the east wind doth blow

It is always eerie when the winds change direction...typically, the wind blows in from the east in the morning and from the west in the evening. We are very aware of this pattern because of crop spraying, burning and plowing up clouds of dust (we try to avoid things blowing in our windows).

I'm very cautious when it comes to winds and fires because I'm deathly afraid I will burn the neighbor's crop! There is only about 8 inches (20 cm) between our fields and the flames can easily jump over and set his wheat aflame.

Today, the winds blew backwards! It really doesn't happen that often. I half expected Mary Poppins to blow in with the winds.

I bundled straw on the big field. A baling attachment could do the entire field in about 30 minutes, Karen the human baler took about 3 hours. We sprayed deadly chemicals on the horsetail weeds (sugina), horrible weeds that force us to cut the grains above the weeds to avoid choking the machine but ending up without any usable straw as a result. We spread their underground network of roots when we plow, so my strategy is to kill them first and then plow. We will see. My strategies are not always solid!