Harvest17 Is In The Books

There were days when I didn't think we would ever be able to say it, but Harvest17 is finished!

As farmers we quickly realize that not everything is in our control. 

Take the weather for instance. This Fall brought many rainy, wet days which screamed, "We can't combine corn today!" 

Then there was the tractor that needed to be fixed which meant taking off a few days of combining since we needed the tractor to bring the wagons in from the corn field. Thanks to our local implement dealer, it was fixed quickly though! 

And then there was the day that fuel was delivered to the farm and the gasoline was accidentally pumped into the diesel fuel tank. In case you don't know- gas and diesel don't like each other! So the next step was to drain the fuel from everything we had filled...tractors, combine, two skid steer loaders... and more trips to our local implement dealer for new filters and repairs because of the delivery boo-boo.

When our two corn storage bins on our farm were filled, it was off to the grain elevator in a neighboring town.  At this point of harvest, we opted to take a few days off to avoid the long lines at the elevator since many farmers were now delivering their bounty to the elevator to be either stored or sold. The whole time we prayed the good weather would hold out.

But hey, we got it done. No one got hurt, we have two bins filled to the brim with corn, and we had a large enough yield that we were able to sell a bunch too. I do know that in our area, and across the state of Minnesota there is a lot of corn (and soybeans) still standing in the field. I pray that all farmers can soon say, "We got 'er done." 

See you next year combine. Until then, my work here is done!