It was a hellish hot day today. Probably not for those people out trying to get one more weekend in at the cottage or beach, but we farmers could really do without temperatures in the 30s at the moment. It never fails that the air conditioning breaks down on the hottest day of harvest, and with the weather man telling us that rain is just over the horizon there is no quitting until you can get it fixed. When the difference in price for perfect wheat, as opposed to bleached or sprouted wheat, is thousands of dollars, you suck it up, open up the cab for a little air flow, drink water by the gallon, and keep on trucking! And, thank the good lord when the sun goes down.
Not that you necessarily get to quit; sometimes the dew settles right away and you're done for the night, but on nights like tonight when there's a bit of a breeze, and the cool air is much kinder the trucks keep rolling. We're not combining yet - Glen is down at the neighbour's baling his straw, but standing on my deck I can count four combines going in the distance. At least hundred thousand dollars of grain and oilseeds must have been hauled past the yard today. Things are in full swing at the moment and the weather man is promising to spoil it all by Monday. He's not a popular guy, I can tell you!
What I spent my day doing was house and yard work. Our daughter's wedding is only two weeks away now and there is a lot to do. My brother-in-law has been finishing our deck and back door step (it's only been on hold for four years and has almost reached grounds for divorce status a couple of times). We've had to marry off a child to actually provide the push to finish it, but I'm beginning to think it was worth the wait. You gotta love a carpenter who comes with his own creative ideas and suggests different things that take it from a plain deck to a special extension of the house. I can see that it will provide a lovely setting for wedding photos too!
I had planned to get mere done outside but I really can't handle the heat. I did some weeding in my rock garden and then had to do chores as Glen wasn't going to be home until very late. If you think 30 degrees is hot outside, just try stepping into a steel bin and filling 27 pails with chop. It's just plain nasty. And the itchy dust sticks to your sweaty skin and makes the job just that much more enjoyable. I filled all those pails with the oats and barley mix, carried them out to the feeders and dumped them, and then went back and filled them all over again for tomorrow morning's chores. After all, once you're that sweaty and itchy, what difference does it make?
As soon as I was done I went straight to the house and had the coolest shower I could stand, then cracked two beer and sat down with Dale to enjoy the deck and watch the hummingbirds fight over the feeders. Dry barley dust on a day like today is an evil thing, but make beer out of it, and it's not such a bad thing after all!
There isn't a day that isn't full from now until the wedding. As soon as Dale has his tools out of the garage I'll be trying to clean it out, and the porch needs to be emptied of all the stuff that gathers there too. All the bedrooms have to be made ready and by this time next week I'll be in Winnipeg picking up the Aussie branch of our family. If things weren't busy enough before that, having four kids under six years old around the place will certainly put us into fast forward.
There hasn't been a hint of frost yet so the gardens are all looking great. I know I'd get hit for saying this, but the rain that they promise on Monday won't hurt my feelings at all. The flowers could all use a good drink and it would keep the grass green too. Don't tell any farmers I said that!
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