who brings in your food?
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Originally published with the annual Christmas letter from Greg and Cathy Taylor, these are The Harvest Chronicles as never experienced before — 21 years all gathered in one place, with some entertaining and educational extras.
Meet the “boys” in the crew — all the machinery that keeps the farm running — and learn their names, mostly named by Cathy!
Visit “the boys’ dorm,” take a ride to the field, get soaked by the rain, get parched by the drought.
Farm life is rarely easy, but Catherine Taylor brings a whimsical perspective and an educator’s eye, entertaining and informing the reader all at the same time.
Delightful and poignant ...
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Harvest time
Excerpt from 2014 EDITION - SLIP-SLIDING AWAY……
We also welcomed Darcy, another 4WD tractor and a brother for Dusty. Darcy came on board to pull Kelly, who kills the weeds before Dusty & Amil put the seeds in the ground.
Seeding was not fun this year. The addition of Darcy meant that we had two complete units. Previously Dusty had to switch off between Amil and Kelly, so weed control and seeding could not happen simultaneously. Cousin Michael graciously agreed to make himself, with his experienced farming skills, available to us when possible. This was a HUGE help. Mom kept the home fires burning while I assisted in every way I could to keep the men in the tractors. Chinking mud and the previous year’s flax straw tightly wrapped between Kelly’s discs was my least favorite contribution. But we were very fortunate on our farm. By having experienced operators (Greg and Michael) and choosing to sacrifice many wet areas that we normally seed, each outfit only got stuck once. Many farmers were getting stuck hourly. Darcy and Dusty asked me to tell you about it.
Greg took Darcy & Kelly down to one of the more soggy fields that needed weed control. Greg took them into an area that he immediately knew to be a mistake, but these huge pieces of machinery don’t turn on a dime to get out again, especially when they are surrounded by sloughs. Slurp - the mud sucked them down. When I went out to help, the mud sucked my gum boot right off my foot and knocked me off balance. Fortunately for me, Darcy caught me with his huge tire instead of leaving me to do a face-plant in the mud. Thankfully, Dusty was able to pull Darcy & Kelly out without any damage.
Darcy returned the favor when Dusty was taking Amil out to the east land. Due to water saturation, a portion of the “goat trail” collapsed under Amil’s weight. This sucked his left side down into a bordering slough, putting him on a terrible lean and imbedding some of his shanks into the remaining part of the trail. We were all very concerned for Amil – getting him out could seriously hurt him. Michael was not working with us that day, but he graciously re-arranged his life to respond to our emergency. Amil’s air cart had to be unhooked from his cultivator (no easy task). Darcy (with Greg) pulled his air cart out backwards with minimal damage. Then Darcy (with Michael) went around to the front and hooked his hind end to the front of Dusty (with Greg), and then Dusty’s hind end was hooked to Amil. Darcy led the train, pulling with his 350 horses and Dusty behind him with his 280 horses while I prayed profusely, and Amil popped out without any damage to his shanks! This was a miracle, folks. To say we were thankful would be an understatement.
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MEet the author
Excerpt from the INTRODUCTION
The Harvest Chronicles were originally written to accompany our Christmas letters with the aim of sharing with our family and friends the joys and challenges of each farming year. In keeping with the format of this project, I have removed most, but not all, of the references to Christmas. My original decision to give a voice to the machinery for the Harvest Chronicles came from three directions. Firstly, I have a very vivid imagination and can’t seem to resist the urge to see things as the machinery boys would see them. Secondly, most of my family and friends were not familiar with farming procedures, so highlighting the machinery helped with that education. Thirdly, a sense of humor is critical to survive the hard realities of farming, and the machinery “boys” perspective allowed for some stress relief to offset the challenges and heartbreaks. It is my sincere hope that, as you join us through these two decades of farming, you will gain an endearing appreciation for those of us who are passionate about the farming lifestyle that produces the food to feed you, and that you will respect us for the challenges we face and must overcome in order to do so.
We'll include more pictures of the flooded yard when it's time to share the entire 2014 letter.