Finished!

Paul finished baling the last of the hay yesterday afternoon.  Whew!  Many in the area are still going strong on haying, and we are very thankful to be done.  Time to set sights on corn harvest!  I expect they'll be checking the fields to see if the ground is still too muddy for the combine this week.

Full barns!

A shaky morning!

You may have heard of (or even felt) the Oklahoma earthquake this morning.  We hope none of you had any damage!  I never thought we'd have an earthquake on the farm, but we certainly felt it here.  Our oldest came out and announced that the floor woke him up.  He didn't know what to make of a shaking floor.  I am happy to report that all Grandpa Peck's tools are still up on the wall, but I was watching them get a good shaking and wondering if I would have a mess to clean up.  The rattling added more drama than a Hollywood sound effects crew!

Paul is busy baling hay today.  We'll see how much he can get done before he runs in to wet hay.  I know he would like to be finished.  It sure is heavy hay this year!  The trucks and grain cart are close to ready.  They have to have a couple tires fixed/replaced on one truck, but thankfully, they spotted the need for repairs before we had a blow out on a loaded grain truck.

Drying out

We are trying to dry out a little bit this week.  Paul went back to mowing yesterday and finished up this morning.  He is hoping to have everything baled and hauled in before harvest, of course.  Quentin is working to get the grain cart and trucks ready for harvest.  There isn't any rain in the forecast until the middle of next week so they may get a chance to get in the corn fields if the ground dries out enough over the next couple days.

New management

Someone thinks he's the new manager on the farm these days.  Noah follows Grandpa around the farm and "helps".  He loves to check cows, bale hay and anything else Grandpa might be doing.

Grandpa's Lil' Helper

Paul was able to bale a little more hay yesterday, but we had another 0.9" of rain last night.  That puts both the haying and corn harvest on hold for a while longer.

Scandal on the farm

Paul tells me we have a new white calf on the farm.  Quite scandalous in a herd of black cattle!  Someone wasn't staying on their side of the fence.  This one cow didn't have a calf earlier when she was expected to, but perhaps she was just saving herself for the right bull.  I guess we have the neighbor's bull to thank for this calf!

Rains continue to come.  Not a lot, but enough to keep us wet.  Quentin is starting to rumble about harvesting corn as soon as he can get in the fields without tracking them up.  Soon, we hope.

Hit and miss

A forecast of hit and miss showers have kept the men out of the hay field the last few days.  Yesterday, the showers missed, but we have a system moving through this evening with thunderstorms.  More chances linger in the forecast so I don't expect any more hay baling this week.

Quentin continues to work on the combine in anticipation of corn harvest.  He mostly finished with the adjustments and such on the combine itself last week and has now turned his attention to the corn header.  I've heard a little grumbling, of course, but we agreed that the time spent on adjustments now is better than fixing a broken combine mid-harvest!  However, tomorrow he will be making his third trip this week to the parts dealer so I can understand the frustrations.  He also plans to begin getting the drill ready.  He'd like to get some cover crops in as soon as the corn is out of the fields.

Nice kernels!

Bales and bales

The men chipped away at haying this week.  It went pretty well except for some still, humid days and a flat tire on the baling tractor.  They were able to switch out tractors pretty quickly and get back to baling.  They are currently waiting on a tire repair, but will be out of the hay field for awhile now anyway.  Last night, we had almost 2.5" of rain!

Flat tire!

In the meantime, the hay has been doing very well.  Lots of bales and we are running out of places to put them.  The combine takes up a good chunk of hay barn space!



Loading up bales