What a year. Seriously, it felt never-ending.
My sister got married on September 21st and when she chose that date (over a year ago), we told her that was going to be the best day to combine beans. Little did we know, we wouldn’t even be started yet. Plant 2019 was super late. We wrapped up Plant 2019 on July 31st when I dug oats in our Prevent Plant field. That was one of the first of our fields “out” when I chopped on October 18th.
We started combining corn at the end of October. We finished all of our combining on November 20th and tillage on November 29th. Between the rain, the cold, and then the snow, weather was not on our side this year. There was very few breakdowns (thanking the good man upstairs for that!) but there was plenty of sitting while we waited for dryer gas.
I’m not sure our crew got fed a hot meal more than once or twice this fall…and it’s usually a nightly thing. We could never be out for long enough periods for anyone to be hungry or we didn’t have enough help. With my mom having 2 full-time in town jobs, plus a couple of side hustles; my teaching job; and other things that come up like sickness or funerals, there wasn’t usually spare hands just sitting around.
We weren’t sure we were ever going to be able to say that Harvest 2019 was done. There were days we doubted we would be done by Christmas!! The best part of this harvest is that it’s over. We fared better than many. After all, we had crops to harvest despite drown-outs, we were all safe, and our equipment is muddy but still running. Faith and determination is what got us through this year. I learned a TON. Here’s to a better 2020!
