It has been an interesting season of life as of late. Seems like trials have been coming at us from every direction.
As soon as wheat harvest came to a close, "the faucet opened and wouldn't shut off", as my husband likes to put it. We had a another dry summer this year and the fact that you could confuse this fall with the spring floods speaks of just how much rain we got. With not being able to get into the fields, the threat of going bankrupt was looking very real for a few weeks there.
Thankfully, the weather has shaped up. It has stopped raining for now and the men are able to get into the fields to harvest. Currently they are harvesting sugar beets. (Although, maybe one shouldn't speak so soon.)
Sugar beet harvest always begins October first and harvest runs 24 hours a day in order to get the beets out before freeze-up. Since the fields are still on the wet side, they have only been going from sunrise to a few hours after dark. Even so, to me it looks like they are going at a good pace.
The sunflowers and beans are still sitting in the fields waiting to be harvested. They can be harvested after freeze-up though (as long as it doesn't snow too much right after). It's probably better they be harvested when it freezes so the machines don't sink in the mud. There are quite a few farmers taking beans off right now and what a mess! But it has to get done!
Yup, all summer it was looking to be a good year for farming here. The yields were looking high, and quality was there. But as the saying goes, don't count your chickens before they are hatched.