The post in which I pretend I know what I am talking about

10 years ago, I didn't realize what all happened on a farm at different times of the year.

10 years later, I still don't.

But I like to pretend that I do.

Summer in the midwest usually means it is time to harvest wheat. Sounds simple enough, but apparently it's a very complicated process, necessitating nearly every piece of equipment on the farm.

It starts out with this beautiful, golden wheat. You know those "amber waves of grain" we sing about?

This is it.


Shortly after it looks like this, it's time for the combine to harvest the top part, the actual wheat.


Once harvested, you are left with this


and this.



The straw then needs to be mowed


and raked.


Once the straw has been raked, it will be left in tidy little rows, perfect for baling.



Then the fun really begins. It's time to bale.

You definitely need a Dodge pickup.


Well, I guess you need 2 Dodge pickups.


Or, um, well, 3 Dodge pickups?


Okay, 4. You need 4 Dodge pickups.


And you'll definitely need a few of these.


The straw can either be baled into big round bales with this guy


or square bales with this. And to be honest, I don't understand why they are called square bales, when they are actually rectangular. But that's just my inner dork coming out.


The "square" baler stacks the bales into a neat little pile and dumps the entire pile into the field.


Then a skid loader comes along to pick up the pile (one layer at a time) stacking it on the wagons.




Once the wagons are full, a gaggle of sweaty guys start loading them into the barn.


And just when you think the job is done, when the last bale is out of the field, out comes the tractor and seed drill to double crop beans in the same field.


Which is about the time I head back into the air conditioning for a cold drink. Taking pictures of all this work is exhausting.