by Nancy
Formoso, KS

October 1, 2001

The day began for me at 7 am. Started breakfast and fixed a lunch for Richard to take to the field. He will eat through the day when he takes a break from working wheat ground. Son, Steve, is drilling wheat for 2002 harvest. The ground has to be worked ahead of the drill with an implement called a field cultivator. Think of it as a large garden rake…it works the ground up to make a seedbed much like you would rake your garden before you plant seeds. They are in their 6th day of working ground and planting; usually work until dark which is about 7:45pm now.

Put a load of laundry in the washer after breakfast. Fed my cats. Then went with Richard to help move pickups and machinery to the next field location as he would be moving to that field later in the morning. Steve would be moving the wheat drill to that same field later in the day.

Came home and started the sprinklers on the grass in the backyard. As a result of the past two very dry summers we lost a lot of our lawn grass due to the heat and drought.  So a week ago I over-seeded the bare spots and want to keep the surface wet enough so that the grass will come up.

Hung the laundry out to dry. Then came in and started putting together a casserole to take to a dinner for the family of a dear friend from my church. Her funeral is this afternoon and I will attend. She shared her wonderful musical and artistic talents with many people in the community; she touched many lives and will be missed.

Daughter-in-law and grandson stopped in for a short visit while I was making the casserole. Grandson is really a busy boy for a 1 ½ year old. He was hungry so put him in the highchair for a snack. He is always ready to eat at grandma’s.

This is a really busy time as the milo and soybeans have been ready to harvest at the same time as the wheat needs to be planted.   Our custom harvester has been harvesting milo for us for several days. He just announced via the business-band radio that he will not be harvesting today…the milo in the next field carries too much moisture and the elevator won’t accept it without a large moisture dockage. It needs a frost. So he will go on to cut for someone else for a few days.

Checked my e-mail and paid some bills. Then it was time to fix a bite of lunch and get ready to go to the funeral.

Came home and changed clothes. Went outside to check on the new grass seed. Watered a couple of dry spots and checked the garden for ripe tomatoes and green peppers that might need to be picked. Not much is left in the garden…we had a bad hailstorm about 10 days ago that really pounded the plants up.  A frost is forecast for later in the week that may bring the growing season to a halt.

Fed the cats and then went in the house to start preparing some food for supper.

Richard came home with a grain cart that was emptied of seed wheat. He backed a truck out of the building and I helped him get more seed wheat augered into the cart so it could go back to the field.  The grain cart has a drill-fill auger on it that allows the seed wheat to be augered directly into the wheat drill and eliminates the need to scoop bushels of wheat by hand.  It also pulls easier and maneuvers better in the field than the truck with a dump hoist. He will pull the cart to the field tomorrow morning.

He went back to the field to pull an empty liquid fertilizer tank back to the supplier and brought a full one home for use tomorrow. He ‘called it a day’ and came in for supper.