The gas tank gauge on the car was drifting toward the "E" ... or as close as I ever let it get. As a country girl who grew up 15 minutes from town, I was encouraged to fill the gas tank when the needle neared the 1/4-mark. It was a habit that served me well as a teenager. When I ended up changing my "title" from father's daughter to farmer's wife, there was no reason to mess with a tried-and-true method.
Most of the last two tanks of gas have been "spent" running from one field to the next as we planted wheat. There was no fun trip to the homecoming parade and K-State football game last weekend in Manhattan ... just more trips to exchange the car for another trip to Zenith in the pickup, pulling the fertilizer trailer and refilling the 100-gallon diesel tank on the flatbed pickup. There were trips to deliver hot meals to the field and to help move the caravan of vehicles needed for wheat planting from one field to the next. A parts run to Hutchinson came after filling up a dwindling gas tank.
While I might be just a little sad (OK, a lot sad) that I didn't get to join Kinley and Brooke at the homecoming parade and get a preview of their butterfly Halloween costumes, I certainly have had some fringe benefits.
The sky! THE SKY!
It was like God was fingerpainting on the clouds, adding just a little bit of gold leaf ... like those fancy chefs on the Food Network.
I could almost ignore the mosquitoes the size of Piper aircraft to capture yet another image of Kansas beauty at its finest.
This wheat planting season has been a marathon - not a sprint. We started October 2, but we were slowed by some much-needed moisture interspersed throughout these past three weeks.(I told Randy that we can't complain about moisture after a dry summer.)
We finally got done with planting last evening, October 23. There are months of sunrises and sunsets until we'll harvest the 1,326 acres that will be Wheat Harvest 2018. (Let's hope it warrants the capital letters in 9 months time!)
Now it's on to harvesting another crop - milo.
What an incredibly busy time. I trust that these wonderful skies have placed a blessing on the wheat for a fantastic yield.
ReplyDeleteWhen it was very dry on on the farm, my Dad would purchase ground milo to feed the cows, as they were being milked. As kids we would eat it by the handful.
I remember chewing on wheat kernels as a child, but not milo. A company in Western Kansas, Nu Life Market, sells many sorghum products, many of which are marketed to those avoiding gluten.
DeleteWow! That first photo is awesome! A calendar photo I feel!!!
ReplyDeleteRandy says it is his favorite, too. (And not just because he's in it - ha!)
ReplyDelete