Harvest time

Yesterday after lunch two combine harvesters started harvesting wheat in the field at the front of the house with huge tractors and trailers racing around to collect the grain. I tried to find a simple diagram of how they worked but the best I could find was here. Last week we had pretty bad weather, with rain and strong winds. Some parts of the field have been knocked flat, and are lost. Now the weather has improved I think they must be taking advantage of the dry spell. I hope this isn't a signal of more wet weather to come. The farmers do seem to be very good at finding the correct weather window to do their work, and once they start, they go at it 100%. Last year they harvested for 3 days solid from 10'o'clock in the morning (I assume after the dew has dried) to about 3'o'clock the following morning. Two hours after finishing the heavens opened and we had a thunderstorm.

This evening the farmers were out baling the straw from yesterdays wheat harvest. Caroline said that she helped at baling time on a farm when she was younger. Back when they had square bales, not these huge round things nowadays. She did remember tho' that the baling machine was always breaking down, so maybe the round balers are preferred just for this reason.