Spring Seeding 2016

I know amidst all the posts lately about fitness and the triathlon fever that seems to have taken over my blog, it's easy to forget that-- Oh, yeah... I live on a FARM! Today's post will take a closer look at our efforts to plant our crops this spring.

This year, we seeded yellow field peas, spring wheat, and barley. We also planted some hay mix. Typically, we have some winter wheat, which is planted in the fall, but this year, we didn't have any in the ground, so this meant we really had a lot of work ahead to get the entire farm planted in the spring.

As of today, we are *pretty much* done with seeding. We've actually had quite a bit of rain in the second half of April and early May, so the guys have worked hard to get a lot done in between rains. Because of the rain, some parts of some fields were too wet and muddy to seed into. We'll have to go back in later this spring at some point and fill in those pot-holes and gaps.

Another reason we technically aren't done with seeding is because we haven't seeded our organic farm ground yet. This year, we had some land that was coming into production for the first time in many years (coming out of CRP) and we decided we wanted to farm this ground organically. I can go into more detail on this in another post sometime. We are starting to work on seeding the organic ground today, and plan to have it done within about two days.

As I mentioned in my recent Weekly Review post, Jeff and Tom had a big, big push of long days about a week ago recently to finish the primary seeding effort before another cold snap and rain event. They took turns running the drill. We seed with a farm implement called an air drill, which is pulled by a big tractor. It looks kind of funny.

The seed is loaded into a big cart, along with any fertilizer or other supplements that will go into the ground at the same time. The drill uses air to move the seed and other product through hoses and down into the ground. It's nice to be able to plant seed and apply fertilizer at the same time, and thus reduces the number of trips a farmer must take through the field. It takes one person to drive the tractor, and typically another person to help shuttle seed from the grain bin in the yard out to the drill when it's time to fill. It's nice to have both people available when filling the cart with seed and fertilizer.

My role in the seeding operation was pretty limited. I did the best I could to help prepare evening meals and the occasional lunch. With my busy track schedule, this often meant that I cooked a bunch of meals ahead on the weekend, and then kept them in the fridge or freezer to be reheated throughout the week. Carol also helped out quite a bit by taking meals out from town or coming out to prepare a meal on an evening that I was gone. I also helped occasionally with shuttling vehicles from one field to another. I think I've mentioned this before, but I know that it would be much more convenient to our farming lifestyle if I wasn't a Track Coach. Everyone here makes accommodations to allow me to continue to do that, which is something that I greatly appreciate.

Seeding has been intermittently happening over the past several weeks-almost a month. Much of what we planted early on has started to break ground. I love how happy the little seedlings look as they sprout up! One thing that's nice about farming is that you have constant visual reminders of progress, and evidence of your hard work.


Our next big tasks of the farming season will be to continue to finish what's left of the seeding, get the organic ground planted, and then it will more or less be time for spraying season of our conventional farm ground. We also have to work and sort our cows into breeding groups and turn out the bulls, which we plan to do this week. Keep checking in to the blog for updates on how everything is going!

Winter Wheat Harvest 2015

What a crazy growing season it has been!

Harvest is really when we see what we have for a crop. It's a reflection of a year's worth of planning and work, mixed with some luck.

Grain cascades out the back of the truck in to the hopper of the auger, where it is carried up into the grain bin.

As you may have read in my harvest post from last week, we started cutting winter wheat last Monday and went pretty hard for seven days straight. The crop is mostly decent in some places for the weather conditions we had throughout the growing season this year. Our bushels per acre are definitely down from what they have been in recent years for winter wheat and in some fields, they're downright poor with barely enough yield to pay for running the combine. The crop is what it is and there's not as much of it, so it's just a matter of getting it cut and moving on.

Jeff walks between the tractor, which powers the auger, and the grain truck.

Montana is the third-highest wheat producing state in America, after Kansas and North Dakota. Hill County, where our farm is located, is right in the middle of what's called the "Golden Triangle,"--one of the best wheat-producing areas in Montana. Hill County had a doozie of a weather pattern this year-- drought conditions through the first six months of the year, then a horrendous 4th of July hail storm. So, what that means is farmers who may have had thinner-than-normal crops to begin with due to drought, then got hit with hail, which in some cases, knocked down what was left. According to this article from the Great Falls Tribune, Hill County experienced over seven million dollars in hail damages: Hill County Hail Damage Could Exceed $7.5 Million Farmers saw a significant portion of that damage. Our own farm was affected.

Winter wheat near Minneota Hall that was cut on Sunday. Sweetgrass Hills in the background.

This is the first year of implementation of the new protection programs for farmers from the most recent Farm Bill and we are learning all about how that works. Let it be known to my non-farming readers that no farmer wants to see their crop do poorly; everyone wants to cut a gangbuster crop every year. No one wants a "hand-out" from the government. But, if there weren't protection programs and Farm Bills in place, there wouldn't be farmers. Some years, the crop is not a bin-buster, but a complete bust. A successful Farm Bill keeps farmers farming and keeps food and land in production.

A wheat field, baled as hay to use for our animals, rather than being harvested for grain.

The above photo is of some land that a neighbor of ours farms. His crop was unfortunately so poor that it wouldn't have paid for him to harvest it. But, you still have to clear the field somehow so it can be ready for it's next crop. So, we used a swather to cut the wheat and make hay bales, which we'll feed to our cows this year. Sometimes you just have to be a bit creative and think of other ways to use what you have.

Grain bins between Minneota Hall and the Inverness Road.

After shutting the combine down for the evening on Sunday night, we haven't started it up again yet this week. It started raining on Sunday and has gone off and on until this morning. Hopefully tomorrow we can cut the last 100 acres or so of winter wheat. Then, it will be time for barley, then spring wheat.

Before the night was over on Sunday, however, we did take part in what is sometimes a harvest necessity, but definitely a tradition: meal in the field! Sometimes, the location where they're cutting wheat is far from the house or it is inconvenient for the harvest crew to come in to the house to eat dinner. So, whoever is in charge of cooking will take the meal out to them. Sunday night was one of these occasions. It just happened that we were cutting right by Minneota Hall, which is an old community call out in the country near our farm, so it worked perfectly to serve the meal right on the cement step in front of the hall!

Carol cooked. We had hamburgers, pasta salad, chips, and fruit, served out of the bed of the pickup.

Carol and Jeff eat while Tom (unpictured) makes another pass in the combine.
When we eat in the field, the guys typically take turns so that the combine can keep rolling.

It seems like it was the winter wheat that was hit the worst by the drought. We had pretty outstanding sub-moisture last fall for winter wheat seeding, and then a warm and mild spring. So, the winter wheat came up hard and fast early in the season, using up all the soil moisture that was available. Then, when the rain stopped, the winter wheat stopped. By the time the storm of the 4th of July hit, it was really too late to be helped by the rain that did come along with it. We've had the rain in July that our crops desperately needed in May and June. Our spring wheat and barley still had a chance to be influenced and helped by a little rain. So, we'll see how it looks when we start cutting those crops.

Harvey stalks a bunny.

Just for fun, here's a photo of Harvey stalking a rabbit. He stalks them and chases them, but almost never catches them. Stay tuned as harvest and farm proceedings continue!

Thankful Thursday ~ State of the Farm

Hey Everyone!

Happy Thursday ! 

Things have been busy around here lately. Jeff and I were on vacation visiting family in Iowa, which you can read a bit about in my previous Thankful Thursday post. Then, we were home for a few days before some great friends of mine came from Seattle for a visit of about four days. I'll write a bit more about that soon, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, for the most part it has continued to be dry, dry, dry with the weather. Jeff just showed me the drought report put out by our local tv news station...

We are located near Havre on that map, in the peachy-tan colored section. So, we're not as bad as some parts of the state, but we're still pretty bad. We have not had much rain at all this year, which makes it pretty difficult to grow crops.

Then, on July 4th we had some "fireworks," brought to us by Mother Nature by way of a severe thunderstorm with rain and the four-letter H word. Yep, you guessed it.. hail. There was actually a tornado warning issued for part of our county. 

To add insult to injury in a dry, dry growing season, we then were hit with sideways hail. On the land that Jeff and I farm, we received hail damage to some extent on 100% of our crops. Tom (Jeff's Dad) had hail damage on some of his land, too. Both farms were reeling from droughthy weather. Some of our neighbors literally have no crop left standing in the field. With harvest just around the corner, their crops are completely totaled out already. 

You can see how the wheat is literally laying down.
The power of strong wind and hail.

So why do I bring all of this up? There are a fair number of friends and family who read this blog because they like to know what is going on here on the farm. Now you know. I'm not writing about this to gain sympathy or to share a sob story. It's simply statement of fact as to how the year is going. I.e. not very well. 

But what we must do, despite everything, or rather, IN SPITE of it all, is try to remain positive and thankful for what we do have. In agriculture, we are completely at the mercy of the weather. We cannot control it. We can do everything we can to plan and prepare for how we expect weather conditions to unfold according to typical weather patterns for our area, but when we have an off-year, that's just how it is. Not every year is going to be tremendous. Most will be average. When bad years or bad things happen, we have to learn from it, if possible, and move on. 

And just to lighten the mood while emphasizing my point, please watch this video from The Lion King:

"It doesn't matter-- it's in the past!"

What happens, happens. And, it really DOESN'T matter, because it's in the past! We can't change the past. What we can control is our own behaviors and actions in the moment and going forward.

Is it easy to let go? Hell no! Does it still suck when bad things happen? Absolutely. But I believe that a person can recognize, acknowledge, and give some weight to the negative emotions we feel due to bad circumstances, learn from them, and then let go and move forward. Try to make the best of what's still here to work with.

Rather timely, I'd add, another blog that I follow posted this article this week: Things You Gain When You Let Go Of Control. It's all about letting go of what you can't control, giving space to those things, and relishing what you can control, which is really only yourself. When you do that, you find that you're more able to recognize the good and the peace in what is all around you, and in yourself. I think the best quote of the entire article is this: "If you want to control your cows, give them a bigger pasture." Ponder that one for a while. :)

And so, even as the summer drags on, with whatever mixed bag of tricks Mother Nature still has in store for us, I remind myself of some of the many reasons I still am glad to be here. What we do on our farm helps feed a hungry world. Today's modern agricultural practices feed more people than ever before, and we are part of that. Every bit of grain we will harvest in the coming weeks, even though it's less than we originally thought we would have, helps to serve others. That's something to be proud of and to be thankful for.

I'll leave you with this Wendell Berry excerpt. There's a lot in there that rings true.


Happy Thursday, everyone! 
What are you thankful for this week?

Thankful Thursday ~ School's Out For The Summer!

School's out for the summer! Our last day of school was actually a few weeks ago, on May 21. I spent that first weekend at State Track and in Bozeman and then all of last week was spent catching up on housework and me-time. Yes, I'm posting my Thankful Thursday post on Friday (sometimes that happens. I don't have all my shit together all the time, but who does? That's why you like this blog, right? Because I'm real? I'll tell myself that anyway... ;) ) and today I'm thankful that school's out for the summer! 

So what does school being out mean for me? In actuality, I still have to work over the summer. I'm not a teacher and I'm not employed by the school, I just work in the school environment most of the time. My co-worker and I are actually running a summer program for the kids in our program. So, we meet with them two days a week and continue therapeutic services, interventions, and a whole lot of positive skill-building throughout the summer. It's a little like summer camp or day camp for the kids. We do crafts, activities, and have deep and meaningful discussions and sharing circles. It's pretty fun, actually. Even though we're the ones as adults who are supposed to be serving them, and we are, often times it's the kids who teach me something. I get just as much "therapy" from them as I hope they get from me. That's definitely something to be thankful for.

In our first week of summer program, the kids painted flower pots in "a way that represents their personality," then they got to plant flowers in their pots and we had a discussion about what it means to take care of something, and empathy.
This is my flower pot, which I painted to match my patio furniture. :)

I'm also spending a lot more time with Jeff, which is awesome. Last week I helped him with several cow chores, including feeding range cake, some fencing, and setting up back-rubbers out in the pasture. I've also helped him with some farm and crop-specific stuff, too. It feels great to be involved and know that I'm helping out with our operation in a tangible way.

Cows eating cake. Love these ladies! 

Here's my arm, holding some barbed wire as we stretch it across the creek. I'm a RancHER. :)

Scouting out the pea crop. What do you think, Harvey? 

I'm thankful for more time during the summer for outdoor recreation and fitness pursuits! And again, thankful to be able to do more of that with Jeff, and Harvey of course, too. Last Sunday we went for another pasture bike ride. We think we covered between 8 and 9 miles. Photos from our previous pasture ride can be found HERE. The weather was warmer this time, so we made sure to find plenty of water stops for the dogs...

Harvey and Abby are enjoying some wading and a drink in the creek that runs through the pasture.
Jeff and I opted to remain on the bridge.

Of course, I'm getting in more running than I did during the end of the school year. I'm thankful that I have a little more flexibility to fit in some runs, and more time to fit in longer runs. Governor's Cup is just over a week away!

Here, Iggy is accompanying me. We officially adopted Iggy earlier this summer.
He's old, but he still likes to go for runs at his own pace.

And I've also been helping Carol, Tom, and Jeff with finishing up with planting our garden. We've got our raised beds full and the seeds are sprouting and yesterday we transplanted our tomatoes and peppers. We're all set, just need to keep up with watering and weeding and we'll be enjoying bountiful harvests, soon! We have already been eating the spinach from the garden and I think there are radish sprouts ready, too. I'm thankful in advance for the yummy veggies we'll have all summer long! Can't wait! 

Also, thankful for honeybee pollinators! Look at the size of those bumbles! 

Big bumblebees on chive blossoms! Seriously. We did NOT have bumblebees this large in Iowa! 

So many things to be excited about and thankful for when it comes to summer time! What are some of your favorite summer activities? What are you thankful for this week?

Harvey is thankful for pickup rides. I'm always thankful for Harvey!

Before and After and Balance

Everybody loves a good Before and After photo series, right?

Jeff and I went on a crop tour last night to check on our winter wheat and peas. I remembered as we were walking around that I had gone for a run up to this field last fall and taken a few photos. So, here are the "before" pictures-- 

Young winter wheat in the furrows. Planted late last fall.

Winter wheat on the right. On the left is a field of spring wheat stubble, which we planted to peas this spring.
Also, a red blur in the stubble-- that's my dog, Harvey. :)

If you want to see the entire blog post from when I took these two "before" photos, you can check it out here: When Farming, Running, and Hunting Collide...

And now the "after" photos. "After" referring to after winter, I guess...

This is our winter wheat crop now. This was planted on pea stubble.
And again, the red-ish blur in the background is my dog. :)

Young pea shoots on spring wheat stubble. 

Even though we haven't had any rain this year, our winter wheat is still doing really good. Especially the wheat that was planted on the pea stubble from a few years ago. That field was yellow peas in the summer of 2013, last year it was fallow, and then last fall we seeded winter wheat on that field. If you remember your basic biology, peas are a nitrogen fixer in the soil. Wheat is a nitrogen taker. Jeff attributes the success (so far) of this crop in great part to the nitrogen left by the peas in the soil. We also had significant moisture last fall for planting, which certainly doesn't hurt.

Here is another image of winter wheat, from a field directly across the road to the south of the winter wheat pictured above.

Winter wheat planted on spring wheat stubble.

This crop was planted on spring wheat stubble. So, this field was spring wheat in summer of 2013, fallow in 2014, then seeded to winter wheat in fall of 2014. This wheat is still not bad, but it's not quite as lush as it's counterpart field that had been planted on pea stubble.  This is the same breed of seed, planted at the same time, with the same moisture and weather happenings as the previously mentioned field. The only difference is the type of crop that preceded it. This is why crop rotation is important (among other reasons).

As a reminder for my non-farming friends and family who read the blog, winter wheat is planted in the fall. It must germinate and grow a little, then with hard freeze it dies off for the winter, only to come back up in the spring. It's an interesting crop in that it's life cycle includes two germinations. There are many reasons to include it in our rotation. One is that we have a big enough farm that the time stress to try to plant all of our crops in the spring is great, so planting some winter wheat in the fall helps a lot. Another reason is that winter wheat does typically yield more bushels than spring wheat does, when the right conditions are present. We planted many acres of winter wheat last fall because we had A LOT of moisture in August and September.

This spring, not so much on the moisture front. When I wrote that it hasn't rained this year, that's more or less true. We haven't had any measurable rain of significance in 2015. Last week it rained, but it was a brief shower and we received less than one tenth of an inch of moisture. Better thana kick in the seat, but we all really could have used more. Many farmers, including us, are seeing the effects of drought and disease on their crops. Jeff and I feel pretty lucky that our fields look as good as they do.

Thinking about crop rotation, if our peas never make it to maturity due to lack of moisture, I wonder if they'll still be a good nitrogen source for a future wheat crop? If so, then we may still be money ahead for having planted them, in the long run. Interesting to think about.

Jeff and I spent quite a bit of time yesterday evening discussing our relationship to the farm. Specifically, my relationship to the farm and how my role fits in to the success of the operation. Something like 90% of family farms include at least one person who works off-farm. I guess I fall into that statistic, with my jobs at the school (I work at the school but I am not employed by the school- I work for a separate company). My income, while small (I positively impact children's lives and make less than a person who stocks shelves at Wal-Mart), contributes to the comfortable lifestyle we lead and helps us continue to farm in best way we can. I know there are times when Jeff has wished I had been more available, and my lack of availability can't always be blamed on my job. While I believe it is very important for anyone to take care of themselves and do what they need to do to maintain their own baseline, there are definitely times when I need to be better about balancing my own wants and needs with those of the farm. I guess it's just an ongoing learning process for me to see how exactly to do that. Not so different from balancing nutrients for a crop.

Is It Ready Yet?

Well, it's still harvest time around here and looks like it will be for a while yet. Harvest this year has felt very disjointed as compared to previous years. At this point we are more or less half finished, maybe slightly less than half. We have Tom's winter wheat and barley cut as well as some re-crop spring wheat. I'm not sure, but I think each field has some pot-holes or patches left uncut that we'll have to go back for. 

Beautiful Spring Wheat!

Right now, we're waiting for things to dry up enough to be able to continue on. In the meantime, our crew has been helping a neighbor and dear friend of ours, Brett, with his harvest. My understanding is that his wheat will all be cut sometime yet today, then the plan is to move all the way up to some re-crop spring wheat that Jeff and I have on our leased ground way up north. 

Jeff is checking on some wheat near the only tree on our farm ground.

There's been a lot of crop tours wherein we'll drive out to the fields, walk around looking at the wheat and assessing it's done-ness. Is it ready yet? Probably not. Jeff thinks the majority of our crop has probably another week-10 days to go. Maybe more. Hopefully we do get to try out the re-crop this evening and it will be cut-able. It would be nice to keep rolling along!

We have had a lot of humidity and rainy weather patterns this August, which is a big reason behind the slow cutting season. You can't cut wheat if it's too wet. It just doesn't go through the combine. All the moisture may not make good cutting weather, but it's great for the impending winter wheat seeding season, which will take place yet this fall. Always look at the bright side! 

Outstanding in our field.
The joke that never gets old!

Today was actually my first day back at my "normal job" at school. We had staff meetings today, then tomorrow is the actual first day of school. I've had a lot of mixed emotions about starting back. I feel bad that I'm not around the farm to help more, but also thankful that we have Stephanie here to help out. I also have some regret over not getting more done over the summer from some arbitrary mental list I created for myself back in May. Trying not to be too hard on myself, though, as we were nevertheless very busy this summer with travel. I did work some over the summer, too, with our Altacare Summer Program. Despite all of this, I am proud of myself for continuing on with running and fitness all summer long, which has been a challenge for me in the past. I feel stronger than I ever have, since high school, so that's good. I am excited for the kids to come back to school tomorrow and to see them all, which will make this wistful feeling of summer's end a little easier.

And, someday too, we'll be done with harvest. Just not anytime in the next couple weeks. We'll keep you posted!

Can you find Quincy, the cat?

Barley Harvest

(See how long you can go reading this post without getting that classic Sting song, "Fields of Gold," stuck in your head!)

Another phase of harvest is more or less complete as of yesterday-- our barley has been cut. During the barley harvest this year, I realized that I don't think I have ever written much about barley during harvest, or really any other time. So, I rode around with Jeff for a few rounds in the truck a few nights ago and snapped a bunch of photos.

First of all, I should say that the barley crop was actually that of Tom and Carol. Tom has raised barley every year since I've been living here and always has a great crop, especially for dryland farming. Jeff has referred to him as the "Barley Wizard" from time to time. This year was another good year for his barley crop.

Tom is in the combine, emptying barley into the red truck, which Stennie is driving.

 Jeff and I had actually wanted to grow some barley on our own farm ground this year, but were not able to get a contract. My understanding is that barley is a crop that you have to have a contract with an elevator or malt plant in order to raise it, promising them so many bushels, etc. If you don't have a contract, you may be stuck with your crop, unable to haul it anywhere, or only able to haul it to an elevator very far away because they're the only one who will take it. So, since were not able to secure a contract, we didn't raise any.

Photo a little fuzzy with the sunlight, but I still really like it. Can you pick out the farm and then the Sweetgrass Hills in the background? 

 Barley is great in a crop rotation because it has different nutrient needs from wheat. Barley's roots also grow differently in the ground, so it breaks up the soil a little differently, too.

Another kind of fuzzy photo, but I just love the mood of this photo. We have had some great skies lately!

 Barley dust has a way of sticking to sweaty skin, which then makes a person's whole body feel itchy. Of course, our hottest days of harvest so far this year were the days we were cutting barley. Stennie has been a real trooper for signing on and sticking with us! Although, I am thinking we talked it up so much that maybe it was actually slightly less itchy than she expected? I hope?!

Thumbs Up for Barley! 

Love this view through several windows out to the combine. 

Tarping up the truck by the light of the setting sun.

Among the fields of barley... 

 Barley looks pretty similar to wheat, but has a longer awn. Read a bit about awn here: Farm Awn. Also, when barley is ripe, the head kind of gets that sad, laying down look. This is because the kernels are so heavy that they weigh down the heads. So in fact, it's not sad-- it's happy when the barley does this because it means it's time to cut!

Our barley is raised as malt barley. So, once it's cut, a sample is sent to the elevator/malt plant in Great Falls and they'll test it to see if it makes malt grade. Then we haul the harvested crop to the elevator. I'm not actually sure what would happen if the barley doesn't "make malt," as they say, because since I've been here, that's never been an issue.

Some of you are probably a step or two ahead of me, but since we raise our barley for malt, the final to-consumer product is...BEER! The elevator we sell to is a malt supplier for many different brewers. From Miller-Coors to small craft breweries, when you take a swig, you could be supporting Prairie Sun Farms! Drink up! :)

And because who can resist this cutie, the next three photos are of Harvey checking out the Barley!

Such a handsome Vizsla!

As of now, we are about right in between the winter wheat/barley harvest and spring wheat harvest. We're going to have a bit of a break before the majority of the spring wheat crop is ready to cut. Stennie and I are thinking about a day-trip or two to close-by environs. Jeff and Tom may do a bit of custom cutting for some of our neighbors. Then, likely next week sometime the spring wheat harvest will pick up and we'll really begin again.

Anyone else still harvesting out there? If not crop, then what are you harvesting in your life (either literally or metaphorically?)

Until next time!

Puddles and Pests

We are definitely in the throes of summer heat these days with temperatures in the upper 80s and low 90s and nary a breeze to be felt or cloud to provide a moment of shady refuge. The heat certainly puts stress on the crops, especially our spring wheat, which was seeded later in the spring. 

Because of this heat stress, we were especially glad to drive up the road Friday morning and see this:

(This and all subsequent photos were taken by Jeff on his phone.)

Puddles!

 We had a little rain event on Thursday at about Midnight that gave the wheat a quenching shower and vastly improved our outlook for the success of our crop. Jeff and I spent some time walking down the road, checking the rain gauge, and walking through the spring wheat.

 

It was a pleasant 60 degree morning with cloud cover-- a much welcomed change from the recent heat-- and nice weather for a crop tour. The wheat liked it, too!

There is one particular creature that always seems to be more abundant in heat, however, and that would be rattlesnakes. We hadn't seen any in the yard yet this year, but had seen a few on the roads among our fields, and had just been discussing that it would only be a matter of time before we encountered one up close and personal.  

That afternoon, as the day warmed to around 80 degrees, we spent some time doing yard work-- mowing, weedeating, eradicating weeds, and getting some of our grain bins ready for harvest. I was up near the house working on weeds when I heard Jeff yell from one of the back bins on the other end of the yard. Based on what I knew he was doing, and where he was, I figured one of two things had happened:

1) He needed some help with machinery

or...

2) He had an encounter with a rattlesnake. 

If you guessed option 2, you are correct! Jeff had been cautious approaching the bin, but we hadn't quite trimmed the weeds around it's opening yet and as he reached down into the grass to look for something, he heard the telltale, unmistakable warning of a snake's rattle. If he had been 18 inches closer to the snake, he would have had his hand right on him. That's when he backed away slowly and started yelling for me to come over. 

The snake was hard to see at first. Natural selection creates some excellent camouflage. But once I found him, coiled, milky-eyed, and angry, I stayed and kept an eye on him (from a safe distance!) while Jeff went after the shotgun. 

Shortly thereafter, the snake met his untimely end:

(Warning: Somewhat gruesome photo to follow!)

 Since he was coiled when Jeff shot, the snake lost his head, his rattle, and a few chunks of his midsection. Needless to say, he wouldn't be bothering us anymore.

We talk all the time about how rattlesnakes are part of the ecosystem here and are actually quite good at keeping gophers, mice, and other small rodents from overpopulating and becoming a nuisance. But. BUT. A person can't allow a dangerous rattlesnake to be living near a grain bin in their yard. Especially when that person has a curious farm dog and with harvest approaching. Our general rule is that snakes in a field or pasture will probably be left alone, but in or near the yard and they should probably be toasted. 

So, now we know for sure they're out there. Time to make sure the yard and surrounding environs stay nicely mowed and trimmed, keep a cautious eye and ear out, maintain eye contact on the dog as much as possible, wear close-toed shoes, watch where you're walking or running, etc. Trying to keep close encounters of the rattling kind at bay until fall. 

To read more about snakes in the yard, check out this post I did from about a year ago-- one of my most popular ever! http://www.prairieponderingsmt.blogspot.com/2013/07/snakes-on-plains.html.

Until next time, readers!