Finally, Some Rain

It was not much but a thunderstorm last night showed that maybe it can still rain. Maybe a tenth or so. Still don't have my rain guages out. Not that they would have caught much so far. In the spirit of optimism I planted another row of potatoes this morning. I'm still not up to my usual number but its been so dry and uninspiring that I have been holding off planting. Some  of the early ones are up and looking fairly good.
The daily watering I have been doing on  the single row of beans appears to have paid off as I see some emerging from the ground.
Field crops are doing better than expected considering how little rain we have had this spring. I see some bare patches in the canola field that might be flea beetle damage. Guess I should spray them out but I hate working with insecticides. I noticed the first tiny grasshoppers showing up in the yard grass yesterday. I actually took the lawn tractor out and cut the few patches of grass that had grown  tall enough to need it. What a dusty and dirty job!
Its not quite as hot as 1988 but we have had less rain than 88. That was the driest year ever in my history. So here is a video update of my crops as of June 6.

Harrowing Macdonald Hills Farm

Got done early this afternoon and seeing as it is Sunday, and the May long weekend I figured I'd take some time to put a video together showing what I was doing today. Popular myths will have you believe that Saskatchewan is all flat as a table. So as I was working at the farm in the Macdonald Hills area I figured I'd use that in the title of the video. Hills are hard to portray in the two dimensiional world of photos and video but trust me, they are hills. You can hear the tractor engine working a little harder on the steep one.

Another in the seeming endless days of sun, wind, and no rain. Plenty of dust all around me and it would have been cold sitting on an open tractor. If I had to do this job out on an open tractor I'd be retiring pretty quick. Today I just turned on the AC as needed and worked in dust free comfort listening to CBC propaganda and talk shows.

Plant Preview 2019

Time sure flies lately. I think I've been in the tractor(s) every day the past couple of weeks. Between anhydrousing, seeding, picking  rocks and harrowing, and no "rainy day breaks" it keeps me busy. Not to mention a few minor breakdowns that used up a lot of time. I mean 3 days to plant a 120 acre field is a bit much. I could have done that in a day even with the old 22 foot Seedrites in a good day. Flat tractor tire, blown hydraulic hoses and intermittent electric clutch failures on the air seeder kept things interesting. Plenty of video shot either in the cab or outside but no time to do much editing. And I refuse to upload raw, unedited video to youtube.

Still no rain and it gets drier every day. Well we did get that little spit on Wednesday that laid the dust and messed up the cab windows but it didn't do a thing for soil moisture. Lots of money going into the ground in hopes of rain.