Corn Harvest

The view from my back upstairs windows in September: Golden corn as far as the eye could see.

Yesterday and today, the look of my property changed drastically, as it often does at this time of year: you know it's late autumn in Iowa when the corn has been harvested. Here are a few shots of Before and After scenes:

By a few days ago, the corn was looking pretty dry,

I always enjoy how the tall corn forms a sort of curtain around the edges of our property. It feels kind of protective and makes our yard seem more private and secluded for a few months.

This morning, the farmer who rents the fields was out working with someone to help him. The farmer "drives" the combine, at left, which harvests the corn (in a route mapped out by GPS for maximum efficiency -- the farmer doesn't even actually have to steer the combine himself; it's all done high-tech by computers and satellites), and his assistant drives a tractor with an attached bin. The combine stores up the harvested corn in its own bin until it gets full, upon which the tractor drives alongside the combine as it empties the corn into the tractor bin, all the while still harvesting more corn as the two vehicles drive along together.

The tractor with attached bin then drives to a large semi trailer sitting near the road (not pictured), empties the bin into that, and returns to receive more corn from the combine, which is still harvesting elsewhere in the field . Here's the tractor driving back for more corn after emptying the bin (it looks a lot like my son's cute toy John Deere tractor from this distance...). It's a very efficient process -- it used to take a farmer weeks to harvest 100 acres of corn. Now this is the smallest field this farmer plants, and he usually leaves it to harvest last of all, as it only takes a day and a half, almost an afterthought.

A closeup of the harvested field. The stubs of the corn stalks will make this field no good for sledding this winter, much to my kids' annoyance. The bean years (alternating with corn years) are much smoother and better for winter play.

No privacy curtain around the gazebo any more. However, the view is better now and stretches for miles across Grant Wood scenes.

I guess we're pretty close to winter now. Sometimes it snows a bit before the farmer gets around to harvesting this field, but we've enjoyed warm weather this fall, so there hasn't been any danger of heavy snow, which could ruin his crop.

Anyway, our property has undergone its yearly autumn transformation, one of the last steps before winter. I hope you're enjoying your own annual transitions from autumn to winter in your gardens too. Thanks for reading! -Beth