And Just Like That...It's Fall...

What a difference a few days can make!

The past weeks have been...IMHO...horribly uncomfortable.  The humidity has been so thick you could just about cut it, and the temps just couldn't come down.

Yesterday we spent the day at Eric's final home cross country meet.  How did he become a college senior so quickly?!  It was a beautiful day for running...overcast and in the mid 70's.  First day we've had weather like that in a very. long. time.

He had a great race...

...and the team had a great finish, winning the invitational.  He's 3rd from the right...

Afterwards, as tradition has it, the team and families held a tailgate potluck.  My fingers were freezing by the time we were finished, but I'm not complaining!  As long as there's a blanket to throw over me or a sweatshirt to put on, I'm good.

This week we finished our silage harvest. With all the rain we've been having, the guys have been burning the candle at both ends.  They've been putting in really long days, trying to keep up with all the farms that they need to get to before the corn gets too dry.  The equipment arrived at 1:30 am, and sat waiting until they arrived around 8 am...

For some reason, the silage pipe kept getting plugged up.  Jim is up at the top, and Mark is sitting on top of the blower, working at getting it open...

The last load of silage...

The guys moved on to the next farm quickly, and took the blower with them.  Silo gas, which can be deadly, forms when fresh silage is put into a silo.  To deliver fresh air into the silo, farmers usually run the blower when working inside the silo for the first day or so.  The gas doesn't form right away, so Jim quickly leveled the silage and we set up the unloader after lunch. I was at the bottom of the silo inside the silage room, lowering the unloader at his instruction.  I found our kids' handprints in the concrete, where we had reinforced with shotcrete years ago.

Eric...

...and Jenna...

Things change so quickly!

For now, we hope to enjoy fall!  The West Lampeter Fair is this coming week, and I'm sure we'll be spending a lot of time there.  It might be a muddy mess (it's raining, again!) but it will happen regardless!  It's one of the highlights of the year for us. Goat, sheep, pig and dairy beef shows, baked goods, contests, fair food, and much more bring the community together for a great time.

A "Finishing" Day...

It was a "finishing" day today...

We finished filling silo for the year...Jim finished baling and wrapping fifth cutting hay...and it was the final day of the fair...

Each year we chop corn to fill the silos, and a few weeks later we top them off with "late corn".  Late corn is corn that has intentionally been planted later than the rest...usually after wheat or barley has been harvested...for the purpose of refilling, or topping off the silos.  It's a way to make sure that we have enough corn silage to make it through the winter and until next summer when we chop again.

A forage wagon full of corn silage...

Unloading silage into the blower at the bottom of the silo...

What is he looking at?

He's looking at Jim who is at the top of the ladder, watching to see when the first silo is full.  Jim will wave at him, and he will stop unloading until Jim can swing the gooseneck at the top over into the other silo.  Rather him than me, up there at the top!

It didn't take them long here at home.  Then they unhooked the blower and took it over to the other farm to chop a little more corn over there for the heifers and dry cows...

It's a great feeling to have this job finished for the year.  Tomorrow, Jim will level off the silage in both silos, and we'll get the unloaders set up.  That sure will be a lot nicer to feed silage using an unloader rather than a pitch fork!

I made it over to the fair tonight for the livestock sale and to pick up a few things that I had entered.  Jim finished up wrapping the hay that he baled this afternoon.  Fifth cutting is now history, and as I walked in the door from the fair tonight, it started drizzling.  We could use a little moisture again!

What kind of things are you finishing up?

Refill..Finally...

Wow...it's been a really unusual year here.  Never, ever before, have we refilled our silos so late in the year!

Spring planting was late because of the cool spring.  Initial silo filling was late because spring planting was late...and so refilling silo was pushed back as well!

Jim had some "late corn"...or "short season corn" that was planted into an old hay field this spring after second cutting of hay.  One purpose of planting "late corn" is so that there is still some corn green enough to chop when it's time to refill...or "top off" the silos before winter.

Last week's 4" of rain held things up a bit, but when the weather is cool like it has been here, the corn doesn't dry down too quickly.  Monday morning, bright and early, Jim and Daniel raised the last silo unloader, and the chopper pulled in just after breakfast.

The field they chopped was at our neighbors' farm.  Here comes one of the full loads, heading for home. The guys tried hard to stay out of the yard, because of how soft the ground was, so they cut across a small corner of the bean field...  (isn't their house beautiful?!  I think it was built in 1863)

The chopper is waiting for one of the two wagons to unload at home, and return.  Our farm is behind those trees you see in the distance.  The silos aren't quite tall enough to stick out over the top...

Just a different perspective of the wagons unloading at the silos.  This load is going into the silo at the west...see the gooseneck at the top of the pipe?

And as usual...when the silos get almost full, Jim climbs to the top to signal to the tractor driver when to shut off the hydraulics on his wagon.  He then swings the gooseneck into the other silo and they fill that one up...

Now both silo unloaders have been set up, and it's on to the rest of the fall work.  Today it's raining, so Jim and Daniel are replacing some cow mats in the stable.  When it dries off, Jim will mow and bale the rest of 5th cutting hay, have the beans and corn combined, and bale corn fodder.  Oh...and haul manure.  There's still a lot of fall work to do.  It's the busiest time of the year here!