Bean Harvest

This time of year we're seeing clouds of what looks like smoke coming from local fields. 

It's not smoke, it's bean dust.

The combines and tractors put out a lot of debris and dust.   It's pretty interesting to watch them.

Here's a closer up pic of some of the machinery used.   It takes a fair amount of help to get things done efficiently and quickly.

That trailer is full of soybeans.

Winter Tractor

Next year, they want a tractor barn for Christmas.

Hay

It's hay season.    Most folks around here do round bales because they last better in our damp climate, but there are some who still do small rectangular bales.

It's a pleasure to see an old tractor pulling a wagon loaded to the sky with small bales.  We passed this place way out in Owen County, just as they were bringing the wagons in.

This place had two wagons full, hauled on a hot and dusty day.    Haying is hard work, done on the hottest and driest days of summer.

The first cut was early this year.   Hopefully we'll have enough rain to get two more big cuts this season. 

It's very likely that this tractor has been in use for decades.   Things were built to last, way back when.

The farmer has been in use for decades, too.  I especially appreciate the jeans, T-shirt and cap.   This is the official uniform of Midwestern farmers. God bless them.

[K2 got these pics as we were driving by.  I'm so glad she did.]

The Mower Fairy

The mower fairy brought me a tractor! 

The tractor has a bucket on the front for lifting and hauling large loads of stone, or gravel, or sand,  or earth, or bales of straw, or maybe even pushing over a small building [whoo-hoo!]. 

The tractor also came with a bush hog and a finish mower.   We're considering trading them in for a flail mower like this one.   Thanks to my friend, Faith, for telling us about these.  I'd never heard of one before, but this is exactly what we need.

Now all we need to do is learn how to drive the tractor.   And then convince the barn fairies to clean out a space big enough to put it.

Also, I'm going to make contact with the equipment shed fairies because it would be really nice to have one of those [equipment sheds, I mean], too.

In the meantime, I'm going to mark off large sections of blackberry brambles to mow down so we can start cultivating some of the wild blackberries around here.

Which begs the question: If we cultivate the wild blackberries [i.e. flail them into submission] are they still considered wild?   Inquiring minds want to know.

Things that drive down our road

We don't get much traffic [maybe two dozen vehicles a day?], but what we lack in quantity, we more than make up for in quality.  

We get a lot of pickup trucks - big ones, little ones, new ones, ones held together by duct tape and rust.  Some with canoes strapped to the top.  Some hauling horse trailers or trailers full of hay bales, or trailers full of 4 wheelers or a trailer with a deer on it. 

We get assorted minivans full of groceries and kids.

Sometimes during nice weather, we get a convertible now and then.  

When the neighbors have kids who have just learned to drive, we see big clouds of dust where a car zoomed by so fast we never saw it. 

Some years the school bus goes by here.  [Not this year, though.]

We see tractors.

We see tractors pulling bush hogs and mowers and hay rakes and balers and ten years ago we even saw tobacco wagons full of tobacco. 

We've seen dogs and foxes and coyotes on the road. 

We've seen sheep and horses.   Sometimes even nine horses at a time. 

We see motorcyles.

We see four wheelers.

We see Gators.  Not the crocodile kind - this is Indiana, not Louisiana - but the fancy four wheeler kind like these.  [I want one!]

We see people walking by. 

After bad weather, we see the REMC trucks go by.   And then dump trucks full of gravel.  

A couple of times a year we see the road grader go by, filling the potholes and re-spreading the gravel over the muddy strips in the road that show up over time.  

And once in a while we see someone drive by on a zero turn mower.  

Traffic out here is an event.   When we're outside, we always stop and look up and wave - even if we have no idea who it is.   We've made good neighbors out here simply by waving every time a car [truck/tractor/mower] goes by.   We all mind our own business, but when we take the time to acknowledge our neighbors as they go by, we quietly forge relationships that will pay off in times of fire, bad weather, etc.   Once in a while we need each other out here and it's nice to know that a friendly face will meet you at the door - even if it's the first time you've ever been to that door.