The weather has turned cool, and it is time to make a big batch of bean and ham soup.  We just finished harvesting navy beans this week so we have plenty of beans available. 

Harvesting edible beans is unique.  The field may look like soybeans when you drive by at 55 mph, but harvest is quite different.  Think of the bag of beans you buy at the grocery store.  You don't want split beans, or mud stained beans, and it is our job to get those beans onto the shelf looking beautiful.

You can harvest navy beans with a regular combine, the same one you would use for soybeans.  It's the cheapest and easiest method.  We have specialty equipment that does a better job, but also requires a lot more work, and expense.  We actually travel through the field three times when we harvest our navy beans.  The first pass through the field is with a knife that cuts the bean plants.  Step two, pictured above, is to windrow the beans for the combine.  This is a sunrise picture.  You have to knife and windrow the beans while it is damp outside so you don't break open the bean pods.  The beans need to stay in the pods until the final combining step.  Kevin and Brian did our knifing and windrowing this year so if they looked a little tired and cranky, they were!  They were up at 1 or 2 am and working through the night so they could handle the bean plants without cracking open the pods.

Step three is the bean combine.  Ours is old, and held together with duct tape, chicken wire and the power of prayer, but it still works.  Amadas is actually a peanut combine manufacturer, and dabbled in edible bean combines for a few years.  We keep thinking the combine won't make it another year, but it still works and does a great job! 

You may notice the dirt cloud between the combine and tractor.   Harvesting navy beans is dirty, dirty, dirty.  And it's fine dirt that gets into every pinhole. 

Traditional combines have augers to move grain, but not this one.  We want to avoid using augers because they may split the beans, or even nick the seed coats.  If you ever soak dry beans, and a few float to the top, it is because the seed coat has been nicked.  You can't tell by looking at the bean, but you can watch them float because air got under the seed coat.  We use conveyors to put the navy beans into the bin, and in the bins we have ladders so the beans don't fall from the top to the bottom.  Instead the beans trickle down the ladders slowly.  Anything we can do to make sure they don't crack. 

We have raised pinto, black, kidney, and pink beans.  For the past few years we've stuck with one variety to make harvest easier.  No one wants a black bean in their bag of navy beans on the grocery shelf, so you really need to clean out everything when switching varieties.  Think of the equipment in the spring, and in the fall.  Planters, combines, trucks, conveyors, it's a lot of cleaning.  We'll stick with one variety to make our lives easier. 

I hope you get a chance to make a nice big pot of bean and ham soup.  It's the perfect dish for fall.  Or maybe I just love it because I know how much work it took to harvest those pesky beans. 

Our soybean fields have green flags by the entrances.  If you look closely, the green flags read "Liberty Link".

We use these flags to make sure everyone knows these soybeans are Liberty Link, and not Round Up.  They are both GMO soybeans, but one is resistant to Liberty Herbicide, and the other is resistant to Round Up.

Most soybeans grown in the U.S. are Round Up.  These flags help ensure our neighbors, or a custom applicator, don't assume these soybeans are RR Ready, and spray an adjacent field with Round Up.  

I am a big proponent of GMO technology.  I am very offended when GMO opponents claim farmers are nothing but pawns for Big Ag.   Farmers are often portrayed as poor, gullible suckers who have no choice but to blindly follow the recommendation of Big Ag.  That could not be more wrong! 

We have options when selecting seed.  We have public non GMO varieties.  We have private Round Up and Liberty Link varieties.  Next year when the patent expires, we will have public Round Up varieties available from universities. 

You can call me many things, but please don't call me a schill for Big Ag.  That's a surefire way to make me angry. 

We are in the middle of wheat harvest.  Of course it is 90 degrees with 25 mph winds.  Perfect wheat drying weather.  Not good for much else.

We did have to shut down one combine for overheating.  I don't mean engine overheating, but smoke coming from somewhere else.  It's hot, things are overheating, and there is straw and grain dust everywhere. It is a fire waiting to happen. Our fire department has responded to one combine fire in Stephen this year.  Fortunately no one was hurt.

It reminded me of August 2007, when Conner started his little 4 wheeler on fire.  We can laugh about it now, but there was panic for a few moments.

We were harvesting the field right by the house.  Conner asked to drive his little 90CC 4 wheeler out to ride in the combine, and make laps around the house.  He was so excited to have an open field to drive in instead of the same old tracks he made during the summer. 

I hadn't seen Conner drive by the house for awhile so I called Brian and he said "Yeah, let me see, HE'S ON FIRE."  Click. 

I grabbed 5YO Holly and we took off an another 4 wheeler.  When I got to the field, I see the grain cart tractor driving way too fast, and realize Grandpa John is racing to Conner.  There was an emergency.

I reach Conner, and he's running in circles screaming "Don't be mad, don't be mad."  He was physically fine, but in panic mode.  The 4 wheeler was on fire and the stubble around the 4 wheeler was black.  All the fire extinguishers in combines worked, and a disaster was averted.  Our guardian angel earned her wings that day.  It was hot and windy, and we were so fortunate no one was injured, and the fire did not spread throughout the field.   

I wasn't mad at Conner until I found out about his helmet.  As he was jumping off his 4 wheeler, he took off his helmet and set it on the seat!  So we had a melted 4 wheeler, and a melted helmet.  I still tease him about that.  Go ahead and throw $100 into a fire. 

I do park my car outside after returning from the wheat field.  I don't want it in the garage with an underbody full of hot straw.  Better safe than sorry.   Safe harvest!

The past two summers we have had a neighborhood bear.  Two years ago the bear took a chunk out of the 4 wheeler seat and spent his summer in our corn.  Last year we found one a few miles west in another old yard.

This summer has been devoted to this lost girl.  A neighbor spotted her a few weeks ago near our farm.  This morning she was making the rounds in the neighborhood.  We do have two elk herds in Northwest Minnesota.  Just a guess that this girl is from the Kittson County herd, which means she is 40 miles south.  The Grygla herd is 70 miles to the east. Here is a graphic from the MN DNR about where to find MN elk herds. 

Let's hope this lost girl finds her way to the herd.  She seems awful lonely, especially with snoopy neighbors following her around trying to take a picture. 

We got rain over the weekend.  Lots and lots of rain.  Stephen had around 4", some reports of 6" and some of less than 1".  Gravel roads were under water, and some of the wheat and barley fields were laying flat.  We had no hail, but heavy rains can flatten a crop just as much as hail.

Above is one of our wheat fields that has "lodged", which means some of the wheat has fallen over.  We are hopeful this wheat will stand back up.

Here is another field, and the wheat is standing straight and tall.  So why the difference?  Quite often it is the variety.  Each wheat variety is given a rating on lodging.  Some wheat varieties have stronger straw than other varieties.  It's just one of the factors farmers review before purchasing seed.  Straw strength isn't the only factor in lodging. It may also be soil type, seeding rates, or fertilization, just to name a few.

If the wheat remains flat, it will make for a difficult, if not impossible harvest.  The wheat won't dry because it's essentially a mat on the ground.  It also means very slow harvest speeds.  We really need to cross our fingers that the wheat

This weekend we celebrated the 70th anniversary of my grandparents, Harry and Evelyn Risius.  We were only missing my brother and his family, who are stationed with the Army in Germany, and 2 granddaughters from Florida.  I think we're a pretty good looking group.

I was lucky enough to be raised in the same town as Grandma and Grandpa Risius.  Grandma drove me to school on her way to work at the bank, and Grandpa drove me to physical therapy for 2 years.  Grandpa pulled us in a sled behind the snowmobile after school, and Grandma carefully counted out raspberries to make sure we had equal amounts on our angel food cake.  We saw them nearly every day.

Below is the building that once housed Risius Implement, a Case dealership.  The building seemed so big when I was a kid. When Grandpa decided to retire, and Dad decided to go back to flying, my friend and I hatched a great plan for this building.  We were going to make it a roller skating rink.  The shop floor was smooth, and the parts bins would hold the skates and concessions.  It sounded like a great idea to a 10 year old.  Of course it never worked.  

It was a wonderful weekend with family.  My aunt shared the story of Grandma and Grandpa's courtship.  Grandma's family was questioning why a boy from Austin would waste gas money courting a girl from Owatonna (it's about 35 miles). Why couldn't he find an Austin girl?  Was there something wrong with him?  70 years and many children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren later, it looks like Grandpa was the smartest man in Austin.