Fresh Fields

October – Sunflowers and Corn replace cereals on the harvester menu. I want to fit in as much harvesting as possible in order to make progress towards buying one of the larger fields. But before I get started, there’s the matter of the weeds in my freshly sprouted Barley crop. I hooked up the weedwhacker and set about the task…

…Interestingly the field info said small weeds and suggested using a Hoe – which is effectively what this row weeder is! Note that the John Deere 4240 has got its ballet shoes on for this job😅

Then I was off to harvest two Corn fields for my neighbours – Field 21 first…

…Taking care not to drive into the pond! Then field 58 where I did drop the harvester in one of the tank-traps that pass for ditches in these parts and had some fun retrieving it😂 Halfway through that harvest we had to sit out a rain storm but I was able to complete it before night set in and we had to retire to the farm…

The second week of October started wet so I couldn’t harvest anything. Instead, I cultivated field 3 in readiness for an application of Lime. Then, with the forecast promising a break in the weather, I took the harvester and tractor + trailer over to field 72 where we had to wait out the last of the wet weather…

…Then I was able to get on with harvesting the Sunflower crop. This is a big field, so I compartmented it…

…I find that helps with large fields – otherwise the task can seem daunting. This one was broken down ultimately into 3 rectangles and one odd shaped remnant to finish off. I was able to harvest another Sunflower crop in a smaller field to finish off the week.

Week 3 and it was time to take on another very large field and back to crunching Corn…

…This field was more difficult to break up as I couldn’t decide on a suitable marker. I initially went with a pylon but in retrospect I probably should have picked the bush on the right of the image as that would have been a little more manageable. Never mind – we ground it out anyway🙄👍

And that was the key to having enough money in the bank to buy field 40. When I checked at the start of the month, the field had been harvested and ploughed but it needed liming. When I checked before buying, I was pleased to see that the owning farmer had applied line in the previous 2 weeks, saving me a job! After packing away the harvesting equipment I took an evening stroll to take a look at my new field…

…and found it strewn with rocks🙄

The last week of October and, to cover any unforeseen expenses, I took another small Corn Harvest in field 59…

Then it was time to tackle the rocks issue – running over the field with the stone picking bucket…

…That took most of the rest of the week as it’s a tricky operation and field 40 is large. in the end, I lifted close to 4000l of rocks! I finished off the month by fertilizing the Barley in fields 1 & 2. That crop is now set to grow right through to harvest time without any further intervention. I had to refill the spreader – one of those unforeseen expenses I was talking about😅

November promises to be a busy month to start with. I want to put field 40 to use immediately – I believe I can still sow Winter Wheat in November and that would be a good option – giving grain next summer with straw as a by-product. Later in the month I should be able to sell some of my stored grain which will help with the finances as winter approaches. There may be some cultivating and ploughing contracts too – fingers crossed😅 See you all soon in Osada😎👍