Farming with headlights

As I mentioned yesterday, we've finally been blessed with some springtime weather... we've had multiple days of sunshine now... in a ROW!  The nice weather is forecast is to hold until at least tomorrow.  In my part of the county this means the farmers are out working the fields trying to get as much done while the sun shines and the wet weather is a bad memory.  Wednesday morning looked like this as I was leaving for work around 6:15 am.  Things were quiet at Red Gate Farm.

I came home around 4:00 to gorgeous cerulean blue skies and....  a HUGE John Deere tractor (someone should have told him we're a Farmall family), slowly making it's way through our 16 to 17 acres.  And when I say slow, I think I could have crawled faster than this tractor moved tilling up the earth... digging deep to plant potatoes.

The summer before we moved to Red Gate Farm the field was planted in potatoes.  Our first summer here it was planted in wheat.  We actually lease our land out, the part that the actual "farmstead" isn't on.  Since that first summer the land has just been left in grass for cutting hay.  I've been kind of excited about the prospect of acres of potatoes.  Have you ever seen a potato field in bloom?  Come mid July, or perhaps a little later due to our uncooperative weather, this entire field will be awash in blossoms.

By 7:30 pm, the tractor was perhaps only half way through the acreage.  Hmmmm.  Surely he'll be leaving when it gets dark, right?  Bedtime around 10:00 pm, fully dark out, tractor still going. 

A wake up call around 11:00 as it somehow managed to align itself perfectly with my ground floor bedroom window... for a moment I thought maybe I was on the takeoff runway of an airport!  My bedroom was lite up like it was daylight! 

Fortunately for this light sleeper, this tractor was new and very, very quiet.  As soon as the tractor turned to head back towards the trees I drifted back to sleep.

Another wake up at 1:00 am, yep, I did say 1:00 am and the tractor is idling next to the greenhouse.  I remember thinking, "wow, is this guy going to be here when I get up at 4:40 am??"  Lucky for me and probably more so for him, he was just leaving.

I snapped another picture of the pristine, dark brown earth in the early morning hour of 6:15 am as I once again left for work this morning.

This evening, a bit better view of a portion of the field from the upstairs window (please ignore the glass that needs cleaning).

In another month or two... I can take the same picture with the fields covered in flowers.... I wonder if they'll be white or purple blossoms?  Only time, and the potato variety, will tell.

As the sun sets over the barn at Red Gate Farm....

Good night and have a great weekend,

linking up

to

Verde Farm

Farm Friend Friday

AND

Dandelion House

Farmgirl Friday