Silage and sneezes

Between the massive floods and the massive heat waves, the fate of our Corn crop teetered precariously between success and sogginess. Alas, we emerged victorious.

For the past two and next four days our trusty farm crew will be chopping, hauling, packing, chopping, hauling packing ( do you get the pattern here? ) whole corn stalks from our west 80 pasture to the feed bunk area.

Normally we'd have the whole river bottom full of corn to chop, haul and pack as well but we all know what happened to that!!

So we are here and I thought I'd be a good wife and ride along with Hoag who was in charge of half of the hauling and packing.  Romantic huh?  Nice little picnic lunch, nice little quality time together, nice little excessively runny nose and non stop sneezing. 

I am notorious for ferocious Aug - first freeze allergies and find myself being exiled to the house.  ( I also get in trouble because I love having the windows open in the fall even though it makes me miserable)  Ragweed is my cryptonite and AC is my safe place. 

What was supposed to be a nice quiet afternoon with Hoag turned into an hour of misery shared by both of us and me snapping as many photos as I could to come up with something for this blog. In between my achoos and sniffles I think it turned out ok!

We'll use this whole chopped corn stalk and ears to add to our ground hay along with the distillers grain and mineral to feed our girls, their babies and the bulls throughout the winter.

Mowing down a few rows at a time, grinding and shooting into the big tub

Then Hoag backs the dump truck up as the big tub empties into the bed

Off to chop more rows as we unload

You can't tell me this doesn't look delicious. Come and Get it!!

Then they pack pack pack. Back and Forth until its all nice and tight to maintain all the moisture to keep it from drying out.

Now time to come up with something yummy from my safe, pollen free, AC kitchen!