Harvest

Today we were combining soybeans but didn't get started until after noon as the stalks were too wet from the frost overnight to start earlier. The beans combine better when the stems and pods are dry. Here is a shot of John driving the combine through the soybeans. I am in the tractor and grain cart sitting at the end of the field waiting for him to turn and go the other direction.
I zoomed in on the combine - the special bean head with the reel helps gather in the stems where they are cut off about 3" from the ground. The cut stems and pods are fed into the combine where the beans are separated from all the chaff. The chaff goes out the back and falls to the ground behind the combine and the beans go into the bin. This is a close up look at the bean head behind the reel. The yellow auger like thing directs the bean plant into the combine.

John moving away from me.

Now here is a look at what I drive. Yes, it is a big red tractor pulling the grain cart. Took this photo before we got started today so it is just parked near the field we are going to be working. When I drive alongside John in the combine he augers the harvested soybeans into my grain cart. After he is finished filling me up I drive back to the trucks and fold out the auger and fill the trucks. We go back and forth like this all day. I gave the camera to John right before we headed out to the field and had him get a shot of me standing in the doorway to the tractor. I keep my cell phone and other necessities in my fanny pack and you can see my red cooler sitting inside the tractor cab. I didn't need my lunch along today as we ate before we headed to the field but need to have a supply of water bottles.

It was really cool this morning when we got up. There was frost on the lawn and the temperature was down to 35 at 8:00 am this morning. I think it was up to 60 degrees by noon and was around 70 at 4:00 pm. With all the glass in the tractor it gets warm so had the air condition on all day.

Fixed a hot sandwich, potato wedges, cookies and pudding in sack lunches for supper for the 3 guys. I usually just run the grain cart until our part time help arrives around 5, but today I had the trucks and grain cart full as the other part time guy that works for us had not returned from his school bus driving so at 4:00 I got to go home. It gave me a little more time to think of something to make to take to the field for supper. The guys don't want anything they have to use a fork or spoon on so have to get inventive. I like to take something hot as we all eat cold sandwiches at noon most of the time.

Think I am just rambling......should close and get my laundry out of the dryer and folded then get myself to bed.

One more thing....I did sew, press and trim some more of those half square triangles this morning. Slowly but surely I am getting them done.

Good night,
Lynn

More Beading

Beading that first needle case was so much fun I wanted to do more beading right away. Looked through my sewing stuff and found this needle case that had been given to me so decided to use it. I didn't have any of the Delica beads but did have some seed beads that I thought could work so used them. I wanted to bead another round item right away so I wouldn't forget how to do it. I didn't use a pattern but put 3 rows of the iridescent blue beads on then on the next round added half the beads of the iridescent red and half of the blue then off set them each row so they would swirl around the tube. Was an easy pattern to do and I could tell if I made a mistake right away.
Here is the finished needle case. For the lid I just did 3 rows of the alternating colors then did something similar for the top of the lid. I did do the bottom all in the blue beads. I think the tops and bottoms are the hardest, especially when you get to the tiny center. I just guessed where to put the final beads and it looks OK.

This was certainly fun and really didn't take all that long to do. I am anxious to find some of the Delica beads and another project now.

Must finish this up as I need to get out and start running the grain cart. Wish me well and that I learn the controls of the new tractor and grain cart!

Lynn

Hello Again!

We purchased the new computer, monitor and printer and I have spent much time getting everything set up and working this last week. It takes a lot of time to install the programs and to make sure they all work like they supposed to. Hope we don't have any more computer problems now for a long, long time.

I have been working a little on stitching the half square triangles from my cut up scraps. It isn't much to look at and it will be a while before I have enough to make anything with. Plan to sew on them when I can but have a couple of other quilt projects in the works now too.
Yesterday was a fun day with a couple of my "quilty" friends. We get together for each other's birthdays and yesterday we were celebrating my birthday which was last week. We met at one of my friends quilt shop and the other gal taught us how do do beading using the tiny, tiny Delica beads. She has been beading for a while and brought the supplies we needed and got us started beading around a wooden needle case.

The first couple of rounds were a little confusing but after that it was pretty simple. I finished the red and white stripe bottom part of the needle case last evening and started on the blue lid this morning. The beads are woven into the first ring of beads one at a time building up the design as you go. We were using the Peyote stitch for this project but there are other types of stitches you can use too. By mid-afternoon I had the top done and had filled in the bottom of the case with beads too.



This was a really easy project to do and I am thinking of trying another beaded project. The pattern for this case was easy, the dark red beads were supposed to be scattered along the left of the red, and there were sparkly white beads woven every so often. Having the stripes the same all the way up made it easy to see if you had a wrong bead somewhere.

Harvest has started here now. John started combining soy beans yesterday but he is having a hard time finding a field that the beans are dry enough. Beans that are too wet have to be dried down and that takes fuel and gets very expensive so we try to let them dry down in the field if we can. So far I have not had to be in the field helping yet. I will be driving the grain cart when I am needed so am enjoying my time in the house while I can.

The days get really long when we are harvesting and helping in the field is not my favorite thing to do. In fact I told my husband if he ever wanted to hire someone to take my place it wouldn't hurt my feelings. He said not to count on that - Rats!

Guess I will go sew some more half square triangles as I won't see John until later this evening when he quits for the day. There won't be any interruptions so should get a lot done.

Lynn

It's Toast!

Took the desktop computer, monitor, and printer to the repair guy today and found out the lightening strike we had on Friday evening pretty much knocked out everything, even though we could still turn it on and do some stuff on it yet. I called my hubby and asked him what his opinion was as they could fix part of it but not all of it and we decided to just get a new desktop computer since they said other stuff might and probably would go wrong with it before too long. After several calls to John we decided what model, etc. we should get, purchased it and I hauled the old one home too in case the insurance company needs to see it plus all the required paper work for them.

I hate getting new computers or having to re-install programs on old ones as it takes so much time and the computers are always different than the old one. I have my stuff saved but it still is a big pain to start over fresh! After our virus problem last summer and having to take it up twice to be fixed and installing everything twice I get to do it yet again. UGG! I guess I should not be complaining as the insurance will help pay for everything as we are over our deductible now for sure.

Keeping my fingers crossed we don't have any other problems with stuff because of the lightening. We have been told that sometimes it is a couple of weeks before some problems show up. This is the first time we have ever had our house hit by lightening so am grateful for the 38 years we have been married and not had a strike on our house.

Took my friend up for her chemo and radiation treatment today too so didn't have to make a special trip just for the computer. My friend will finish her radiation treatments this week but has to take this one kind of chemo every 3 weeks for a year. She is doing well and has a good attitude. She is a young person (under 40) to have breast cancer and is lucky she found it and kept after the Dr. as they first said it was nothing. She has gone through surgery, 8 chemo treatments and 6 weeks of radiation plus this last kind of chemo for a year so it has been a long haul for her and isn't over yet.

I have taken her up (an hour and a half trip one way) a few times and so have several other people so she didn't have to drive when she was/is taking the chemo but she has driven up for most of the radiation treatments. The trips are long when she is by herself I am sure.

Think I need to mow my lawn so will be doing that now before it gets any later. The mosquitoes come out in swarms when it starts cooling off in the evening. We have not had really hot day times anyway.

Lynn