"And Root (Ruth) the Moavitess said to Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find favor. And she said to her, Go, my daughter." (Restoring Scriptures True Name Edition)
What does the above Bible verse have to do with this post, you may be wondering?
I was able to visit my mother's side of the family in Ohio this summer. This is an introduction to the Ohio agriculture that my family participated in back in the day, and what modern crop farming looks like today...so, '"Let me now go to the field".
A little family history
The above photo is of my great great grandpa Henry Gautsche's farm reprinted in the local newspaper. This may or may not be the barn that his son Homer, my great grandpa, moved across the creek that stands as a double barn today in the next photo.
The Farm Today
My great grandparents, Homer and Ilva Gautsche's old farmhouse and double barn still stand in Northwest Ohio.
The Barn Sign
The farm belongs to someone else now, but the land is still farmed by extended family and I was blessed with the barn sign. The sign successfully traveled back to North Carolina to be hung on my much much smaller barn.
My Great Grandpa's Combine
We stumbled upon this gem while retrieving another piece of farm equipment from an extended family member's barn. They had purchased it at the family auction for $300 when my great grandpa stopped farming.
Family history fascinates me, and accidentally stumbling upon an old family heirlooms is the best.
The Modern Combine, a few generations later:
This is the combine that I got to ride in during the wheat harvest. The header is a 40 feet wide, meaning that it can harvest a 40 foot row while driving across the field. This is huge! In just a few generations, agriculture has changed drastically in size and scale. Just look at the size of that combine!
An Inside View
Equipped with both GPS and a spectator seat...I occupied the spectator seat.
An inside view looking down at the header, with the grain cart out in the distance.
Looking at the combine from the rear, where straw is deposited in a row for baling.
Unloading the Combine
Every so often the orange light (seen in the mirror) would blink, an indication that the grain hopper in the combine was almost full and ready to be unloaded. Here, the grain is being emptied from the combine into the grain cart. It was so neat to see how all the mechanics worked in moving the grain from the field to the grain elevator.
The grain cart is then emptied into this semi truck to be hauled to the grain elevator nearby.
Me, happily sitting in the tractor after learning how to drive it around one of the wheat fields after the grain was harvested. This is by far the largest tractor I have ever driven and it steered much better than my car!
My Main Job: Hauling Straw
After the wheat harvest, the straw was baled and left in the field. We had to go out to collect the bales for storing in the barns. These large bales had to be loaded onto the trailer with a loader, and my job was to drive the truck.
I was amazed at how flat the land was and how many different farms you could see while standing in one place.
I was amazed at how flat the land was and how many different farms you could see while standing in one place.
In conclusion, being able to visit family and work a few days on the extended family's farm was an AMAZING experience. I learned so many new things about Ohio agriculture, and how different it is compared to North Carolina. This was a new kind of agriculture that I had not experienced before: Crop farming.
Comment below with any questions.
