Harvest time for the fields around the house today; the crop this year was dent corn. It's amazing just how fast these machines work. The combine pulls up the corn, shucks it, strips the kernels, which go into a holding tank, then spits the cob, husk, stalk and leaves out the back. Once the farmer makes a few loops around the field and has a full load, he rendezvous with a large truck, extends a tube, pumps the corn out of the storage tank into the truck, retracts the chute, then starts around the field again, all this in less than one minute. While the farmer continues harvesting, the truck quickly heads to a nearby silo, offloads the corn, then returns just in time to pick up another load.



The result is a field full of straw, leaves and red corn cobs. It almost seems wasteful, all that plant material left behind, but it all gets plowed into the soil for next year's crop.

All that tall corn had given us an extra measure of privacy; now that it's gone, the place feels naked and exposed.



The harvest seems to have freaked out the grasshoppers. They're all acting really odd, almost like they have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or something. You can practically step on them and they won't move. I suppose you'd freak too if a giant machine came along and tore apart your world.