Harvest makes me sick

I had official jewelry business last night & got home around 9:45. Of course, B-rad was in the field combining. I was just getting ready to get on my pj's & climb into bed when the phone rang. It was B-rad. Sigh....

He needed me to ride back to the barn with him in the semi to drive his truck home. His motorcycle was also there & we all know that I can't/he would never let me drive that.

THEN he tells me that, "oh, we have to weigh the semi first. Then I have to get something outta my truck before you can leave." Double sigh...

And weighing the truck is not a fast task. It basically works like a humungo scale at the doctors office. There are weights hanging from the scale there on the right. Then he moves that little silver slider thingie in the middle until it balances. A semi full of grain can weigh 78,000 lbs plus.
I don't know how it works for sure, I just know I heard him mumbling a lotta numbers. After he weighs it, then he has to do some Einstein crazy math formula to figure out how many bushels of grain are in the truck. And Einstein crazy math formulas require much concentration. Of course, B-rad has his fancy schmancy yield monitor in the combine that tells him at the mere touch of a button what yields he's getting, moisture levels, etc. But it never hurts to double check the numbers. They weigh the trucks so we have a record of what we actually harvested. They can then use those records for crop insurance (yes, we have insurance on our crops...) if needed. Brian also uses the weight receipts to know how much we have so he can contract it to be sold.

Selling grain is not just about bushels. It's also about test weight. We contract our grain based on bushels, but they also check the test weight to make sure it's not too moist. Obviously thats not been a problem this year. Normally moisture levels are around 15%. When B-rad started harvest Monday, the moisture was 13%. In 2 days it went down to 10%. This little scale is not for drugs people.... it's to weigh out a sample of corn... Then they put it in this wacky machine to read the moisture level. Here's why it being so dry is bad for farmers (I joke by saying a farmer is never happy. It's either too wet, too dry, too hot, too cold...we're like Goldilocks!) : when the moisture is really low it makes the test weight low which means you don't make as much money. Think about it. Damp clothes weigh more than dry clothes right? Same concept. We just have to be sure that the grain is not too moist when we sell it or they dock us money for that too. Eh, it's always somethin'.

Also, the fields are SO dry that fires can start & spread in an instant. B-rad brought over another tractor with a disc on it just in case a fire should start. If the combine or field caught fire, he could run the disc & till up the ground to try & stop a fire. The corn stalks & corn that's still standing would be perfect kindling for a fire.

Perhaps the most important reason being dry is bad - is because I'm so freakin' allergic to everything that B-rad stirring up 10 tons of dust all around my humble abode has caused me to have drainage in my head that has now settled all comfy & warm in my chest. This in turn makes it hard for me to breath AND I get to cough a lot. I'm a lucky, lucky girl...