I’m not talking about the upcoming so-called rapture, but the spring planting! We will probably finish on the day the world ends. Figures.

Today we finished planting corn, well almost. There was a train engine in our way of completing the final 15 acres on one side of the track, but hopefully that will be moved by tomorrow. My job was to mostly run the soil finisher in front of the planter to ensure a nice seed bed for those expensive little corn seeds. I have been putting in long hours in the tractor. Who knew I could sit and bounce around in the cab for over 11 hours straight most days? I’m glad I don’t have to put anymore long hours in the tractor day after day for the next few weeks.

Now, onto soybeans. We no-till our soybeans which means there is no tilling done prior to planting. We hire our neighbor to drill our soybean seed into the soil because he has a special planter to do so. We help him of course so that he can get his soybeans planted and ours, so we will all try to keep the soybean planter/drill going all day long.

The weather remained very good for corn planting. I think it only rained once for about an hour. There wasn’t enough moisture to keep us out of the fields so we continued working. There is a sense of urgency when planting corn I have learned. The seed needs a set number of warm days with sun and enough moisture to grow. If you plant too late, you could be harvesting well into November, where you risk snow and rain. And if you plant the seed too early, when the ground is too cold, you might never see that seed grow.

After I finished tilling today I wanted to do some maintenance on the tractor and soil finisher. It seemed like a great evening to do so. I haven’t mentioned it, but the temps have finally reached 90 degrees!!!! It’s summer, people!
Lubricating all the joints in machinery is one of my favorite things to do. I don’t know why, I just really like getting out my grease gun, finding all the grease zirks on the implement or tractor and pumping that grease. You can get your minds out of the gutter now.

Here’s a picture of my grease gun and a zirk. Some joints need to be lubed every 10 hours of use, like this one. Others can be 50 hours or more. Why does the word “lube” always make people giggle? Heehee.