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Farming 2003 |
| Last winter, following the success of the Outcrop Acres Peanut Extravaganza, I planted the winter crop, Winter Rye. Because of the wet spring this year, I let the winter rye grow. Here it is at about three feet. |  |
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The grain grew through the wet spring, the weather never giving me a reasonable opportunity to plow-wait-disk-plant. Sometime in late June, an especially rough storm blew over all the waving fields of grain. After looking at the flat blanket, I decided it was time to reap it - so out came my reaper - the bush hog. | ||
| Once cut, the grain finds its way onto the deck of the bush hog. That's good because the tractor exhaust blows a lot of the chaff away from the grain. |  |
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Here's the field following the harvest. Beautiful golden straw, just like those lining the cheap race tracks. Its perfect to throw in the goat house for a warm winter bed. Also good for little garter snakes to move in and take over. | ||
| Following the bush hog threshing, the grain gets loaded into the grain bins. These buckets get further processed by emptying them into trashcan lids and tossing it into the air. The gentle breeze blows away what's left of the chaff, producing (almost) pure rye grain. |  |
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