Happy Halloween!

This photo was taken at Barn Anew.

Happy Fall!

Well, I have to brag just a little bit on my puppy dog.  His 3rd birthday will be in November and he has recently been down with a bad leg.  He is getting better and I just had to take the opportunity to capture a few shots of his personality!  Have a great and safe weekend!

Here are a couple of pictures that make me think of fall!  Please bare with me as my good camera is in the shop being cleaned and fixed.  Bean harvest was hard on it with all the dust!  It was totally worth it though because I got some awesome pictures!  :)

Fresh Coat of Paint

I forgot to mention the nice paint job the guys did this summer on our lovely Gering building.  It sure spruced the place up a ton!  That and Courtney's beautiful flower pot by the front door.  I'm not sure how it's going to do since the heavy frosts that last two nights, but this summer it was awesome!

We have an "Office" sign to put by the front door, now we just have to finish painting it!  That will be the finishing touches!

Weather Update

So, the weather we were all so prepared for, must have just gone south of us!  We are getting a little snow falling now, but when I woke up this morning, all that could be found was a little snowy/frost mixture on the roof and pickup windows.  The roads were fine getting to work, however, a friend of mine drove to Colorado for work today and he said that the roads were pretty rough.  He said they had about 4-6 inches of accumulation.

Winter Storm Sweeping through Area

We have winter weather alerts all over!  We will wait and see!

http://www.weather.com/weather/map/interactive/69341:4:US?animation=true

University Harvest

Last Friday morning, Dave and I took an hour to go meet up with Carlos and John out in the field at the Panhandle Research Station.  They called us to let us know that they were harvesting their test plots.  When we got there, this is what we saw in the middle of a bare field.

Immediately, it grabbed my interest as I was expecting to see the combine rolling.  All the beans were already off the ground and they were on to the next step.  I was curious how they could get through all those little test plots of beans and keep them all separate for accurate data collection.  Well, they shut down their operation as soon as we got there and explained the whole process to us.  They pick the beans by hand and place them carefully in the big black garbage bags already labeled with the individual varieties.

As you can see from the picture above (taken by Dave Dietrich), all the big black garbage bags piled on the trailer.  After they pile the bags on the trailer, they start thrashing them in that machine.  It acts just like the combine and gets rid of all the chaff out the front and it spits the cleaned beans out the side where they collect in a bucket with a small labeled brown paper sack (shown in picture to the right).  This is how they collect all of the samples to then take back inside and analyze for moisture, yield, check seed coat, and splits among many other tests.  They must have their method down because they said this amount of bags would only take another hour or so.  

They had all kinds of beans, from small to big and all sorts of colors!  Some I had seen before and others I had not.  These beans that I am holding in my hand are called Cranberries!  They are beautiful!  To me, they look like big pinto beans with red strips instead of brown.  Awesome combination.  I cannot speak to how they taste, but they sure do have great presentation.

We had a great quick trip to the University to learn about their test plot harvest methods.  Thank you for taking the time to explain them to us!

Stateline

I hope everyone has a great and safe weekend of harvest!

Beets

I was outside in our lot yesterday when this scene caught my eye.  The train had just past and the sun was shinning perfectly behind the smoke at the Sugar Factory.  It made me realize that just because we are almost done with beans doesn't mean that everyone is done with harvest yet.  There is still alot of time left of harvest with beets and corn.  Please be safe!

Done Loading

 The guys worked really hard yesterday and got the boxcars all loaded and they are ready to be picked up!

Still Comin'

 We still have beans coming in!

Funny Story....so I had just finished up probing and grading a truck when all of the sudden the room got darker...hmmm...little did I know, I could seriously reach out my office window and touch the box cars as they were pushed up beside our building!  We got our boxcar delivery that we will be loading soon!

Teamwork!

After the rain, came the sun yesterday afternoon....
I was wrong, no snow.
This is a picture that I took as I was leaving work.  :)

Here is a picture of me and the guys!  It's all about
teamwork around here!

Dave and the Guys!

Jaun and I!

Rainy Day

Today, it's a little chilly!  It feels like one of those days where it gets colder as the day goes on.  The temperature reads 40 degrees right now.  It was spitting rain this morning on my way to work and now it is raining and windy.  They say possible chances of snow mixed in with the rain.  Now, I haven't seen any snow yet, but I'll let you know tomorrow if I do!

We had some trucks this weekend and a few more today.  The beans are still coming in!

Have a GREAT weekend!

Beet harvest is full on and corn is getting underway.  Make it a great weekend and be safe!

Mark Your Calendars

Hi All~

Our Annual Meeting will be held on Thursday, November 17th, 2011 at the Gering Civic Center beginning at 6 p.m.  We will have dinner followed by a meeting.  Please mark this day on your calendars and let us know if you can attend.  I am really looking forward to this night!  It will be fun to have everyone in the same room to talk about beans!

Oh, and if you have any pictures of planting, the growing season, harvest, etc. please email them to us so that we can include them in the slide show.  Thank you!  Have a great day!

Chilly Morning

We had quite a bit of rain this weekend!  It was really rainy and extremely windy on Saturday and then the wind calmed down on Sunday.  The moisture has definitely helped with the dust!  

Today, it is overcast and a bit chilly.  It's supposed to get windy again tomorrow!

Slowly Winding Down....

Happy Friday!

Harvest Sunrise

It's a little bit breezy here today, around 20 mph, with a little chill in the air this morning.  The clouds are hoovering, we will see if they bring rain.  According to the weather forecast, it is calling for possible rain showers this afternoon.

~Wind~

Last night it got a bit windy here....it started blowing around 8:30 pm or so.  After talking to some of our growers, it doesn't look like there were too many beans blown around.  The growers were prepared for the wind and waited to cut their beans.  This evening, we have sunny skies and a light breeze with gusts predicted to be up to 25 m.p.h. (National Weather Service).  Hopefully the beans will be ok!

~Sunny Day~

I was able to play a little tennis late last night.  It was alot of fun!  Such a beautiful night!  As we were playing under the lights, we could see lightening in the distance and hear the cattle mooing in the background over at the sale barn.....what a beautiful night during harvest in Western Nebraska!

Another beautiful day this morning!

Keep 'Em Coming!

Happy Sunday!

Go Big Red!