Drill In The Dust...And The Bins Will Bust

Farmers from years ago used to say' "Drill in the dust, and the bins will bust." Well, Mother Nature's sprinkler system has shut off and we are back to being too dry. There's great concern as to whether the seed is getting drilled deep enough to moisture and...there is plenty of dust. Once again, we do what we can do and rely on our faith and trust in God to sprout the seed, have the young shoots survive the rampant grasshoppers, and make it through the winter to provide a harvest once again next July. We certainly send God many prayers!

Mike is filling the drills from a truck load of cleaned seed wheat. Pre-drilling we took a semi load of wheat to a cleaning mill where it goes through a series of screens and fans to clean off the chaff and sort off the small kernels leaving us the big plump ones.

There's a lot to keep track of...the depth of the drill; how many bushels to the acre one is seeding: are there any plugged spouts; and driving straight.

I believe the ability to drive straight is a genetic trait. Hogan Romsa passed it on to Howard; Howard to Mike; and Lukas and Levi can do it as well.

Since my last post we also put up the second cutting of hay. Rain was not an issue this time; however, the lack of dew to put up the alfalfa was our challenge. At night the humidity would only be at 13%...when it is that dry the leaves fall off docking the quality of the hay. The processes of windrowing, raking , baling and stacking are complete. Waiting now for round three!

AND...school started. Needless to say we are missing our ace help!

Levi is playing Junior High Football.(He's the one in front with the white legs to match the white helmet and the white jersey!) His first game is September 9th in Wheatland, WY. After last year's C5 nerve injury, as a family we opted to not have Lukas play football this year. It is a bummer for his Senior year but we felt the risk was too high.

August 25th was the last-first day of school for Lukas. I managed to get my "mom" photo of the day. I can remember Lukas's first day of Kindergarten. He came home with so many things to tell us. ("We had pineapple for lunch!") How time marches on...not so much to want to share...wanting independence....and school lunch isn't all that great anymore! In five more years it will be Levi's last-first day of school.

Grasshoppers

Walking through a field, these insects fly up in biblical plague like proportions. Currently they are mowing pastures, alfalfa and bean fields. We will once again spray the edges of our wheat strips when the young shoots emerge after drilling this fall--otherwise there will be nothing left

The birds await a disruption to the grass until the hoppers fly up. They are getting fat and haven't made a dent in the population.

Today we burned the stubble off a circle so that it can be plowed and planted back to wheat in a few weeks. The straw market this year was not worth the fuel and twine to bale it up.

Within 20 minutes, this field had burned to the fire guard that Howard had plowed.

A random photo from today. I have observed this beautiful Mule Deer all summer and finally was able to get her picture.