The Rush Before Christmas

All I wanted for Christmas is to be caught up. I know in the world of farming and ranching that is an impossible task. I just wanted to be at a point where I didn’t feel hopelessly behind. In short, I wanted to be able to enjoy Christmas and not be like Thanksgiving where I was eating and running out the door to get as much time as I could in the combine. My number one wish was for harvest to be done by Christmas.

I am happy to report that the never-ending harvest of 2018 is in the books. For those of you who are still harvesting you have my sympathies and I feel a little guilty writing that I am done. I have to say that in my relatively short span of experience that this was the most difficult and frustrating harvest of my lifetime. We finished Saturday and I told Jennifer that I hoped this would be the harvest we tell the grandkids and great grandkids about. For years they will hear me talk about the harvest of eighteen when we were in the field nearly up to Christmas. They will probably look at me the way I looked at Dad when he remembered a corn harvest that went into February. I guess it could be worse.

We slogged through the last of the soybeans a few acres at a time. Getting out as early as I could to cut while the ground was still firm and frozen. That lasted until about mid-morning. I know many of you have suggested that I could have cut at night. That works fine if you have lights. Cutting in the dark in our fields would not be a great idea.

It came down to Saturday I had the last four acres to cut. I know, you are thinking, “why didn’t he cut them the day before?” Trust me when I say there was a very definite time when you quit or got stuck. In any case, I had four acres left but Saturday was also the day I had finally scheduled the vet to come preg check the cows. I also know that preg checking was one of those things that should have been done in October or November. However, due to the rain and not being able to get the cows out on stalks, it had to wait until the middle of December.

That left a tough dilemma. How was I going to finish cutting the last four acres of beans, put the finishing touches on the electric fences and preg check the cows all at the same time. That was when I once again learned how well I had married and that I had raised a capable cow hand. Jennifer and Isaac assured me that they could get the preg checking, sorting and hauling done with the help already had coming. In fact, they seemed to think they might be better off without me. I hate to admit it, but they are probably right.

The finish to harvest went off without a hitch. Unless you count me hitting a corner post with the header and bending up a shield a hitch. I may have been a bit distracted. We took the bent shield off and finished the patch in no time flat. Next, I hurriedly worked to get fencers working and fence up before the cows started coming. My crew was amazingly efficient, and the loads of cows started before I had the finishing touches up. Fortunately, I did get all the gates closed and all the holes plugged.

In a perfect world we would have had the electric fences up soon enough the deer could get used to them. We would have also hauled cows out a little earlier in the day, so they would have had a full three or four hours of daylight to walk the perimeter and see the fence. Usually the illusion of an electric fence is all my old cows need. If they get shocked by the first fence that usually keeps them in for a while at least.

Like I said, in a perfect world and this fall was anything but perfect. I guess you could say it was the perfect storm maybe. The last load of cows came with the last little bit of daylight, I was a bit nervous to say the least. That night I made a couple of laps to check and thankfully found no cows out of place. In fact, the next morning I found the cows just a few yards from where they were turned out, happily grazing. I guess they were as relieved as I was.

I am not sure I have ever been so happy to have harvest done and the cows on stalks. The only thing I can compare it to is getting a nasty thorn out of your thumb. The relief offsets the memory of the pain it caused earlier, to say I was relieved would be an understatement. Christmas will be the best this year, I can finally enjoy the season. Best of all, I don’t care what I get because I have had the best present of all early.