One Of These Things Is Not Like the Others

Do you remember this song from "Sesame Street?"

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

Did you guess which thing was not like the others?
Did you guess which thing just doesn't belong?

If you guessed this one is not like the others,
Then you're absolutely right! 

We started corn harvest on Saturday. We also quit corn harvest on Saturday when we had a breakdown. The row headers (those things that look like missiles) are supposed to "float" and flex through the field. However, the cone on this particular header took a dive into the ground instead. The very same row header malfunctioned when Randy tried a test cut last week. He ordered a new one, and we picked it up Saturday morning in Hutchinson.

 

Naturally, it was Labor Day weekend, so the equipment dealership closed at noon Saturday and wasn't open on Monday. Randy plans to be at the parts counter when they open this morning. We'll see if we can get back up and running without having to wait on another part.

After lunch on Saturday, I was on my way to the field to get the first photos of corn harvest 2016. Randy had already cut one semi load of corn, but he wanted me to wait for pictures until we got into a little better corn than he found on the perimeter of the field. But, by the time I got there for the photo op, we were already broken down.

I rode along to Stafford in the semi instead.

Main Street, facing south, as we approached the 4-way stop.

It was only a partial load, but Randy didn't want to leave it sitting in the truck, potentially "sweating" and increasing the moisture reading.

Taken through the back window of the semi as the grain probe dipped down into the truck to get a corn sample.

We take most of our grain to the Zenith branch of the Kanza Co-op, but it was closed for the Labor Day weekend, so we went the extra miles to Stafford.

It's always a little more of a challenge because the elevator is right on U.S. Highway 50.

It requires a bit of maneuvering - and several extra glances both east and west down the highway - to weigh on and then depart after unloading.

But it wasn't that busy on Saturday, so no traffic jams were involved.

There were no traffic jams on Main Street either, even though it was coffee time at Elroy's, the pizza place. Going down the brick streets of Stafford's Main Street in a semi can rattle your teeth a bit.

Sitting up higher gives a different perspective than the one I get in my car. Now, if only the windows had been cleaner, but even if I'd had Windex with me, I don't think my gymnastic moves would have been sufficient to get them cleaned. We already had one breakdown. We didn't need a farm wife breakdown on top of that!

So, we didn't "labor" as much as we'd planned during Labor Day weekend.

Mountains: Kansas Style

On trips to Colorado, this native flatlander Kansan is always searching the horizon for the first glimpse of the mountains. Even as a child, I remember the anticipation, searching for the shadowy hint of the peaks against the sky.

This fall, as we've driven into Stafford, my farmer has been scanning the scenery, too, watching to see the piles of milo and corn develop into their own farm-country version of mountains. They may not be Pike's Peak. But they are pretty impressive nonetheless.

We haven't raised milo for the past three years, but we have watched the milo mountains grow this fall at both the Stafford and Zenith locations of the Kanza Co-op. (It was a great year for milo, so, as Murphy's Law would have it, we didn't raise any.)

 

As of October 26, the Kanza Cooperative, where we haul our grain, had corn receipts of 8.2 million bushels and milo stores of 1.2 million bushels. Kanza Co-op has 10 locations in South Central Kansas.

There at two on-the-ground milo piles at both Stafford and Zenith, two of Kanza's branches. To me, they look a little like one of those sand art projects, but we'd need a mighty big jar to contain them.

Milo is having a bit of a revival as a fall crop in Kansas. Last year, Kansas farmers sold milo (AKA grain sorghum) to China. In fact, in 2014, more than 85 percent of the U.S.’s sorghum was shipped to China.

Last month, Kansas welcomed six grain buyers from South America. They went to several Kansas locations to see how milo is turned into livestock feed, fuel for vehicles and food for human consumption. The six buyers from Colombia and Peru toured milo country from Texas to western and central Kansas.

Portable unloading auger at the Stafford branch of the co-op

In Kansas alone, 3.15 million acres were planted to milo, up 17 percent from 2014, according to the October report from the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service. Kansas production is forecast at 258 million bushels, up 29 percent from last year. Additionally, sorghum has caught the attention of the U.S. Department of Energy, which, earlier this year, announced providing $30 million in funding for research on better varieties of sorghum – such as for drought tolerance and better biofuels.

Bunker filled with corn, Stafford branch, Kanza Co-op

In addition to the milo piles, the Kanza Co-op has bunkers filled with corn at four of its locations. (Our County Line dryland corn was a bust, but irrigated corn in this region did well this year.)

Three of the four piles of grain at the Stafford branch of the co-op

It's even more unusual to have piles of grain on the ground at the Zenith branch, where we take the majority of our grain.

 

But there are two milo piles there, too, and we see a few fields still left to harvest in our area. 

After harvest, the piles will likely be trucked away, leaving us with our flat landscape once again.

Right Place, Right Time: Wordless Wednesday

But beauty seen is never lost,

God's colors all are fast;

The glory of this sunset heaven

into my soul has passed.

--John Greenleaf Whittier

I just love being at the right place at the right time.

As we were coming back from Manhattan Saturday evening, the sun was setting behind the 100-year-old elevator at Rayl's Hill just west of Hutchinson.

As I predicted, my earlier Rayl's Hill story and photos would not be my last of this faithful old landmark. And that's a good thing.

Happy Anniversary, Rayl's Hill!

September 2011

A faithful sentinel has provided a backdrop for all the Kansas seasons for 100 years. Since 1915, the Rayl's Hill elevator has been a landmark for travelers on 4th Street Road just west of Hutchinson.

The elevator has "Thos.Rayl, 1915" embossed on the south side.

Thomas Rayl was 3 years old when he arrived in Hutchinson, Kansas from Indiana in the back of his parents' covered wagon. In 1898, Rayl, 24, married 16-year-old Clara Page. The young couple moved to a home on a small "hill" west of Hutchinson. In other parts of the country, the small "rise" probably wouldn't be considered much of a hill. But the definition was different in the plains of central Kansas.

Rayl became a successful farmer and needed a place to store his grain. In 1913, he began designing the elevator, but it wasn't completed until 1915. He had plenty of children to help him put up his harvest. The couple raised 13 boys and a girl on their Reno County farm.

According to an article in The Wichita Eagle, the Rayls' youngest child, Willard Rayl, said cement was 10 cents a sack, adding that his father used "lots of cement and rebar." The elevator cost $2,000 to build. The family used it was wheat storage initially, then used it to store silage.

June 2010

Near the elevator and across from a cemetery on the hill, there's a granite historical monument. It marks the June 23, 1923, visit to the farm when President Warren Harding helped cut a wheat field. Harding had stopped in Hutchinson to address the nation's agricultural problems. Harding spoke to 8,000 students, then made a trip to the state fairgrounds to deliver a speech. He was guest of honor at a public reception at the Bisonte Hotel before taking the five-mile trip to Rayl's Hill.

 

Harding was reluctant at first to climb up on the tractor and operate a wheat binder, according to an article in The Hutchinson News. However, First Lady Florence Harding prodded him, saying, "Oh, go on, Warren! Don't disappoint the newspaper boys. You know they want a story!"

The News praised the president: "A friendly smile, a hearty handclasp, a word or two of greeting."

September 2009

The family farmed the ground until the 1960s, when it was sold. The elevator hasn't been used for years. But it still is a substantial reminder of days gone by, when elevators dotted the plains, accommodating the horses and wagons hauling wheat and other grains in from the surrounding fields.

 

The elevator has certainly been the backdrop for many a Kansas landscape photo, including several for me. I doubt these will be my last.