Country Roads

The country roads are busy this week with the fall harvest in full swing but they are also scenic. The fall colors are appearing. Travelers can take time to enjoy the rural fall happenings. Some of the early leafing trees are beginning to show some colors here and there. Some of the cottonwoods are even losing their leaves. The draws in the pastures are featuring colorful wildflowers and plumes of the tall native grasses. Bright yellows can be seen in the Goldenrods, the Fringeleaf Tuckseed, and the thick Maximillian Sunflowers. Blue and purple wildflowers are showy such as the Monkshood Bluebeard. The white Hairy Asters can also be seen.

This is a busy time for the farmers. Fall harvesting has begun and so if trips are taken out on the country roads, caution is advised as the combines, trucks, tractors and balers are on the roads traveling from field to field and from field to the elevators. The soybeans are turning from the colorful greens to brown. The corn fields are ready for picking. Alfalfa is being swathed and baled along with many varieties of feeds. All will be fed to the livestock during the coming winter. The roar of the semi-trucks and combines are heard as the harvest is brought in. Huge harvest clouds of dust rise up into the air.

Ranchers keep a close eye on cattle especially if they are fall calving, and also to see if the grass will last in the pastures until the fall harvesting is completed. Usually the cattle are moved to the lots and home pastures from October into the first of November. Another task that awaits.

The warm and hot days of summer are yielding to the cooler fall days and nights, and it is welcomed. Yet, not so welcomed is the shorter daylight time for the farmers who still have so much to do. It used to be complete nightfall at 9 p.m. Now it’s almost 8 p.m. In a little more than a month the daylight saving time will end making night fall come even sooner.

Farmsteads are busy as grains are hauled to the grain bins, meaning the trucks are coming in and out of the driveways. Some farmyards are decorated for fall with pumpkins, scarecrows seated on a bale of straw and colorful mum plants here and there. Meals are being taken to the harvesters, with apples and pumpkins turned into delicious pies and cakes for desserts.

Fall is in the air and it officially arrived last week. It’s time to get outdoors and enjoy the fall scenes. Fall never lasts long enough and I don’t care to think about the season that follows fall.