Wednesday, October 30, 2013

life on the prairie...

these are NOT my photos...
there is this really cool farmer north of here...
he has been posting a couple photos every day of harvest...
and here are just some of them...

I wanted to show you what he sees every day in the fall...
through his eyes...
his camera...

this is the Newman elevator where DH works...
that's Bobby dumping the truck, with DH right behind him...

I hope you enjoy the images through the eyes of Jim Biddle...
just a farmer who was posting photos on fb for some friends who had moved away from here...

the yields have been very good...

dumping into a farm bin...
not all crop goes directly to the elevator...
he will sell later when the price is higher...
hopefully...

got rained out one day...

the sky photos he has are awesome...

they work from sun up to past sun down...
every day in harvest...

the guys around here are tilling now...
the ones who are done...

Jim should finish today...
the rain has held off...

another elevator..

they keep those trucks rolling all the time...

beans right before they were picked...

these are the guys I ask you to pray for...
for a safe harvest...

the ones who feed the world...

isn't this the greatest small church?

they turn that crank to open up the bottom so the corn and beans fall into the grate below...

this is a ground pile...
I told you about them before...
yields are so much better now than when they built all these elevators around here...
and they simply cannot hold the harvest anymore...

even shipping out by semi and rail every day...
the elevators cannot keep up...

so they build these ground piles...
which gives them time to move the corn and beans long after the farmers are done hauling in...
the beans go in bins, but the corn that won't fit, goes on the ground...

typical scenes for around here...

picking and dumping...
hauling and dumping...
only to go back and do it again...

its been a good harvest around here...

I haven't heard of anyone getting hurt this fall...

and the rains haven't slowed them down long...

this is Jim' grandson...

you know, these guys around here have generations of farming behind them...

they grew up doing this...
so did their dads...

the Newman elevator...

and my guy dumping corn...
I am always stuck at home during harvest and never get to see him do what he does...
but thanks to this very special farmer, I got a chance to do just that this year...

there are other things that farmer's do throughout the year...
but planting and harvest are the big times...

its a rush to get it done in time...
around the weather...

love the sun ray in this one...
check out that dust...
that's bean dust and what causes my allergies to go nuts every year...

looks like a mini convention going on here..
love the tractor tire marks in the ground...

I miss running through the corn fields...

so, if you get a chance, thank a farmer...

for every time you sit down to eat...
someone put in a day like this...

waiting in line to dump...
they do a lot of that...

I would think it would be the most boring time...
but they get out and talk...
its when they take time to grab something to eat...

when I was a kid, they used grain wagons to haul in...
and not the gigantic ones they have now...
but the ones around here use semis...
and lots of them...

to me, this is the most awesome of all the photos...
those are guys up there putting the tarp on...
there are fans all around the bottom that will blow that up and make a dome...
it the power goes out, the fans stop working and it looks like this...
the wind will shred that tarp in now time at all if its not inflated...
but this gives you an idea of the size of these ground piles...

thousands of acres have been picked in the last month...
always thank a farmer and the crew who bring in the crops year after year...
and the ones who work the elevators, the fertilizer places, the seed places...
they keep the farmers moving...
and that keeps you from going to bed hungry every night...
also, keep them in your prayers...
even after all the picking is done, there is still tons to do...
they are already thinking spring...
and getting the fields ready to sleep until then...

so there you go...
life on the prairie as we know it here...
thank you, Jim Biddle for letting me use your photos...
and for keeping us fed...
;)