This Is Us: An Overhead Glimpse of Harvest 2022

Thanks to our neighbor, Mark Pike, for these drone images and his permission to share them. What a gift!

***

Just like 6.4 million other people, I watched the series finale of a family television drama called "This Is Us" at the end of May. Just by watching my Facebook feed, I know I'm not the only viewer who had a Kleenex box nearby as I watched the finale episode about a family we all got to know and care about during six seasons of Tuesday nights.

I'm not sure how many people then scoured the internet to find quotes from the episode. But there was at least one. (That was easier than starting and stopping the DVR for me to take notes. And since I found a compilation of "This Is Us" quotes, I'm fairly confident that I'm not the only one.)

In it, the mom, Rebecca, is traveling on the metaphorical train toward death after suffering from dementia for several years. And I was struck by the words from her "conductor," William:

"The way I see it, if something makes you sad when it ends, it must have been pretty wonderful when it was happening. Truth be told, I always felt it a bit lazy to just think of the world as sad, because so much of it is. Because everything ends. Everything dies. But if you step back, if you step back and look at the whole picture, if you're brave enough to allow yourself the gift of a really wide perspective, if you do that, you'll see that the end is not sad, Rebecca. It's just the start of the next incredibly beautiful thing." 

William to Rebecca, This Is Us, series finale

I saved the quote (and a few others). And I thought about it again when our neighbor, Mark Pike, sent some drone photos he'd taken of our harvest - our final one as active producers.

Undoubtedly, the drone gives that wide perspective - a little bigger picture than I'm able to see with my normal "boots-on-the-ground" view through my camera lens.

 

For some reason, the drone pictures - and that different look at harvest - had me pulling out the Kleenex box again.

 

 

Through the years, I've tried to document harvest to the best of my ability. Since I began Kim's County Line in 2010, I've made an even more concentrated effort, but the efforts to photographically show and tell the journey of wheat - beginning to end- have been part of my DNA for long before then.

I've taken some spectacular shots - and a whole lot that weren't noteworthy at all. But, for some reason, these photos taken from a bird's eye view were particularly poignant. 

"The way I see it, if something makes you sad when it ends, it must have been pretty wonderful when it was happening."

 

That bears repeating, I suppose. But I also know this process is a little like childbirth. The mom develops a bit of amnesia about the rigors of the birth process itself. Otherwise, the whole world would be single children - or so the joke goes.

 

So, as I look back on 41+ years of farming with Randy (and a lifetime for both of us before that), I have a tendency to remember the good - the rides in the buddy seat on the combine, my book in my hand after the conversation was exhausted. ... The wildlife making a hasty retreat as the mighty machine takes another swath of field ... The vibrant green peeking through brown soil, a yearly miracle. ... The dewy raindrops caught on green wheat. ...The sound of wheat, rustling in the Kansas breeze. God's masterpiece sunsets sinking into the western horizon as the combine rumbles toward it and seems to gobble up the light. And so much more.

You don't wax nostalgic about yet another trip to the parts counter or the third flat tire in a week or your legs sticking to the plastic seat of the truck or the buckets of sweat. You realize that you're not bounding up the steps of the combine like you did when you were that teenaged truck driver. You aren't thrilled with the rash you develop during harvest or the pesky cheat that gets stuck in your socks. You don't fondly remember those phone calls to hire a Caterpillar to come pull both the combine and the tractor out of mud - and the accompanying bill. While Harvest 2022 was pretty smooth sailing the first week, perhaps I needed a reality check - and got one. We had a rain delay, and, when we got up and running again after a day and a half, I got the call that I needed to come help get the truck pulled out. (Plus, since we hadn't used the tractor for awhile, it had to be jumped before it could do its job. Mission accomplished - but it was a circuitous route.)

But those moments of aggravation don't take away from the life and lifestyle that we've lived and loved. It's not for everyone. We didn't do it perfectly. I'd change some things.

But, a bird's eye view helps me remember that it was - and is - a beautiful life. 

Toward the truck, that field finished

 

In another quote from "This Is Us," Dad Jack tells his kids:

“That’s what we’re doing, just collecting these little moments. We don’t recognize them when we’re in them because we’re too busy looking forward. But then we spend the rest of our lives looking back trying to remember them, trying to be back inside them.” 

 

So I find myself doing a bit of that. I think it's natural, as we change directions.

Mark also included a drone photo of Randy's folks' house. It sold on June 4, and a new family will begin building a life and making memories there, beginning in mid-August.

 

I just hope they'll look back - years from now - and have those moments to collect and remember, too. 

And, as for us, we may get done with wheat harvest today, after getting rained out yesterday again. Then it will be time to get things ready for the farm sale coming August 13. 

And, hopefully, just like William told Rebecca: "It's just the start of the next incredibly beautiful thing." 

***

Mark shot drone footage two harvests ago. He didn't send any video from this harvest, but here are some repeats of 2020 videos

.  

 

I actually got a pretty awesome still shot from that 2020 harvest night, too. The sky was breathtaking. I enlarged this one to canvas size.

Harvest 2020

A shot I got Saturday night, June 25, reminded me of that one. 

Harvest 2022

For more from the post about the 2020 harvest, click HERE. And, thanks again to Mark!

Giving Up the Co-Pilot's Seat: Wheat Harvest 2022

  

We almost needed one of those number dispensers that they used to have on the counter at Baskin-Robbins during the summertime rush. Plucking one of those numbers from the spool guaranteed your place in the line to order your scoop of one of 31 flavors.

It may not have been ice cream, but there was still a line to ride in Grandpa's buddy seat this past weekend, when the whole family made a quick trip to the farm. I didn't think it was going to happen. Jill, Eric and the girls had planned to come, but Brent and Susan had just returned from their honeymoon. However, Friday afternoon, they made the decision to get in the car and come, so they were last-minute additions to the harvest "party." 

There was no homemade ice cream - or Baskin-Robbins, for that matter - but there was frozen lemonade dessert for all.  And everyone got a ride or two (or 3) in Grandpa's co-pilot seat.

It made my day - and weekend - to have everyone here together.

The bright sun may have not been particularly conducive to quality photos. But I'm still glad to have them as we celebrated wheat harvest as a family one last time.

I'm sure our kids remember wheat harvest with a mix of emotions. During such a busy time, there's pressure to get a lot done. The hours are long. The time is short. Machinery breaks down. You make trips to the parts counter or the co-op. You think things are fixed ... then they break again. The weather doesn't cooperate. Tempers boil over. By the end, people are exhausted. And after a celebratory dinner at a favorite restaurant (a harvest tradition), then there are always new farm tasks to complete - like the seemingly endless job of working wheat stubble to prepare it for the next crop.

But I also know they learned a lot about working hard ... working together ... doing a job well ... being dependable. Those long hours on the farm working with family helped shape them into the successful adults they are today.

 

As always, Randy loves combine "hitchhikers." And Kinley and Brooke are definitely favorite riders.

He loves answering their questions and introducing this generation to their agricultural roots. This year, Grandpa got to see them before I did. They spotted Randy on the combine as they drove by, and their parents let them out for their first combine ride of the weekend. It wouldn't be their last!

Randy is glad to tell them about their mom, who was our truck driver back in the day. They always come back to the house with reports of wildlife they've seen. Jill even got to see a bobcat.

This was the second year that Susan was part of our harvest-style family reunion.

We ate "out" with our special dinner guests.

 

Grandpa was the instigator behind this posed photo.

This type of "eating out" may not be the norm when you have dinner guests. Maybe they can't be called "guests" when they are drafted into work.

One afternoon, Brooke illustrated the lunch bags while Kinley rode the combine.

It's a tradition that the girls draw pictures showing each dinner guest's interests and hobbies.

There can be some interesting seating arrangements. Grandpa likes to stand up to eat since he spends hours sitting in the combine cab, so we don't bring a table and chairs, like some farm families do.

Since our truck driver fell through, Randy has been cutting the wheat, then hauling it to the co-op. But that made for another experience for the girls (and others) who rode along on the trip to Zenith.

There's a lot to learn at the elevator, too.

Cities aren't the only places with tall structures.

After the grain was dumped, they headed back to the scale house for the ticket, which gives the amount of grain delivered, the quality, the moisture and any dockage.

After supper, it was time for Daddy-Daughter time - old style. Jill rode with her dad both Friday and Saturday nights.

Photo by Jill

It was a flashback to her truck-driving days, when she'd catch a ride in the air-conditioning and wait for the truck to get filled before another trip to Zenith.

Everyone left shortly after lunch on Sunday to return to their own lives. But it was the perfect gift for a Father's Day weekend for a Kansas wheat farmer.

Photo by Jill

Then Randy was just left with me as a helper again. It may have been Father's Day, but those clouds - the first of this harvest season - seemed like a gift to amateur photographers like me.

 

More photos to come in upcoming reports!

And That's a Wrap: Harvest 2021

The sun has set on Wheat Harvest 2021. We cut the final 20 acres of wheat on Monday afternoon. It was at a location that had more rain, and we were trying to avoid getting stuck on the soggy ground. (It's always an additional success when we don't have to call a Caterpillar tractor to pull us out of a "sticky" situation, like in 2019).

On one of my combine rides after a supper delivery last week, I couldn't resist a photo of the sunset glow in the neighbor's soybean field. To me, it also illustrates the nature of farming. While one crop is being harvested, another grows. (There's probably a lesson for life there, too.)

View from the wheat truck

And, as usual, harvest efforts have been a combination of sunshine and rain, mechanical problems and everything in between.

 

But it's always good to look back. It's part of moving forward.

Our start date - June 17 - seems so long ago.  It's always interesting to see how start and end dates compare from year to year. Here are the stats since I began 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 

The finish dates are all over the board in the past dozen years, too:

2010: June 25

2011: June 20

2012: June 9 (an anomaly)

2013: July 6

2014: July 7

2015: July 1

2016: July 13

2017: June 28

2018: June 29

2019: July 22

2020: July 7

2021: July 12

Yield averages in the years since I've been blogging have been:

2010: 37.2 bu/acre

2011: 36.7 bu/acre

2012: 45.5 bu/acre

2013: 52 bu/acre

2014: 24.5 bu/acre

2015: 50 bu/acre

2016: 48.5 bu/acre

2017: 50.84 bu/acre

2018: 39.2 bu/acre

2019: 23.6 bu/acre

2020: 49.5 bu/acre

2021: 58 bu/acre

In 2021, our high yield was 86 bushels per acre. Our low was 31. As Randy says, he's "exceptionally happy." It's our highest overall yield ever.

October 2020 - filling the drill while planting wheat

The 2021 wheat crop began last September 21, 2020, when we began planting this year's crop.  He finished up on October 6. For the 2021 crop year, 1,486 of our acres were devoted to wheat.

Really, the journey toward planting the 2021 crop started with the 2020 harvest, when we binned seed wheat - Bob Dole and Zenda - to use for this year. I blogged about taking seed wheat to Miller Seed Farm to be cleaned here.

It went back into our home bins until we were ready to plant it last September/October.

I also made the annual trek to Miller Seed Farm to pick up bags of certified wheat seed. The bags were planted for seed wheat for the 2022 crop.

Here are a few other photos of the wheat crop as it grew:

 We had an early snowfall on October 26.

I included a wheat update in this post right before Thanksgiving 2020.

Here was the wheat field (and a pretty sky) on January 23. 

The wheat field - and a visitor - were pictured on March 1 (with a blog post here.)

It's amazing how quickly the wheat begins to grow in the spring. By May 1, it looked like this:

On May 4, Kanza Co-op applied fungicide to our wheat crop. That decision paid off this year. 

By May 10, it was pollinating:

We began cutting June 17 this year and were delayed by breakdowns and weather. (Such is the life of a farm family.) But we were thrilled to have our whole family here June 18-20.

Harvest 2021

In March 2020, just as the pandemic began, Randy and I were installed as presidents of our respective branches of the Kansas Master Farmer/Homemaker organization. Because of Covid, the officers (including us) kept our offices for another year. So, in mid-June, I wrote my (our) second summer letter to our membership. 

 

I began the letter with a quote from author and evangelist Vance Havner:

God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength.

I used this photo from the 2020 wheat harvest as the letterhead and then referred to it in the text of the letter:

I get devotionals in my email inbox daily, but on occasion, I save one. I suppose Vance Havner’s quote resonated with me because of my lifelong connection to Kansas farming, first as a farm daughter in Pratt County, and now as a farm partner on the Stafford/Reno County line.

Likewise, as an amateur photographer, I’ve discovered that clouds punctuating an evening sky yield the best sunsets. Case in point was this favorite photo from wheat harvest 2020, when the setting sun burst through the western sky. A “broken” sky produces a much more dramatic end to the day than a cloudless evening. ...

... As I write this, we have just started wheat harvest on our farm on the Stafford/Reno County line.  It’s always an exciting – yet challenging -- time. There have already been “broken things” that we’d rather not experience. (The guys at Case know me on a first-name basis. I’m sure the same can be said for many of you at the parts store of your choice!) But “breaking” that finish line as the last truckload rumbles to the elevator is always a good feeling, too. Here’s wishing the best to you and yours as you accomplish this summer’s tasks on the farm.

Harvest 2021

Farmers and ranchers are essential workers. And, even if the world and the way we do things had to evolve, it was still a blessing to do the work that our ancestors have been doing for five generations in Kansas.

Randy & Melvin - undated photo - One of Melvin's final harvests

 

And now on to the next thing.That's part of farming, too.

 Today, it's helping out with 4-H foods judging at the Stafford County Fair.