When it rains, it pours........never a dull moment.......sometimes, anyway. Not only did Husband plant oats yesterday; the soybean roasting machine was scheduled to be here at our place, also. It is operated by a Mennonite man from the Kalona, Iowa, area. This photo below shows soybeans flowing out of the orange gravity box wagon on the left, through the yellow auger and into the bean roaster. The roaster machine is hooked up to a truck which carries a propane gas tank, the white thing on the right, which fuels the roaster oven.
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The soybeans move through the roasting machine and then are augered into another orange gravity box wagon.......behind the roaster in the photo. The beans are hot, of course, from the roasting process; Husband has several long tube things with fans in them which he puts into the steaming beans to facilitate a safe cooling process. Husband uses the roasted soybeans as a source of protein in cow feed.The aroma of roasting soybeans is very pleasant; the whole process is interesting, and the roaster machine makes alot of noise.......deep rumbling vibrations which almost seem to shake the ground around it.
I happened to be babysitting two little girls so their mom could go grocery shopping yesterday afternoon. This little one below was quite intrigued by what was going on outdoors. (She also likes to spy on the dogs, squealing and pointing at them.......she's scared of them coming near her, but she likes to watch them through the window!)
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3 comments:
Glad to hear you are planting oats! That was always the FIRST thing we did in the fields every spring. Of course we did not drill them in the 1950s and 1960s, we had a little thing on the back of the wagon with a whirly bird fan on it that was driven by the wheels. As you drove along the little blades on the fan or whirly bird seeder would fling the oats out onto the ground.
My job was to keep the seeder full of oats as my dad drove the old tractor up and down the fields. Usually it was still cold enough you wore a heavy coat. Sometimes it was warm, but not often.
I was not familar with roasting oats! I have been out of modern day farming for years. Sounds interesting... and, yes, they would smell good..
Russell.....I can echo your childhood oats seeding experience. I would ride in the flare box wagon that had the "whirly bird" seeder attached at the back. Like you, I would keep putting oats in the seeder hopper. Yes, the seeder was powered by a chain attached to the wagon wheel.
(Probably you accidently typed "oats"......we actually roasted soybeans.)
This comment has nothing to do with soybeans or oats, but I didn't know how else to communicate with you. I want to get your opinion of a commercial that's been playing around here (Atlanta) for a while now. It features two bulls talking about some cows in a nearby field. I don't know whether the commercial is for milk or for California. At the end of the strange bovine conversation, an announcer does the following voice-over: "Great milk comes from happy cows. Happy cows come from California." End of commercial.
To me it ranks right up there on the list of the most stupid things I have ever heard. I wondered what an Iowa dairy farmer's reaction might be.
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