Harvest Days

The harvest is nearly complete around us. The fields that were tall and wavy with corn are now a buzz cut of stubble and shuck. The once bushy-thick and green bean fields have been shaved as smooth and tan as an onion skin.
The stampede of tractors, wagons and trucks to the giant grain bins has looked all the world like forager ants hurrying their lucky finds back to the nest. But that has slowed to a trickle now. Rest is coming.
The soil will winter soon and store up the energy to do it all again in the spring. And so, as much as possible, will the farmer. Oct 8 2011