We have been blessed with multiple good rains! From October to May we had about 2″ of rain (and little snow) and in the last two weeks we have had at least 3″. I have lost track because it just kept raining! It is so frustrating that it starts to rain right in the middle of wheat harvest. We had five hours of harvest last Monday and got rained out Tuesday morning. When Wednesday afternoon came around I was excited that we could cut again! And then it rained Thursday morning and then another 1.5″ came on Saturday. Yesterday we were finally able to start cutting again. It is frustrating when the weather doesn’t work with our schedule. But let’s be real, when does it work with our schedule? I am rarely happy with the weather. It is always too wet or too dry, too hot or too cold, or too windy or not windy enough. The corn needs the rain, but the wheat doesn’t, now that it is ready to cut. This week has reminded me to be happy with what we have. We were just blessed with wonderful rains and the first thing that comes out of my mouth is, “why won’t it stop raining?” I am going to regret that in about a month.
Keeping busy at the computer!
Last year I wouldn’t have complained so much. This year wheat harvest timing directly affects my schedule. The men asked me to run the truck scale this year. I am big time now! 🙂 I have the finest seat in the house and I wait for the parade of trucks to begin from my skybox. From my skybox I have the perfect view of the trucks as they pass by to be inspected. When the trucks come in, I weigh them and take a sample to find out the moisture and test weight. The sample is taken with a device called a probe. The probe is a tube that vacuums up a sample of grain that I control with a remote from inside. Test weight is the measure of how much a bushel of wheat, corn, etc weighs. The standard weight for a bushel of wheat is 60 pounds and corn is 56 pounds. But what is a bushel, right? It is 2,150.42 cu. inches. So basically, in an ideal world, 2150.42 cu. inches of wheat would weigh 60 pounds. In the real world that number can vary. That is why we have to check the test weight. Rain at harvest time can decrease the test weight, which isn’t good. So we complain and rejoice about the rain at the same time. After the trucks have unloaded, they come back over the scale to get an outbound weight. The inbound minus the outbound weight tells us how much wheat we had on the truck and eventually I can calculate what each field yielded.
I had hoped to have great stories to tell and awesome experiences at the scale by now, but so far it has been slow and not much to do. Instead of complaining that we didn’t cut much last week, I have decided to be thankful for the slow start. It allowed me to learn the scale software and how to use the probe without the pressure of a full speed harvest. Now I know what I am doing, so the rain can stay away for a couple weeks and we can get this done!
How many times do we complain that it is raining on our parade when we should sit back and be thankful for the rain?
Housewives of Rural America 