I got plans, y'all

For some reason, Farmer John -- the farmer who plants the field next to my house whose name is almost undoubtedly not John -- planted winter wheat this year and harvested it in May while it was green. I don't know why. Might be a good reason for this, but my agricultural knowledge is not sufficient to know what it might be. He replaced the wheat with what appears to me to be soybeans. This, I understand -- soybeans can draw nitrogen from the air and are a nitrogen-fixing plant, so they don't require that you fertilize a field with nitrogen. On the contrary, they help prepare a field for nitrogen-needy plants the next season. Anyway, looks like soybeans to me:

But I have found, in walking Jeb the Wonder Dog, that along the edges of the field, we have a lot of wheat:

I plan to let it grow to maturity and harvest it. It might not be "amber waves of grain," but there is enough for me to make some flour and turn that into bread. I can hardly wait. Probably mid-July harvest, so stay tuned on that.

I guess it depends on what you're looking for

Mrs. Wolves took some pictures the other day. She was taking pictures of clouds, like so:

And like so:

They are nice pictures of clouds. My first reaction, though, was "Huh, Farmer John planted wheat this year." Farmer John, who almost undoubtedly is not named John, owns the field next to our house and rotates his crops religiously. Last year he did corn, the year before I think he did wheat and then soybeans. Perhaps after the winter wheat is harvested, we'll see soybeans. But Mrs. Wolves was a little put out that I didn't see clouds -- I saw wheat.

Bringing in the sheaves

I think I mentioned that the farmer who owns the field next to where I live (as well as two across the road, and I think at least one more down the road, but I digress) planted wheat this year. I think he's just rotating crops -- last year he planted soybeans. Usually he plants corn, but he sometimes plants soybeans or wheat -- I assume there is a schedule that I am not paying attention to, although I am aware of why it is beneficial to rotate crops in this way.

In any event, today they harvested the wheat.  As someone who grew up as a not-a-city-boy but one who never lived on a farm, I get a kick out of this shit.I like growing stuff and, good Lord willing, maybe I will someday. Until then, I have to content myself with observations:

This is the field next to my house. The wheat has just been passed over by a harvester.

Across the road, although it is hard to tell here, that red-looking thing is a rolling bin that the harvester spits the wheat into. At the time of this photo, the harvester was around the corner, harvesting another field.

The only other picture I took was in the field next to my house, illustrating the imperfect nature of the harvest:

There are always stalks left over. In any event, I kind of like the whole process. And if you eat, you should too. Don't complain about farmers with your mouth full.