There is a touch of fall in the air

Bruce loves the fall, he looks forward to football and harvest, bringing in the crops that he worked hard to grow all summer.These cool mornings have me brewing hot coffee again rather than the iced coffee liberally laced with International Delights York Peppermint Patty creamer, that is the stuff that gets me out of bed in the morning.

Chopping silage is the first sign of fall around here, the neighbors finished theirs in one day, it takes Bruce and I a little longer but we managed to wrap it up before the rains hit. Bruce chopped and I ferried wagons back and forth, when four were filled he rode in with me to unload and pack the pile.

Last year was a bear, the corn was so tall it didn't feed into the chopper very well and Bruce was constantly unplugging it, this year was better but not flawless. We did find out that it didn't work well in the early morning or evening when the plants started taking on moisture.

At this point Bruce said we were about half done, still looks like a lot to me but the rows get shorter all the time.

This was the moment we were looking forward to, the last two rows - don't plug now!

Bruce gives a big 'thumbs up' to a successful silage harvest. We had to wait a couple of days for the wind to go down so we could cover the pile and that came Monday night. It's a great job to have done.

This is a side note of fall happenings, if you want to teach your kids about sex, send them to the farm. In a perfect world all our cows would have been bred by now but one old gal didn't get the memo and was 'bulling' in the pasture, drawing the interest of the bulls.I watched this romantic interlude take place right by the road, for all the world to see. Louie, bottom left, won the prize and is resting after his exertions, The little boy calves are fascinated with the strange smells and hung around the cow all afternoon. Even though they were castrated before going to the pasture, that didn't stop them from strutting around and boasting about their sexual exploits.

Another sign of fall are the test plot meals, yum, yum! A lot of seed dealers have a test plot where they plant their varieties along with competitors to see how well they stack up. They invite farmers to come, eat and check it out, Producers really do it up right with a tent....

...ribeye sandwiches....(Can you say YUM, YUM??)

....plus all the trimmings, beans, party potatoes and fruit salad but outdid themselves with homemade ice cream to top it off.

We found out it paid to be there early as late arrivers missed out on the steaks!

After the meal, Bruce, Jon and Willis the dog, checked out the corn, we have a field of Producers seed by the pond and it looks outstanding.

Today is another meal at the elevator and next week is Bruce's buddy, Fred's field day. Farm wives everywhere rejoice, no cooking tonight!