So Much For The Super Moon

And the lunar eclipse. I guess I missed it. Nice and clear and sunny all day til about 5:30 when clouds started building. Sure enough, just after the moon rose on the horizon it was obscured by clouds. It was big and I did take a quick photo while swathing wheat but then the clouds took over the view. Oh well, no big deal as I guess there will be thousands (millions?) of others who did see it and take pictures.

Swathing going well but I can't believe this wheat is not ready to combine. The straw is dry and heads breaking off as I swath. Yet the sample I tried with the combine this morning tested 17.5% which is 3 percent above the dry mark. And that is after laying in the swath since last Tuesday. What little I did combined nice, straw going through and breaking up to nothing. Yet when I stepped into the grain in the tank to get a sample I could tell right away it was not quite dry.
I could go ahead and combine it at this high moisture level and risk it heating in the bin but I'll gamble on another day or two of drying. Theres plenty of chance and time to combine it tough in late October.
A photo from this afternoon when the sun shone and there was 360 degrees of great scenery around me.

Down But Not Out

Yes, my swather was down in the mud again today. Eventually I got out with the help of a tractor pulling. It is a real challenge trying to decide where it is safe to drive. I have not missed too much crop yet  but eventually had to give up on this little patch.
I really miss the days when we never had to worry about getting stuck in the mud at harvest time.

While The Sun Shines

An old expression of my dad's, "you've got to make hay while the sun shines" often comes to mind. Like today swathing wheat, making good time taking advantage of the nice sunny day. Unfortunately it did not last and clouds rolled in from the West by the time I finished.
No rain yet but there is a chance of showers predicted.

I took the opportunity to roll up a few oat hay bales since it was sundown and not worth heading out to another field with the swather. I baled the outside rounds around the beaver infested part of the field where they have been raiding the oat crop carrying bundles of oats off into the water to do what I don't know. Were there but world enough and time I would make a lot of them disappear.
Impressive sunset that looked a lot better than this poor photo I took of it through the tractor window as I was baling.

Canola harvest is complete as of yesterday. Good yield and all dry. No major breakdowns although I did have to replace a worn out shaker arm bushing.

3 Days of Harvest

Followed by three days of damp and rainy weather which will probably mean no further harvesting this week. We did not need that extra 3/4 inch of rain last night but it does keep the grass green and the cattle happy.

No matter how much green stuff they eat they will never refuse a pail of oat chop. The photo shows the sun is trying to break through the clouds this morning .
Harvesting canola went well for three days. The crop was a good average yield so far. Extreme weed regrowth in the stubble in spite of a double application of Roundup through the growing season.
I had some company come to visit in the field on Saturday.

56 Years Ago

Yes, rainy weather gave me a chance to do some video editing, photo scanning, etc. Couple of vintage Austrian letters to send for translation . Just the usual stuff.
Oh, btw., my rain gauge is showing close to 4 inches for the weekend. It will do more harm than good at this time of the year but I won't complain. Reading the news of the world makes my problems seem pretty insignificant.
The 56 years in the title refers to this 1959 photo from one of the family albums I scanned. Only two of the subjects in the photo are still living (that I know of) , and I am one of them.

The indoor temperature is down to 64 degrees here this evening. If it was winter I'd be turning up the furnace. So here is a video I shot back in June when it was 85 degrees and I was probably complaining about the heat.

Harvest Rain

Typical harvest weather. It is raining in Sask. (inch and two tenths) and is forecast to continue all weekend. At least today I know the combine stays in the shed. Yesterday I came close to getting it out of the shed and trying a sample of grain. Every time I climbed up on the combine I could hear a few spots of rain hit the roof. Never amounted to anything but threatening enough that I thought it not advisable to start  the half day of work moving everything that was in the way of getting the combine out.
Nothing was overly ready here anyway since I don't desiccate my crops to speed up harvest. It seems that most around me do so that gives quite an advantage in speeding up crop ripening. As long as you are ok with a little glyphosate residue on your wheat flour I guess it  works.
I had to turn the radio off one day when they kept reporting on the percentage of harvest completion in Sask. I am at zero percent complete  and don't need to be reminded how far behind normal I am.
An old saying my dad used to quote, "when you think your wheat is ready to combine, go out and work your summerfallow first". Meaning that wheat often looks good and ready to cut quite a while before the sample actually tests dry so give it  few more days and work on something else.
Or something.