2006-9-30
The corn machine ran most of the day today, except a little bit when it ruptured a fuel line and we had to go get a replacement.
2006-9-29
We finally finished up the floor today. That took long enough. The grain drier stopped on us yesterday. Today we discovered a fuse that blew, which was because of a faulty solenoid for the LP gas on the middle burner. We borrowed a solenoid off the bottom burner and we are cooking again. This is a 3-fan system. We use the top two for heat to dry the corn, then the bottom fan for cooling the corn back down.
2006-9-28
The floor system snaps together quite nicely, but the auger sumps require some time. A couple of the guys got the other combine out and set up for corn. This looks to be drier than we expected, since it is running about 20% moisture.
2006-9-27
We started on the floor today. This allows air to get into the corn to cool it. There will be a large fan mounted on the side of the bin to force air under the floor.
I finished up the last of the ripe soybeans as of right now. We're looking at green stems and green pods on the next of our soybeans.
2006-9-26
We installed the grain spreader and the cyclone for the air system. All the roof bolts got tightened. After we lifted the bin and put the second ring on, we took the stairs out. The pattern is to lift the bin with hydraulic bin jacks, bolt the next ring on, tighten all the bolts with impact wrenches, set the bin back down, unhook the bin jacks, hook the bin jacks one ring lower, then lift again. We put all the rings on the bin today. I figure this is the modern day equivalent of a barn raising party. In the old days, all the pieces for a barn were cut while on the ground, probably over several weeks or months. Then they would bring in all the family, friends, and neighbors, and they would put the entire barn together in one day.
The sound of 4 electric impact wrenches going inside the bin is deafening. Hearing protection is required. We actually let the combine sit most of the day, since this bin project is so labor intensive.
2006-9-25
We put the first (top) ring together this morning. This gives us something to hold the roof together as the pieces get bolted on. The bin crew (2 guys) and their equipment showed up around noon today. We got all the roof pieces on and the outside support rings put in. One guy kept the combine going in soybeans since it was a good day for that too.
2006-9-24
Well, today marks the start of Harvest 2006. We only cut about 30 acres of soybeans this afternoon with just one machine. One machine on soybeans will be sufficient for now since we don't have many acres ready to go. The other machine will go into corn in a couple days, once we have the new grain bin up.
2006-9-21
This is the first machine I've seen running around the area. I don't know what they yield was, but word is that the moisture was high. They were blending with old crop soybeans and delivering it right to Cargil. The weather this evening has halted everything. Most of Iowa is getting rain right now, and it's in the forecast until next week.
2006-9-18
The steel for the new grain bin is here. It will go up later this week some time.
2006-9-17
I was out playing with my camera last night trying to figure out the night shots. The three green pictures were taken with a 3 second exposure and no flash. The only light source was a yard light. The last picture was with the flash and shows how little green there is on this corn. This isn't the earliest planted corn, so it still has a ways to go before being cut.
2006-9-13
Here are pics from a few of our soybean fields. As green as some of this stuff is, it's going to be a late season.
2006-9-11
Nobody in our area has even tried corn, and we don't plan to touch it for another two weeks. Yesterday and today were both rainy and overcast, so we aren't gaining anything on moisture. Our earliest soybeans are still probably 3 weeks off. All the leaves on them have turned yellow, but only about half of the leaves have fallen off so far. We have other soybean fields that are completely green yet. Those are going to take a while to mature.
2006-9-2
The corn is rapidly loosing its green color, as it should this time of year. Some of our soybeans are showing yellow leaves, while other varieties are completely green yet. The small patches of SDS (Sudden Death Syndrome) in the soybeans are very obvious. All the patches are small, but they seem very random. The past month has been very humid, with heavy dew every morning, and that moisture has to be helping to drive the SDS as well as the white mold we've found on some soybeans. On the other hand, the extra moisture is helping to fill out the pods better, so I really can't complain.