I’ll be honest here, the farmer was chomping at the bit to get in the fields to plant his corn crop this year! Milton was ready to just get going with the “new to us” planter and work out the kinks as we always know there will be some. There were a few things that needed worked through but I’m proud of him for moving forward with the new technology. Corn planting began on April 19th.
The farm kid and I did not ride with him until the third day of planting to see how it all works. I must say it was interesting to watch. Having GPS on the tractor and planter doesn’t mean Milton can just take a nap and relax. He still has to pay attention and watch how things are operating, then turn it around at the end of the field each time.
While I was at the field he needed to change out a small part pictured below on the planter.. So I helped him do that, these tiny plastic disk things are easy to lose in a field!
He was able to get all but 73 acres planted before the rain came on Tuesday night the 21st, so he was able to get over 300 acres planted. This left him with only one field to plant that we own and then one that he has been hired to plant by a friend. This makes the farm wife very happy, planting with a 16 row verses a 6 row really does make things go quicker, even when you are learning a new system!
Our total number of acres of corn to get planted is 386 for our operation. We had a few meals in the field during planting and it was nice to hang out for a few minutes. Although Milton put in long hours planting I didn’t mind too much when the rain came, it broke up that time with him away. During this “stay at home” time our farm kid has primarily been stuck with just me/mom. Although we love to spend time together and she is old enough to go do her thing, it’s nice to have someone else around. 🙂
School work is normally done by lunch and so the hands on approach comes into play since we live on a farm. We started last summer with involving her more in the farming operation. We’ve never paid our child for her expected chores she does around the house, we all live in this house so we all need to help. But we did decide to pay her last summer after wheat harvest for helping us. To be honest, I was surprised how much help the 11 year old was. PV assisted with unloading the trucks at our farm storage bins, ran the elevator leg and weighed the trucks, all while in the hot humid heat.
PV is heading into a time when there are things she will want but must earn them. She now mows both our yard and grandma’s yard weekly and below you will see her cleaning up the old yucky grain under the grain bins.
Preparing for wheat harvest begins long before the golden heads of wheat are ready for that red combine to harvest them. Soon Milton will get that combine out and do maintenance on it and Paige was cleaning up the area where we unload trucks this past week. I have to admit she was not impressed when we assigned her the task at hand but she never has been much of a complainer, at least not verbally. 🙂
I guess that is about it for us here in Central Kansas. There’s been rainy days and sunshiny days lately but today was a sunshiny day! We were able to spend some time together out in it. The fields are starting to dry up with this sunshine so hopefully the farmer will be back in the field soon! Take care and stay safe!
Thanks for stopping by!
Julie
In Between the Sunsets of Life 