grass is green..." Ah, what a wonderful image.
But, seriously, the grass could die now. Really, I need it to die. DH took care of the house yard and I'm hoping that dad will manage the barnyard mowing this week. Otherwise it has been an interminable summer of riding the lawnmower in circles around here, pushing the lawnmower at the lake and staring at grass that won't stop growing.
Perhaps I don't appreciate mowing the lawn because I don't really have to shovel snow. It either blows away in our mighty winds or falls in such quantities that heavy equipment is required to get rid of it. So, I am dreaming of a White Christmas, but it is a distant dream. My current dream goes something like hot, dry and windy...for the next month at least. And the grass...well, it can do what it wants.
Woke up in a good mood today. That was quickly tempered by my dh's "hesitant" mood. I'm about ready to freak.
See, the forecast is good. And I don't believe them. Not for a second. They're only right when it rains...which has been something like 100 out of the last 115 days.
And the grain is still tough. Actually,it is damp. Of course, it was tested WAY too early this morning, and my sheets that I put out dripping at 11:15 are dry and on the beds by 1:30. However, I digress.
I am not combining, and I'm going crazy. I do NOT idle well.
But there is nothing that I can do. DH took the swather out to open up the oats. He may continue on those, although dfil wants to cut them with the pull-type. And I said "let him". Actually, I probably said "f-in well let him" - potty mouth being one of my coping strategies.
My canning is caught up. I have washed the bedding today. I am so caught up on laundry it is scary. I will wash my kitchen floor for the third time this week. My walls are clean. I have read books. My office is still a mess, but I have to have something to do when the 'rents arrive to take care of the kids. So the cleaning coping strategy is out.
My canning room is organized to the point of labelled shelves. Jo and I built a shelf last night, to further aid in the organization. I'm organized to death.
I'm out of snack baggies, so I can't continue parcelling out bulk food into snack containers. Actually, I probably could, but then someone would need a little container for leftovers or lunch and we would not have any and I'd be in trouble.
So, please excuse me while I go outside and till the garden - again. There is simply nothing better to do, no matter how hard I try.
The amitriptyline worked, it always does. Pity about the hangover headache, but that is the price I pay for actually being able to absorb food.
That leads me to my next problem. Tomatoes. I suffer with this every year. Every year I plant fewer and fewer plants, yet I still have tomatoes to deal with.
This year they are rotting - literally. Late Blight is a problem with anything we picked after the first go (the one where everyone thought I was crazy, picking the green tomatoes well before the frosts). The hubby says they taste...tasteless. So I'm reluctant to go to all the trouble of canning them or turning them into salsa.
But, I think to myself, what else is there to do with them? I don't eat tomatoes, except for the very rare bit of pizza sauce that I allow myself. I even eat my spaghetti with parmesan cheese. Yes, I miss tomatoes. Not enough to put up with the cramps or the craps, but I do miss them.
So, I guess I'd better get it in gear and get working on these lovely things. Perhaps I'll recruit the children - lengthens the process by about three times, but it does make it more interesting. And theoretically, they're learning something.
I could come up with many, many reasons to hate English.
I'm still in my grouchy mood, by the way, trying to rehydrate my body while wishing that the whole outdoors would dehydrate.
Yet I digress. Today, a PD day. Slept in. Kids watched StarWars - yet another thing I don't get, won't get, and am not sure that I'm in favour of, but again, not today's post.
We did the job jar. All fun until someone got "sweep and tidy the basement" and the paper explosion needed cleaned up. And someone else got "sweep and tidy the kitchen" and the cooking explosions needed cleaned up. Rebellion ensued. Grouchy mother relented and suggested that we go to town to do the errands.
Sent eldest searching for "stamps" while holding envelopes in my hand. After ten minutes, followed child out to the office (logical), where she was emptying the craft cupboard (illogical). To get the "stamps"...argh...
I go to get my colour done in a few weeks. Providing that I still have any hair to put it in, it will be a good thing. Not sure if I'll rip it all out before it is gray, or just patches...
Ugh, I feel awful today.
As in, I wish I could move my bed next to the toilet.
Fortunately it is a slow day - I clear off the entire calendar for September in order to harvest. And we've done 90 stinkin' acres. At this rate it will take another 36 or so days of actual combining to get the rest of the crop off. And that is only after it dries up.
I have considered a new facebook status update - Piss off & Dry Up? Probably a bit harsh. I have grade 6 students as friends. They may not understand. And maybe I'm not just talking about the weather, but my stupid bowels.
Oh well, will get hubby to drive to the school barbeque tonight - I'll take a few T3's and make it through. Just hope that this settles down soon - if it ever does dry up, I need to be able to drive that combine!
Happy full moon, everyone!
