And So Begins the End: Wheat Harvest 2022

Flag Day sunrise, June 14, 2022

And so begins the end.

We began our 2022 Wheat Harvest last evening about 6:15. It won't be a banner year when it comes to wheat yield. That happened last year. But it is a banner year for another reason: It's our final wheat harvest as active farmers. 

Harvest begins, June 13, 2022

I rode along last evening. I'm sure there will be plenty of other rides during this harvest season.

I have a record of our start dates since 2010 because that's when I started blogging:

2010:  June 18
2011:  June 10
2012:  May 26 (an anomaly and the earliest harvest, by far, we've ever had)
2013:  June 21
2014:  June 17
2015:  June 20
2016:  June 15
2017:  June 12
2018: June 12
2019: June 26
2020: June 16

2021: June 17

2022: June 13

 

As I came into the house last night, I saw on my family birthday calendar that today (June 14) is Flag Day. So I went to the wheat field to get some shots this morning.

 

The wind was already gusting mightily at 6:15 in the morning. It's going to be a windy day!

 

 

 

I had trouble keeping the flag flat even when it was lying on the wheat! (I like a rippling flag anyway.) 

I guess I bookended our night and day because I'd taken some sunset photos last night.

I've told a few friends this, but I guess you're my friends, too. But it almost feels like people expect us to apologize or offer explanations for our decision to retire. 

"You're retiring!? Farmers don't retire!" I've heard it from more than one person.

Well, we are. And I can't deny that there are bittersweet feelings about this being our final wheat harvest with "boots on the ground," so to speak. But we are at peace with the decision. Yesterday, Randy found out the truck driver that had said he'd drive won't be coming. This morning, there's a low tire on the semi trailer. (It's taking awhile to fill a truck this year because yields are lower after our dry winter and spring, so I guess there will be fewer truckloads going to the elevator anyway.)

Last evening, as we traveled east to west across the waving wheat field gobbling up yet another header-full of wheat, Randy said, "Well, I won't miss scooping out wheat from the bin to get it cleaned for seed wheat this summer." And I won't miss being up in the tractor cab, running the PTO, hoping he wasn't getting heat stroke inside that hot metal bin.

But, on this Flag Day - and every day - we are proud that we have been part of the American fabric - the American farmer. 

This morning, a Facebook memory came up from five years ago. A friend at church had given me a bookmark that had been produced years ago by the Kansas Wheat Commission. I then put my own photos along the side for an illustration. 

I still feel the same way about wheat. And I probably always will - whether I'm in the truck cab or the combine cab or just viewing the action from my dusty dirt road. 

 

Hurray for the Red, White and Blue!

It may seem like just another day. There's no national holiday. It's not like July 4th or Christmas, when folks have been counting down the days until a day off from work. Advertisers, who so readily promote chocolate-covered bunnies before Easter or the latest, greatest techno-toy for under the Christmas tree, pretty much ignore it. 

But today is a special day. June 14th is Flag Day. It was first celebrated in 1877, commemorating the adoption of the United States flag back in 1777. 

Today, I'm remembering the guys and gals from Stafford who are serving our country. Jake and Ethan are currently in Afghanistan. They played football with Brent. Two other soldiers, Jamee and Dallas, were in Brent's high school class. All of them are currently serving or have served their country. There are many others, too - names that fill a good portion of our church bulletin insert each week. Other names come to my email in-box as one of their moms asks us to pray for her son's platoon and send them letters and care packages. I don't know these other young men. I imagine how they look. I imagine where they are from. I imagine their Moms and Dads as they send their sons off into a world I can't really fathom.

"Our flag honors those who have fought to protect it, and is a reminder of the sacrifice of our nation's founders and heroes. As the ultimate icon of America's storied history, the Stars and Stripes represents the very best of this nation."

~ Joe Barton

 Around here, the guys will celebrate Flag Day by raking and baling alfalfa and disking wheat stubble. I'll be on the computer and in the kitchen, doing my normal, everyday routine. Others will go to their office buildings.

But as we go through our everyday lives today, maybe take a moment or two to realize how fortunate we are to live in the good old U.S. of A. where have the freedom to follow our dreams and pursue our livelihoods. And then remember the servicemen and women who still work today to preserve our right to fly Old Glory.  And remember their Moms and Dads, their brothers and sisters, their wives and husbands and children: All of them are sacrificing, too.

"I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself, the pictured suggestion of that big thing which makes this nation.  My stars and my stripes are your dream and your labors.  They are bright with cheer, brilliant with courage, firm with faith, because you have made them so out of your heart.  For you are the makers of the flag, and it is well that you glory in the making."

~Franklin Knight Lane

If you want to celebrate with some patriotic-themed baking, here are a few ideas:

 Star-Spangled Cookies

Macaroons

Clipper Bars

When the Winds Blow

When a day is still, I don't notice flags. Do you?

But when a strong wind buffets a flag, it immediately draws your eyes to it. We watch its ripple and hear the snap of canvas as the wind tosses it to and fro.

Racers start their engines and put their foot on the gas when the flag man waves the green flag. At a race, do we pay attention to the checkered flag until it's waved wildly to signal the end of a race? We're probably not looking for the flag that's just sitting idly in the flag man's hands.

Today - June 14 - is Flag Day. Head on over to my Lovely Branches Ministries Food for Thought blog for more thoughts about facing the "winds" of life and for recipes (like the one pictured below) to celebrate Flag Day. Or click on this link to my KFRM blog for a more patriotic look at this special day.


Happy Flag Day!