Posts Tagged ‘corn fields’
Sunrise Ride
Watching 13 stages of the Tour de France provided ample inspiration for me on a beautiful morning bike ride over the hills and past the cornfields of my neighborhood in the driftless region of Wisconsin.
The low angle of the sun created shadows that proved irresistible for me to pull out my phone while riding, which I am VERY reluctant to do. The odds of my dropping it are extremely high, but I got away with it this time.
I was probably feeling a little cockier than usual because I had chosen to ride in the opposite direction of one of my usual routes, which put me immediately into several big climbs, and I found myself pulling it off without feeling noticeably abused. Maybe all the miles I trod back and forth on our hilly property are keeping my cycling abilities fit.
Since I had failed to test my bike since I picked it up from the shop almost a month ago, I was also energized to find my pedaling was as quiet as ever. It would have been a massive disappointment had it been otherwise.
By riding first thing in the morning, so that I could get back to feed the horses at their usual hour, I still had the whole day open to take on whatever chore I wanted. The one that seemed to offer the greatest return for the effort involved cranking up the diesel New Holland with the brush cutter to knock down the uncut areas along the edges and corners of the hay field that the hay mower couldn’t negotiate.
That is an exercise that takes only a few minutes, but it serves as a precursor to moving into the back pasture to trim the weeds before they go to seed, which takes more than three hours.
After giving my legs an early workout, the extended tractor time may appear to be a more forgiving endeavor, but hour upon hour of pushing the clutch pedal, then the brake pedal, while spinning the steering wheel around and back on every turn, was almost as exhausting as conquering Pierce County hills on my bike.
I had closed the gates to keep the horses out of the back pasture, but they were free to graze in the recently mowed hay field. I always love seeing them out on the grass instead of standing in a stupor under the overhang, which tends to be their preference much of the time. That’s Mia all by herself in the image.
This morning, I’m riding bikes vicariously through the pros racing Stage 14 of the Tour. They are a great inspiration.
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Grass ‘Splosion
I was looking at this explosion of natural tallgrass yesterday and it took on the appearance of a bursting firework finale to my eyes.
Do you see it?
Closer inspection of these blades reveals the hazardous serrated edges that can damage flesh. It even cuts itself!
Growth of greenery is at maximum acceleration now. The corn plants in the fields of the surrounding area are gaining about five inches a day. It’s shocking to see the difference a day makes in the height of the tightly spaced stalks that fill entire fields.
Meanwhile, the round bales on our land are starting to droop under their own weight. I don’t understand why these get left in the field so long. At this point, they are just crushing spots that could be growing more grass for baling the second cut.
Also, it just feels so wrong to leave hay out in the rain.
I understand the rain or snow water just runs off the outside layer, but I imagine the bottom portion that is in contact with the ground must get pretty rotten over time.
One of these days, I’ll get around to asking the guy who is renting our fields.
Till then, I’ll enjoy the added ambiance the bales add to the landscape. They can serve as a distraction from all the Queen Anne’s Lace weeds that are having their own little explosion of growth in the time since the fields were first cut this year.
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Relative Something 