It's been a while....

Whoa. It's been a while since I've posted. It's not often that a whole week goes by without me blogging about something. But then again it's harvest time. Translation: I'm a harvest widow.

Corn harvest has been in full swing in SW Kansas for the last three weeks. We've had a little rain during harvest but not enough to slow down the combines in the fields. DR has been working from 7 am to 10 pm. Occasionally he's even had to spend the night at work. The kids and I get to kiss him goodbye in the mornings and that's about all we see him these days.

A couple times a week we'll take a crockpot dinner to the grain elevator for DR and everyone else working crazy hours. The kids love going to the elevator because they can raid the candy bucket and watch the scale girls probe the trucks.

I've had photos to go along with harvest before but I've learned it's against company policy for people like me to be taking photos of the elevator. Since I'd kind of like my husband to keep his job I'm posting sans photos:) 

Normally I'd spend my lonely evenings catching up on blogging. However I've found myself watching Netflix and watching episodes of The 70's Show. Sometimes it's hard to find something interesting to blog about. But this fall I've found I just don't have the time to blog. I'm a harvest widow which means I'm reminded once again of all the wonderful little things my husband does in our home. From working in the garden to mowing the lawn. From folding clothes to taking out the trash. It's amazing how many chores I have to remember to do when DR is in the throes of harvest.

Last week was an especially long week for us though. Normally I don't substitute teach more than a couple days a week but last week I subbed one day and subbed at our town library for three days while our librarian was dealing with a family emergency. It was great because I could bring Yahoo with me but it really messed up our schedule and routine last week. Long nights, rushed homework, tired Mom.

I don't think I could be a librarian full time though. All. Those. Books. I was drooling. Libraries are like a double edged sword though; you have all those wonderful books just begging to be read but as a librarian you can't just sit and read all day..there is actual work to do!! It was fun for few days though :)

Hopefully I'll get back into a groove soon. Harvest getting over would help that. I can't complain though. A harvest lasting a month is heaven. I remember a few years ago in Illinois where a harvest lasted for three months....it was awful!

How's your harvest coming along?

Scenes from a Grain Elevator

It's late September and that means Harvest. I'm a Harvest Widow. DR is never home. Oh he's here to sleep and that's about it. I mean the poor guy is in such a hurry he doesn't even eat here! There's been nights when he doesn't even get home until after midnight but he's always at work before 7 the next day. Poor guy!

Harvest not only makes temporary widows out of wives but it also makes children fatherless. Temporarily anyway. I've been making the effort to load up the kids after school a couple times a week to see DR just so they don't forget what the other looks like. Plus we've been bringing in dinner to the office girls and crew, when we come, who seem to enjoy it so we're going to keep bringing dinner until harvest is over.

There are a few things about grain elevators during harvest that are certainly scenes of the season. There's always a flurry of activity everywhere; in the office, outside, on the phones. EVERYONE is super busy with multiple projects and tasks. In never fails either that during harvest something major always breaks down at the most inopportune moment. I've seen DR making flying trips for motors for grain dryers and grain legs. Today he had to go pick up a new time clock for the employees because theirs broke down. Last week he had an employee who had a car accident, while on the job, and per company policy DR had to take the guy for mandatory drug test. It's been so busy that DR has brought in company employees from Nebraska to help out with harvest! Needless to say when the kids and I do make it into the elevator we don't stay long because we would just be in the way.

But for the few moments we are there it's surely an interesting scene. There are always trucks waiting to get weighed and to get dumped. You only see truckers waiting during harvest. Truckers don't like to wait, oh no. And they sure don't like to get the run around either. Truckers are known to be a little.....let's say grumpy. Yeah, they can be pretty grumpy during harvest. This is what these guys do all day long; drive to the field, pick up grain, drive to elevator, dump grain....again and again and again.... I'm glad I don't have to deal with the truckers. (Sorry Purse Gurl!)

My favorite thing to watch at the elevator is the ground pile going down. Now I grew up in northern Indiana and had never seen a ground pile of corn before I married DR. They are much more prevalent the further west you go. I've seen small ones in southern Indiana and larger ones in Illinois but this is definitely the biggest ground pile I've ever seen (at an elevator anyway).

When farmers haul in corn it is tested for moisture levels. If the moisture percentage is too high, in the upper teens or  twenties, then the grain has to be put in a grain bin and dried down. A process that's expensive and a real pain. If there is too much moisture in a grain bin then the corn can mold and bad things happen. (Especially bad things happen to DR's happy go lucky mood!)

But if a load of grain is tested to have low moisture percentages, 13 is ideal, then the grain can be stored on the ground and can free up some much needed space in the bins. If the ground pile does get wet then it probably won't get to levels that are too damaging (usually).

The barricades are like a series of short walls about 3 or 4 ft. high and are placed in an oval shape. These are only meant to keep the bottom of the pile in place. Trucks head over to dump at the pile and the grain is shot moved to the top of the pile. 

Once the oval is filled the huge tarps are strapped over the pile to protect the grain over the winter. Eventually the grain pile will get picked up, usually over a long working weekend in the late winter or early spring. Some may be moved back into bins or trucked off to processing plants or feed lots.

This grain pile probably  isn't even a quarter of the way filled. Like I said this pile is going to be big. It has the capacity to hold 800,000 bushels of corn. WOW!!!!

Scenes from a grain elevator are always changing and if I'm stuck being a Harvest Widow this fall, well then, at least I have some interesting harvest scenes to keep me entertained!