A Good Harvest

Toto, Kansas is alive and well. The past couple of days, we’ve been blown at from the south by hot and dry winds, only to have them shift about 9:30 last night to the north. They blow from the north at about the same speed, but thankfully not the same temperature.
This morning it’s dry, but more pleasant due to the cooler temperatures outside. This time of year, however, it usually gets warm rather quickly after a cool front comes through, and the next day or two promises to be no exception to that.
This is harvest weather. You may not have ever experienced wheat harvest in Kansas. But if you have, you know that when it turns hot, windy, and dry about this time of year, the wheat also turns that golden color and the farmers are itching to get it cut and in the elevators.
I probably won’t see much harvest activity living in the middle of Wichita. And in a way, that’s kind of sad because that used to be my favorite time of year. Just out of school, the summer looming large, there was a beehive of activity in preparation for the harvest. We worked on equipment, went to the parts stores, bought fuel, oil, and grease, and hoped it wouldn’t hail.
During harvest, we saw friends at the elevator we hadn’t seen in a long time (Sam Allenbaugh at Duqoin, Sam and Ralph Barker at Harper, and others), talked about the quality of the harvest (protein, moisture, etc), and planned how to raise this next year’s crop. We ate out of Guardian Service cookware either in the field or in the kitchen of the old house on the north place. We could count on Mom bringing out pot roast with spuds and carrots along with corn, fruit, iced tea, and usually a home-baked pie. We had real plates and flatware, too. Somehow, those meals were the best-tasting….
It is my wish that you have a good harvest this year.