Autumn Days

With soup simmering on the stove and clouds loafing across and otherwise blue sky, I decided to walk to the bridge. As I walked to the car to get something I heard the overhead doors on the shop open. That meant only one thing, Ardmore was going to go out to try the soybeans. I struck out east down our driveway into a fierce wind from the west. I thought it would be warmer but the wind was harsh and cold. By the time I got back to the house it was blowing with more vengeance and was I glad to get inside.

We have been fighting the weather ever since the soybeans ripened. It seems to rain three or four days, with just enough to continue to make it too wet to try. Today looks like it might be fairly decent. The only combines running in our area to this point have been those with 4- wheel drive, tracks, or duals; we have neither.

I remember what it was like in 1985 following a seven inch rain on August 3, Minda Haugen's wedding day. We watched the rain during the reception from the windows in Minda's parents home. The drive home told of the devastating situation we were in. We owned a pull type combine at that time and literally dragged it through the field to harvest timothy grass seed. It seemed to rain every day that fall and we never did get any other crops totally off. Some of the wheat was taken off on the frost, but that didn't last long as we had snow. I remember swathing in a snowmobile suit, no cab on the swather. Ice and snow would build up on the rollers under the canvasses. We couldn't fill the combine but about 1/2 full as the grain would freeze in the auger, and in fact once it did break the auger. It was awful. I would never want to go through something like that again!