Straight Ahead, sorta...

Like her dad, Lucy likes to eat the kernels of grain right out of the field, be it wheat, soybeans or barley, she enjoys a good chew on the hard little seeds. She took it a step further the other day however, when I caught her eating flour by the handfuls. Of all the things in that cupboard that she could reach, she went for the flour...My girl likes her carbs raw.

Lucy showing off the beans in their neat rows just before harvest.

Our wettest field this fall. We're hoping to be able to do something about drainage next year, although less rain wouldn't hurt either!

Soybean harvest is a fickle thing. Less tricky than potatoes, since the soybeans can really stay in the field until...well...a long time. Certainly a lot longer than potatoes can. But the wet fall has made for some anxious days, wondering if there will be enough fine weather to 'get them off' as we say. Alas, it looks like this year there will be. Mark was out yesterday, finishing up what we hoped to be the last of the beans for this year. Things were going really quite well, (except for the yields in one field, which were less than satisfactory) until Halloween night when Mark heard a knocking in the combine (generally not a great sound with any kind of machine), and suddenly (although evidently, it had been a while in coming) the main intake auger on the flex header of the combine literally snapped in two. Not good.
So Mark was using the other header yesterday, which is really designed for grains. The difference is, that soybeans grow so close to the soil, that the flex header is built to 'flex' with the hills and valleys of the rows so that more of the beans can be picked up. The regular grain header is built with a solid front section to zip through the grains which are hopefully standing up and waving in the wind at harvest. It just means slower going and possibly missing a few beans here and there. The risk of waiting until the other header is fixed and testing the weather isn't worth those few beans that may be missed.

It all sounded good in theory and was going fairly well, until after four rounds and a full tank, Mark went to unload into the gravity wagon and the unloading auger (technical term hahaha) wouldn't engage. SO, once again, things are at a stand still until that is fixed (the project for this wet day). Also, yesterday we found another flex header for parts, so project number two is putting the 'new' intake auger into the 'old' header.Mark unloading into one of the gravity wagons (when the unloading auger worked!)

Lucy liked the handmedown Eeyore costume, but the head was a little heavy, so she opted for the witch (because that meant she got to wear the plastic green fingers).

We survived another Freetown Halloween, by which I mean to suggest, we are still eating all the candy left over from our seven trick or treaters. Yep, seven. So while I try to pretend the left over chips and mini chocolate bars don't exist, Mark is doing his part by consuming them as quickly as possible for the both of us. Lucy is still working on a candy apple she got from a neighbour. Hilarious to watch that process.

I forgot to post this picture back when it was relevant, but didn't want to miss an opportunity to show that I got something from my garden that will last through the winter. (Seems like most of what I plant is just to be enjoyed while it's fresh, but that means that I end up buying fresh veggies in the winter from who knows where. Those peppers have all been chopped and frozen by now and although I don't love green tomatoes, I managed to find something to do with all of them.

I was doing my annual 'kids in leaves' autumn photo shoot that was going pretty well until a chicken rudely interrupted! She was pretty curious and pretty photogenic too. My family at home probably thinks I'm crazy posting pictures of a chicken, but I feel confident that I've got readers out there who appreciate an up close profile of a regular ol' laying hen. Haha!

Here's your daily dose of happy.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world!

-Sally