Wheat Watch: Harvest Edition

We made it through the first week of harvest and we completed about 1200 acres of dry land wheat.  I have been operating a combine for about 10 to 12 hours a day. We have three combines running this year.  The two newer combines we had spent the last couple of weeks getting ready, and an older one that Brent had one of his guys work on as a side project.  We also had one of the four wheel drive tractors pull a grain cart.

Everyday before we get started I spend about 1 to 2 hours greasing all of the bearings on the combines, blowing out the radiators, and fueling up.  In IT we used to say things like "this software has a lot of moving parts..."  Working on a combine everyday kind of makes that sound stupid to me now because there are literally moving parts EVERYWHERE on these combines.  

Brent has gotten a lot of really great pictures of harvest.  Most of these are from his camera:

The grain cart is a pretty awesome to have during harvest.  It allows you to keep cutting wheat while you are unloading the grain that is in your bin.  Every time I unload while I'm cutting it reminds me of the of the jet fighters getting refueled in the air by KC - 135 Stratotankers. Except instead of loading with fuel, I'm unloading grain.

The below picture was taken last night when we had about 10 acres left to cut and the sun was going down.  I am unloading my combine into the grain cart:

This is another perspective of offloading into the grain cart while cutting wheat:

On a side note it was a little hot this week...

- Grease Monkey/Combine Operator Ryan

Don't Tread On Me

On the first day of harvest I was walking out of our garage to start up the combine and I saw something out of the corner of my eye.  After doing a double take I realized that there was a rattle snake right by the door.  A. Rattle. Snake. So after notifying Brent I grabbed a hoe and started swinging.  By the time I was done he was he was diced up like tomato in a late night knife infomercial.  I was little more concerned with not getting bit than getting a picture so all I have is a picture of where it happened.

-Serpent Slayer Ryan

Ok... It was a baby rattle snake but it's still a rattle snake and they can still kill you.

AAANNNND... it just rained...

After not having any rain for about 2 and a half months, it rains after we cut three corners of a field.  So we are going to have to wait until Monday before start harvesting again.

This is the last load before the storm came in:

-Farmer Ryan

Combine Spelunking

The last few days I have been climbing around inside our two combines.  Before every harvest we have to complete a NASA checklist on each combine in order to make sure they are ready for harvest.  I think there are about 50 different places that need grease and about 10 different places that need oil or transmission fluid.  There are also about 100 different pulleys and 10 different chains to check.

Another thing on the checklist is to pull sieve and chaff panels from inside the combine out clean them.  The sieve and chaff panels are what helps to separate the grain from the straw and chaff.  While you are pulling the panels you also check to see if there are any cracks or holes that need to be welded or other issues that need to be addressed.

 

Before I crawled in I got my headlamp and gloves out.  Both of these things are essential to any successful spelunking expedition:

This is the inside of the combine with the panels taken out:

Towards the bottom of the picture you can see the top of the auger.  There are a ton of augers in these things and all of them need to cleaned out before harvest starts:

Now that we've completed the checklists we are greenlight for operation wheat harvest. Now all we need to do is wait for the right weather conditions.  I feel like a horse at the starting gate; I'm ready to run but the race won't start...

-Combine Mechanic Ryan

Wheat Watch VI

The wheat is now gold and is almost ready to harvest.

Here is the head of some wheat that I pulled from a dry land field:

One way to test to see if the wheat is ready to harvest is to put a wheat kernel in your mouth and bite down. If the kernel is hard and crunchy than the wheat is ready and it's time to make some money.

We should start to harvest our wheat this Wednesday, weather permitting, and things are going to get a little crazy.  I'm probably not going to have time to write, but I'll try to take pictures of the wheat harvest and get them posted.

-Farmer Ryan

Toolbox

I have a little Dodge Dakota at home that I've driven for the last 10 years.  When I first thought about coming out here I figured I would use my pickup around the farm.  After being here for over 2 months I've realized that I have, what the farm folks would call, a city pickup.  The difference between a "city pickup" and a farm pickup is kind of like the difference between a house cat and a farm cat.  I can tell you a house cat wouldn't last long out here.  Lucky for me my father-in-law has a pickup for me to use and all I need to do is add a toolbox.  So restoring an old toolbox was my first project.  As you can see it started off in pretty bad shape:

 

I think it took me about a day but I stripped the entire toolbox:

 After I stripped the toolbox I put some primer on:

After I primed it, painted it and then I sanded it down:

Here is the toolbox all finished and mounted on my pickup:

I didn't just work on the outside of the toolbox.  I created a a couple of trays to hold my tools:

Here is a picture of the tray inside the toolbox:

My father-in-law has an organizational system that he keeps all his standard sockets and wrenches on the drivers side and all the metric on the passenger side.  So I've stole borrowed some of his ideas for my toolbox.

-Paint stripper/primerer (yes I just made that up)/sander/painter/welder Ryan

P. S. -  Since I put the toolbox on my pick up a week ago I have already dented and scratched it twice... So much for all that work...

Corn Cam

We finished planting all the irrigated corn about two weeks ago and I've been back to look at the progress of our corn.  The below picture was taken on May 14th:

The corn in the above picture has reached the V1 stage of corn development.  The V1 stage is when the first leaf sprouts out of the top of the corn shoot.  As the new leaves sprout out of the top of the plant the older leaves create "collars".  You can see what a collar looks like in the below diagram:

I just took some more pictures in approximately the same spot that I took the picture from the 14th.  These corn plants have sprouted a few more leaves and are in the V3-V4 stages.  Basically, the "V" stage just means how many leaves are on the corn plant.

Up Close:

If you would like to see all the stages of corn growth you can visit this page. I'm planning on getting as many pictures of the stages of corn growth as we go through the growing season.

-Farmer Ryan