Harvest Season in Belgium

Ever since I was lucky enough to be sent away during the summers (I understand now, Mom) to my cousin's ranch in north central Nebraska, I've been interested in the workings of farms and ranches. They had horses, cows, a few chickens and a goat, and a couple of summers, nasty hogs. It was the highlight of my year to be able to stay with them and pretend I was a ranch girl, getting to ride Tyrone, my trusty stead, in the kids' rodeos. I loved it.
The main job every summer for my cousin's was putting up hay, alfalfa. I usually stayed with Janet, helping get the eggs, feed the chickens, nasty hogs and the bottle calves. It was fun, but I really enjoyed taking lunch (1600 snack of sandwiches, dessert and iced tea) out to the field so I could watch them mow, rake and bale hay. The smell of fresh cut alfalfa is still one of my favorites and I just really wanted to help.
That enjoyment and interest of farming has been rekindled since we've moved here. My part of Belgium looks alot like many parts of Nebraska. There are fields of wheat, corn, potatoes, alfalfa and sugar beets. The beautiful, golden wheat fields were harvested shortly after we got our house in July. I've seen wheat harvested before, no big deal. Then they came along and baled the wheat straw in huge rectangular bales. Not the bread loaf bales, but similar to the 50 lb bales, only much larger. Probably 5 feet long and 2 feet or so across. Too large to swing up onto a flatbed.
Recently, the potato fields have been harvested. I've never seen potato fields before, so I've had to stop more than once and watch them being harvested. My son and I stopped to watch last Saturday on the way to the football game. We were very intent on watching the conveyor belt bringing up the potatoes until we noticed an older woman riding up above the contraption sorting potatoes watching us. We might as well have had signs above our heads saying, "We're not from here."
Well, today they started harvesting the sugar beets next to the house and we had to go out and watch. We walked right up into the field so see the work in action. It's a two vehicle operation and we were so impressed. My son (and I) had all sorts of questions with no way to ask them, darn language barrier. I can't even explain the sickles and blades and augers and conveyors on both machines. Really, we were fascinated. The farmers, I'm sure, had to giggle about my son and I standing out in their field watching them work, but it was so cool.
This field is huge too, and their making pretty quick work of it. It's dry right now, by dry, I mean, not raining currently, so they have to get out there and get the beets in. The sooner they get them out, the sooner work can start on them shoring up the side of the house so we don't have water seeping into the concrete walls. But, I digress.
While we might not live in the city or that close to work or groceries, we love out little commune and house and neighbor cow and all the harvesting and farm work going on, with the exception of electric poo spreading day. Thank you, U.S. Army for bringing us here.