Corn Harvesting

This big contraption invaded our cornfield yesterday; possibly it is some sort of political machine chewing its way across the landscape.

Nah! Of course, you know its a corn harvesting machine known as a combine. I believe the name derives from the fact that the processes of picking and shelling corn are combined in one machine. When I was a kid, farmers still used corn-pickers, which harvested the corn on the ear. The ears would be stored in a corncrib, to dry out and later be ground up or shelled for feed.
*
We hire another farmer to combine our corn. Recall that much of our corn was already chopped and put in the silo several weeks ago. Now, whatever was left is being harvested as shelled corn. In this next photo, the combine gets ready to dump its load of shelled corn into the green grain cart.
The grain cart----which also belongs to the guy who owns the combine----dumps its load into the red gravity box wagon. From there, in this photo, the corn kernels are being blown into our blue Harvestore silo which is made to hold high-moisture shelled corn for the cows to eat. This silo is like a great-big canning jar.

It was my responsibility to monitor the grain flowing from the red wagon into the silo blower. Here we're looking through the little hatch window on the side of the red wagon to watch the corn dump from the grain cart's auger.

My job included turning this wheel to raise(open) and lower(close) the gravity box wagon's door.

After the Harvestore silo was full, we moved the wagons and started augering corn into a metal bin. In this picture, the corn flows into auger's very handy hopper.

Nowadays, farm equipment comes equipped with many safety features like the shield and grid you see in the hopper. The shield covers the spinning auger blade.
*

Nevertheless, the chance for injury always exists, especially if you are careless and not paying attention. NEED WE SAY MORE?......these warning decals seem to be saying:

Obviously, you would NEVER want to stick your hand or any other body part into an auger!! I know of many guys who lost fingers or parts of hands or feet in augers. People get in a hurry and get careless. Like I said earlier, though......the safety shields and such are much better now than they used to be.

Sadly, every now and then, a farmer will get electrocuted while moving an auger.......if the auger comes in contact with overhead power lines. The auger must be lowered way down for safe moving. A few years ago, in a neighboring county, a father and son BOTH died one autumn day while moving an auger. Oh, my.

*

Well, the combine is on its last round. Another corn harvest wrapped up successfully!

*

Next up on the farm docket........chopping cornstalks and baling them to be used as livestock bedding through the winter. I wouldn't be surprised if Husband asked me to chop stalks sometime soon.

*

Hey........I also had a pleasant time yesterday on my drive to and from picking up the baler netwrap. Lots to show and tell you eventually. Here's a hint about the historical site I visited: A well-known Confederate figure spent time there in the 1840's.

*

Oh.....and, Happy Friday the Halloween Day! Here's a link to some

historical Halloween info......always fascinating. We don't get any trick-or-treaters coming around out here on the farm.......except for possibly a young niece or nephew once in a while. I'm hoping to carve a pumpkin today; I just love watching a real, flickering, glowing jack-o-lantern face on Halloween night! I rolled a log over to the fire spot in our yard and hope to start it burning for s'mores later on.

*

*