Harvest time

It's that time of year again. Heavy trucks rumble past my house starting early in the morning, headed to the fields all around me. The soybeans were already stripped from brown plants earlier in the fall, before constant rain halted the farmers's progress. Now the corn is under attack. My house is once again exposed!

My property is surrounded on 3 sides by fields. The land itself is owned by some rich guy on the East Coast, but it is leased yearly by a big farmer in the town south of me (he is a topic for another blog!). The fields are planted with corn and soybeans on alternating years. This year was the year for corn, meaning I had a privacy screen all summer long while the corn grew straight and proud. Now it is gone, and my house is naked for another year and a half until the next crop of corn is planted around it.

I have two grain bins on my land. One is leased by a (different) farmer yearly to store and dry his corn over winter. The other has a cracked concrete foundation and is missing part of the top, so it remains unused except for the inevitable birds and mice who call it home.

Yes, I know there are a lot of weeds in my pasture. My plan was (may still be, depending on if I'm still here--more on that later) to burn it this coming spring. Right now it's a mess of burrs and thistles. My horses end up wearing a lot of the burrs. I hope to have time this weekend to clean them up a little.

It's a fashion statement, Jazzy!

I have a friend from India who works in the lab across the hall from me. He is completely new to the American way of farming, so I googled some pictures of combines to show him the kind of equipment they use for harvest. Today I took some pics of the machinery in use down the road.

Hopefully I can get out and ride in some open fields this weekend!! The weather is supposed to cooperate, but I also have lots of housework to do and a shed to build. Here's to hoping...