Continuing Combine Conundrums. (June 2012 2 of 2)

Headers, harvest and heat.

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May and Stuff.

One super fence, one super moon, and one super uncle.

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In Which lobiwan Completely Ignores the Fact That He May Never Catch Up.

The rest of March.

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Tradition! Oregon 2012 edition.

A'int no party like an Oregon party 'cause an Oregon party don't stop.

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No More Trees, No More Thneeds...

I started November by cutting all the milo worth cutting.

Which amounted to a grand total of about 20 acres.  I normally cut about 550 acres of dryland fall crops between my neighbor Rod and I. So, yeah, that's pretty bad.

I did manage to get a full combine load out of it...

But just the one.

And that's how the 2011 fieldwork ended.

AND that finishes 10 full years of farming for yours truly. (Cue balloons.)


AND (FINALLY!) some rest for what little is left of my poor L5 S1 vertebral disc.

We were fixing to have our first big freeze, so I went ahead and drained the water Over East the next day.

It rained a little.

And then a good bit more.  So all the wheat should  make it out of the ground at least.

I headed over to the Gray Havens to check the progress.

If you looked real closely you could see some wheat that had sprouted before this last rain.

Looks like this fella got in a little deep...

And this little guy was just gettin' started.

The irrigated still looked good, of course.
 

I finally got around to taking the smidge' of milo over to the feedlot. The one where they make the milo into ethanol.

  And then I headed up to haul some screenings for Chris.

It is very hard to overload these short trailers, and impossible to do with wheat screenings.

A funny thing happened on the way to Pierceville...

One day the crop adjuster came out to look at all the milo I didn't cut.

It didn't take long to zero everything out.

This is actually the first time I have not harvested a field that I planted. (Well, excepting those soybeans...(ooh, you should click on this link too. (especially you, Jeanette, since God apparently wasn't done answering your stupid question. (The more I look through the posts from 2008, the more I realize just how crappy this blog has gotten. Seriously, just read the archives, they are full of a lot better stuff. Plus it used to rain. (Also, apparently people used to comment. Boo readers! Boo! (Typical Reader's response: 'Maybe if you wouldn't fall so far behind, your posts would be fresher, shorter, and of such a quality that they would earn the respect necessary for me to take two minutes out of my busy day to comment. How about some quality posting, you ever heard of that one, Stan?)))))) 

10 years, with only one (near) complete crop failure. A ten year period drier than any ten year period in or around the dirty thirties, I might add.  Thanks, no-till!

 It was super nice of Steve to circle my farm on his map.

And that was the farm in November.

You know, I really should move all that junk, if I'm going to keep taking pictures of the rain gauge.

Find my farm!

It's time for a rousing game of Find My Farm!

Here is a 3 day precipitation map! Can you Find My Farm!?!



Here is a 30 day precipitation map! Can you Find My Farm!?!



Here is a 90 day precipitation map! Can you Find My Farm!?!




Here is a 2011 year to date precipitation map! Can you Find My Farm!?!




Here is a 2010 precipitation map! Can you Find My Farm!?!




Wasn't that fun!?!

Katie Takes Oregon, Part III.

The next day was a pretty lazy one.

But not to lazy for more donuts.


Jonathan and Anna stopped to smell the flowers.

And Katie got tickled.

And spent some quality time with Uncle Eric.

Although Erica preferred to have her own quality time.

She helped me look at pictures since we were both confined to the floor.

Erica often finds random obstacles keeping her from where she wants to be.

I don't think her prayer worked.

But soon enough she forgets about the greater world beyond the living room.


The next day we went to a false donut store.

And then we went to Lithia Park. Apparently in Ashland they also think it is appropriate to have whitewater running through the middle of town.

There was just one duck in the lower duck pond. Apparently the economic downturn has not affected the Oregon ducks as much as had been feared.

You have to respect a community that decides that a mountainside park situated along a rushing creek needs some improvement... like say... a duck pond.

OK, we have the rushing stream. we have the beautiful trees, we have the mountainside, we have a duckpond... but there is still something missing... I know! A second duck pond!

Really I don't see why they keep the stinky old stream around at all.

The kids certainly preferred the duckpond.



Just look at all those Uppity ducks!





It really is a shame that such nicely manicured lawns are interrupted by this ridiculous stream. Boring!

Then we went to Fun Again Games in Ashland. As is our custom, we arrived before they opened. So Betsy and I went to the Artist flea market thingy a couple of doors down. I kind of regret not buying this painting for Linda:
Notice the title, it kind of makes the picture perfect, in my mind.

Then we met Eric for some yummy tacos in Phoenix. (In case you haven't noticed, all the town names were taken by the time Oregon was settled, and so they just recycled old ones. Because they care more than you do. As they will not hesitate to tell you.)
Anyhoo, yummy tacos.

And then more glorious rain on our way to the Harold and Davey store.

I just can't seem to understand their marketing slogans.

Then we had some cousin bonding.



And a photo session.









And then some cartoons.



And snuggling.

And purple potatoes.

And reading.

Oh yeah, and a phone call at 10 PM telling one of our flights was canceled in the morrow. I was so happy I could cry.