Farmer John harvests his beans

Farmer John, who almost undoubtedly is not named John, harvested his soy beans a couple weeks ago. Mrs. Wolves captured some pictures for me, but it took me a while to get to them:

Same thing, father away:

A couple days ago, they disced the field. I think they planted winter wheat. I guess we'll see.

Looks like winter wheat again

Ever since Farmer John, whose name is almost undoubtedly not John, harvested his soybeans this fall, I've been wondering what he was going to do next. For a while, it looked like the answer was "nothing," The field seemed to be going to weeds, so I figured John -- name probably still not John --  was going to wait until spring, then plant corn. A couple weeks ago, I decided to take Jeb the Wonder Dog over to the field and see what is what. Jeb, of course, loves him a field:

He gets to run around and stand majestically in the middle of it all:

Eventually, he gets to fertilize Farmer John's crops, but we don't generally document that sort of activity here. In any event, what I saw indicates that Farmer John -- for those of you who have just joined us, that almost undoubtedly is not his actual name -- has planted winter wheat. It was a foggy day, though, so the linear nature of the green growth is not apparent in this picture:

Trust me, it's wheat. Maybe I can update with a better picture if I am ever home in daylight again. Apropos of nothing, this is one of many deer trails that lead from the neighboring woods into Farmer John's fied:

I'm sure it isn't necessary, but I remind you here that Farmer John's name is almost undoubtedly not John.

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.

Crop update

Not an update on my gardening efforts, but about the actual farm that is next to where I live. Last year, as you may recall, Farmer John (whose name, as far as I know, is not John, but work with me, people) planted winter wheat and then soybeans for fall harvest. Most of the big fields in our area seem to be in wheat this year, but Farmer John has gone with corn:

I love the symmetry of a corn field. Terrain here forces Farmer John to do interlocking planting patterns. This is the field looking south:

And this is the field looking north:

Farmer John has another field across the road to the east (actually, you can see part of it at top right in this photo -- the road is hidden by the brush line at top right), and a third across the road to the south. All are in corn. It'll be feed corn, not Silver Queen or some other people corn. Lotta dairy and beef cattle operations around here to sell feed to. Not sure which I'd rather do -- a hard life, either way.