Corn Harvest

We live adjacent to a large field that is planted in either corn or soy beans each summer. I don’t know who owns the ground, nor who does the planting and harvesting, but they sure have access to some very large machinery. At the end of November we got an inch of rain over Thanksgiving, which came on top of already very wet and soggy conditions, and it seemed like the corn might have to stand all Winter, or at least well into the Winter until the ground froze enough to let the get on it. But on 30 November a monstrous combine harvester on very large rubber tracks turned up to harvest this corn. And it needed all of that support and drive that the huge rubber tracks and large rear drive wheels could offer to get around the field. It was accompanied by an equally large IH Case tractor with 8 drive wheels pulling a large bin that was on rubber tracks to take the corn from the combine out to waiting semi-truck and trailer that was beside the road.

Here’s one picture, and a gallery shows if you open this post.

John Deere 9770 STS

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The Lily Pad

Noticed this today while watering the garden around the ponds – the first frog seen in the pond this year. He was sitting up on a lily pad – watching all the little bugs running around on top of the water, eying them up for lunch perhaps?

The Frog and the Lily Pad

The Young Ones

It’s that time of year again it seems – young critturs are everywhere around the place. For a week or more we’ve been having the Downy Woodpeckers bringing their young to the suet feeder on the porch outside our lounge window to feed them suet and show them how this upside down thing works.

Downy Woodpeckers

Tonight as I went out the front door to fill the bird feeders I caught a glimpse of some brown on the grass to the south of the house, and wondered what tree limb had fallen down, but quite quickly realised I was looking at two fawns sitting down on the grass.

Bambis

The Barn Swallows of Casa del Roger and Lisa

I first noticed the barn swallows circling the yard about 10 days ago – they came and went a bit. Today as I was outside working on the vege garden I noticed 3 Barn Swallows circling the yard looking more serious…

Each year since we bought our house we’ve been delighted by the antics of the Barn Swallows who thought they had as much right to use our porch as we did, having built a number of nests on the very thin ledges above the windows and back door.

Barn Swallow Babies

Our Farming Neighbours

We’re lucky enough to live “in the country” and so one of our neighbours (our properties touch corner to corner) is a large field of about 70 acres that is used by a local farmer to grow one of corn, soybeans or wheat each year.

Our Local Neighbourhood

Our Farming Neighbours Photo Gallery

Some photos of the large tractor and haybaler that worked in the field neighbouring our property in 2007 and 2008. Click the image to open a larger view. Read the rest of this entry »