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!

Goodbye, Girl Friday

Our harvest and seeding help this year was my dear friend Stephanie, or Stennie. If you don't remember my introductory post about her, check it out HERE.  She was truly our Girl Friday while she was here- helping us out with a variety of tasks, and always with a cheerful smile. Tonight is her last night on the Hi-Line. Tomorrow, we're driving down to Bozeman, then sending her on the plane back to Iowa on an early Saturday morning flight. Stennie was kind enough to write a reflection on her time working and playing with us over the past two months. So, it's Goodbye, Girl Friday, Harvest Help, Dear Friend... Goodbye, Stennie (for now!) Read on... 

“Take corners in 2nd gear with a load. A slow idle in 3rd is ok if the truck’s empty. Take the Goldstone Road intersection in 3rd whether empty or full.” I repeated to myself Jeff’s suggestions as I drove the red truck back to Katie and Jeff’s yard from their spring wheat fields north of the correction line. The truck was full: I was hauling about 24,000 pounds of wheat, just harvested. It was up to me to know how to stop the truck with that load, not putting too much faith in the brakes, needing to know when to downshift for the engine to help slow the momentum. Shifting gears in these trucks has been a full upper body movement for me. In the red truck I had to lean forward to shove the gear into 2nd, feeling for it to click a few times as it settles into place.  

Happily now, almost two months later, driving the red truck has become much more intuitive. I do still struggle to find 1st gear in Esther and only yesterday did I finally beat my previously max speed of 17 mph in the tandem. Though I can be hard on myself, I want to celebrate what I have learned. At first, each truck’s idiosyncrasies were overwhelming. The red truck was simple: start and stop with a turn of the key. Add a step in Esther: make sure the “engine stop” knob is pushed in before turning the key to start; pull that knob to shut off the engine when done. As for the tandem… start by turning the key, then pushing the black button, then let the air build, then push in the yellow knob to turn off the air brakes … At least now I can successfully move any one of them to where they need to be, albeit some more quickly than others.

This truck is named Esther. 

I’ve enjoyed driving truck for both harvest and seeding. I appreciated the rhythm of a harvest day, from washing combine windows first thing in the morning to learning to anticipate when the combine driver would have cut enough wheat or barley to need to dump into my truck. I was excited and intimidated to “unload on the go,” which means drive alongside the combine so they could continue cutting while unloading into my truck, but I managed it. Then, once my truck was full, I would have to find my way to whichever bin I was supposed to unload into, driving carefully, gaining confidence in my truck driving skills and mental map of the area with each trip.

Once I reached the grain bin, I would back the truck up to the auger. (I remember one of my first days here I asked Katie what an auger was when she told me we had to help Tom move one. I’m pretty sure her answer was “Oh, you’ll see.” During harvest I’d see them in my sleep, just about.) Once the truck was the proper distance from the auger, I’d turn on the truck’s PTO to tilt its box up. Next, I would turn on the tractor, which powered the auger. Then I’d let the grain flow out of the truck into the auger, whispering up its length and into the bin (see photo). Once the truck was empty, I would head back out to the field for the next load. This cycle would repeat maybe ten times in a full harvest day. Though the tasks were repetitive, it was critical to stay focused and in full awareness, listening for different engine noises and noticing different smells (like from a hot engine) which might indicate a problem.

Dumping the red truck into the auger. 

And how can I discuss harvest without mentioning the harvest meals? I looked forward to the camaraderie of the whole crew pausing to eat dinner in the field, or pushing til dusk (or darker) and eating late in the house, with huge thanks to Carol and Katie for cooking such delicious feasts. Though we worked some long days, the feeling of support and caring that subtly permeated each day seemed to coalesce into the sharing of the evening meal.

Just about as soon as harvest was wrapping up, winter wheat seeding began. It’s been funny to drive full trucks of seed wheat to the field and empty trucks back to the yard, just the opposite of harvest. I recognize how much more comfortable I am driving the trucks now and how I’ve learned the roads up here in Goldstone country, knowing when to slow down or stay to one side to avoid the biggest potholes and rocks.

Combine unloading wheat onto the red truck. 

I also have a much greater appreciation for all the rock piles I’ve been driving by all this time, since I’ve done some rock picking now too, moving the biggest rocks that could pose a hazard to the equipment that will be used in the field. Mostly I enjoyed the task, in small doses. When a field seemed never-ending, I tried to remind myself that the rocks are a legacy of the glaciers, which deposited them as they formed this topography and started this soil: the foundation allowing this land to be farmed. Rock picking is also a satisfying job for many reasons. I got to drive the tractor (still an exciting novelty for me!), cruising around the fields and singing along to the radio. I would gauge the relative sizes of the rocks I would pass, trying not to ignore a big one when a good song was playing. When I spotted an especially large one, I practiced maneuvering the bucket of the tractor into place so I could more easily tilt the rock into it. I’d hop down off the tractor and muscle the rock into the bucket. Nothing like some heavy lifting to feel like a good job done, plus, countless rocks later, the satisfaction of dumping the tractor’s full bucket into a pile at the edge of the field and hearing the clatter of the rocks tumble out.

Throughout all my varied jobs here, Tom and Jeff have been excellent teachers. Their patience, trust, and good humor made the work enjoyable. I always appreciated their willingness to take some extra time to answer my questions, telling me why a task is done a certain way or how a tool or machine works.

The tandem. 

So far it sounds like I’ve only been working, which is not the case. I also had some fun weekend excursions while here in Montana. I was in Glacier twice, simply a magical place. Katie and I spent an enjoyable (if rainy) weekend in Great Falls; we walked along the river trail, visited Giant Springs and, of course, had a beer at the Sip and Dip (though Piano Pat was gone, so I’m not sure my visit there counts). Brett took me to explore two gems of the Hi-Line: we hiked in the Sweet Grass Hills and floated a stretch of the Marias River. We also squeezed in a quick visit to the Milk River, where I heard elks bugling for the first time!

Another first was the faint whisper of the Northern Lights one evening after a long harvest day. I also loved that the Milky Way was visible on every clear night. Harvey and I (and sometimes Iggy) enjoyed sunset walks most evenings, soaking up the calming vastness of the Hi-Line horizon, reveling in the sound of an exuberant coyote party that would occasionally punctuate the cricket-quiet near dusk. If only the mosquitoes hadn’t just kept coming, even after that snow! There’s that saying about Montana farmers being able to grow excellent wheat on two dews and a mist, which apparently yields a bumper crop of mosquitoes too!

Pesky bugs aside, I have loved my time here staying with Katie and Jeff. I’m so grateful for their generosity and friendship. I have also felt warmly welcomed by everyone I’ve met, each conversation building on to my sense of the beauty of this place, but also making me that much more sad to leave. I will  definitely be back to visit… I hear calving season is even more fun than harvest time!

Meet Stephanie!

Now that I've mentioned Stephanie in a few posts, it's probably about time I formally introduce her to my ever-expanding blogosphere (ha!).

Stephanie is a dear friend of mine from my hometown, Ames, IA. What's funny though is that we never actually met until college while on the same study abroad program. So, even though we grew up only a few miles from each other, had some great mutual friends in high school, and then proceeded on to attend the same university (Iowa State-- Go Cyclones!), we actually met for the first time in Lyon, France! The world is a crazy place. That would never happen where I live now. The difference between living in a large town vs. a rural, small town area where everyone knows everyone else from before they were born. But I digress.

Wind blowing in our faces, that's me and Stephanie from early July 2007 in front of the Golden Gate Bridge!

Stephanie has always had interest in agriculture and was in 4-H as a kid, winning prizes for dairy showmanship at our County Fair. For the past two years she has worked on farms, seasonally full-time. They have been CSA "Old McDonald" farms with produce, livestock, and dairy. She has lived in every time zone of the USA gaining experience at every farm where she has worked, but has discovered that dairy is ultimately the key to her agriculture passion. Stennie (short for Stephanie) loves cows!

I have been bugging Stennie to visit me and Jeff here on the farm since before I lived here, so when she contacted me earlier this summer about a potential visit in August, the answer was Yes, Of Course! After much discussion between Stennie, me and Jeff, what was originally to be a visit of about 1-2 weeks has turned into something a bit longer term and she'll be staying on through September! Stennie has been helping with our grain harvest by driving truck. We are doing our best to make her feel welcome and like she is part of the team.

A little hard to see, but Tom, Jeff, and Stennie contemplating something about this grain bin.

For my part, I love having Stephanie here. It's so, so wonderful to have one of my closest friends available and interested in seeing where we live and what we do, especially as someone I knew before living here was even an inkling of a possibility in my mind. It's great to have her perspective and her questions as to why we live the way we do and do what we do and farm the way we do. Jeff's family is as patient and welcoming to her as they have been with me, which is something I am so very thankful for. Stephanie's questions and interests help make me realize just how much I have learned since moving here and all the ways this place is home now.

Stephanie's first time unloading a truck without Jeff's assistance.
She did great, even with me hanging around distracting and taking photos! 

Even more than all that, though, I have been truly struck by her willingness to just jump in and help with harvest-- our busiest, most stressful time of the year. Yesterday, we began cutting our barley crop. It was in the 90s outside with no wind, and itchy barley dust sticking to everyone. Not the funnest time. But Stephanie continually had a smile on her face and a positive attitude, which helped keep everyone's spirits a little higher than they might have been. It means so much to me on so many levels to have her here.

Stephanie monitors barley emptying out of the truck and into the auger.

I have somewhat of a twang of guilt that I am not the one driving truck, but since we knew she was going to be here through harvest and beyond for a while, it made most sense to teach her. I'll be starting school next week (YIKES!) and would be out of commission at that point anyway. This way, they could teach her early on and let her fly, rather than giving me a pretty major refresher lesson only to ultimately show her the ropes anyway. So, Stennie works hard outside and I continue to be support staff-- working in the garden, helping with meals, parts runs, and other odd miscellany that still needs to be kept up with during harvest.

Future Beer! 

With all of this, we're still managing to find times here and there to do a bit of baking. I think I mentioned in a previous post that Stennie is an excellent baker. We made a batch of pie crusts the other day and mostly froze the discs of dough. One did get held back, rolled out, and is awaiting being filled with delicious Key Lime custard, baked, and then topped with raspberries. Can't wait to try it!

She's doing a great job! Like and old pro already! 

As I also mentioned in a previous post, she's a wonderful writer and photographer, too, so there's always the chance of a guest blog appearance. If you are one of my readers who lives around here and you see Stephanie on the road, give her a friendly wave and a hello!

Pickups and Trucks

It seems like every farmer who's been around a while has at least four or five pickups in the yard and outbuildings.  There's the pickup you drive and the back-up pickup that you don't drive very often but sometimes do.  Then there's the fuel pickup (equipped with large fuel tanks, this pickup can be driven out to a field and used to fuel a tractor or other large piece of machinery) and the water pickup (water is often hauled to wherever the farmer is working so it will be on hand in case of fire, basically used as if it were a firetruck), and usually a few others.  The pickups all vary in age and temperament but each usually serves a purpose of some sort.

Also, a "pickup" and a "truck" are two different beasts and one must make sure to mind their nomenclature!  If you tell a farmer you are going to take a truck into town, he will likely assume you are hauling grain in the semi!  A "truck" is technically a tractor-trailer/semi/big-rig, while a pickup is your standard everyday work-horse.

Though the distinction is lost on most Americans, and certainly I had never considered the difference before I started dating a farmer, there are other cultures who do discern between a "pickup" and a "truck." In high school I drove a Ford Ranger.  I liked it because it was something different than the Camrys and Tauruses most of my classmates drove, and my parents liked it because it was small and had no backseat...  In college, while on a study abroad in France, I explained to my host family that I drove a truck!  They looked at me in disbelief.  "Oh yes-- I drive it to school... to the store... visiting friends... all over!" It took several minutes of questioning before I realized that they had two different words for "pickup" and "truck" in French, and I was using the wrong one.  My host family was trying to envision me driving an 18-wheeler to school-- a far cry from my Ranger.  I had a few similar conversations early on with Jeff and his family.

Today we were introduced to an old classic truck that doesn't serve much purpose anymore besides the occasional parade appearance. As far as trucks or pickups go, this one is a gem. Today, Jeff got to drive and I rode along in a restored, fully operational 1928 International.  In it's old age, it was a bit cantankerous and unwilling to run (see how you feel when you're roused from a nap at 83 years old!), but our landlord gave him a little push from the John Deere tractor and we were off and rolling around the yard.  What a classic!  In it's day, it would have been filled with grain or other large loads. In image, it reminds me of the vehicle described in The Grapes of Wrath. We just took it for a small spin, under the caution "Don't take it farther than you would want to walk back!" Upon parking, I looked out at our modern Dodge Ram and doubted anyone will regard it the same way as this '28 when it's 83.

The last time this pickup was used for much was last summer in the parade celebrating the Rudyard centennial.

I love the headlights and the red trim.

Wooden steering wheel!

Wooden interior ceiling!

How come they don't label the pedals anymore?