Last week the weather was beautiful for the combine guys. They were rolling early and late. Fields were getting chewed off, the truckers were running hard trying to keep up. Bins were getting filled, shucks, even the elevator companies were buying a little grain. Miracle on Highway 16. That came to an abrupt end Saturday when da Devil sent rain, and I mean rain. It wasn’t one of those gully washers, but steady all day. At the farm here we got three inches. Grandson Josh has only 50 acres of wheat left to combine. That is OK since he also has a full-time job and his father helps him out. Anyway his weekend did not turn out as planned as, of course, the plan was to finish combining his wheat. Funny how this farming business never seems to run according to any fixed plan.
Since the rain, guys are swathing up a storm. The canola was still green when the desiccated wheat was ready. Now the swathers are running long days and into the night as guys are hurrying to get the canola swathed. This will not last long as soon there will be nothing left to swath. It will all be down and done. The majority of the wheat is off and this would be deemed early. Not many years wheat is in the bin in this area before the middle of September.
In the olden days when the farmers were using a binder, farms were smaller. The crop was cut and made into sheaves. Then someone had to come and gather the sheaves by hand and leaning one sheaf against another to make a stook. The sheaves stood up, the cut off butts on the ground and heads of the wheat up at top where they dried and ripened. Once they were stooked they could stay there a long time and most of the time they did. Not everyone could afford a threshing machine so the community would get together, one person would own a threshing machine and everyone would come with their teams and racks. The sheaves would be hauled up to the threshing machine and fed into the machine. The straw would be blown into a stack and the grain would go into a bin or a wagon. The blower on a threshing machine was a great invention as before the blowers guys had to take the straw away by hand. I would think that was the dirtiest job of all.
The sheaves in stooks were relatively safe but sometimes the threshing crew didn’t come until Christmas. The field mice would have a field day. Warm place to live, lots of wheat to eat and lots of mice of the opposite sex. It was a mouse breeding orgy and then the field pitchers and wagons came and took your house away. That was the end of that. If you were a mouse you had to run for your life as farm dogs and hawks overhead could mean your demise.
The other thing that was bad is if you got snow or freezing rain. Many a threshing crew finished up the year parking their wagons and switching their rack to their sleds. Another problem that could arise is the sheaves could be frozen to the ground. The settlers being resourceful guys sharpened the front of a steel shovel and simply shaved the sheaves off the ground. Elevators took tough grain in those days, the only driers were at the coasts and everyone from here to there worked together to get the grain moved and sold.
In politics, the promises of how the politicians are going to bribe you with your own money to vote for them are becoming larger by the day. Considering the campaign is only about half done, I don’t think there will enough money to do all these promises. I have noted that two parties are promising minimum wage of $15. What about guaranteeing farmers $15 a bushel for their wheat no matter what the grade or quality? Same difference. Only thing one promise will leave you without a job and the other will guarantee you will have something to eat
Joke of the week from Bob Polinsky: Little Johnny was resisting doing schoolwork. The teacher sat down with the parents and they decided little Johnny needed to stay in the house and work on his schoolwork. In no time little Johnny was out running around the town. One of the neighbours saw him and said, “hey, does your mother know you are out?” Quick as a whip Little Johnny says, “Yup, I was nine pounds.”
