I cut the oats with the haybine yesterday. A severe storm blew in Monday morning and flattened the field, pictured below. It flattened the corn as well, but the corn is straightening itself back up. The oats won’t come back up this late in their life cycle, so they would be close to impossible to combine, (removing the grain from the straw). We’ll bale the whole plant instead, and feed it as a forage.
This is definitely not what I envisioned when I started this series. We planted late, the weeds were coming worse than usual, and now the oats blew down. I guess I’m illustrating the Eisenhower quote:
“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.”
— Dwight Eisenhower
Curiousfarmer 
Sorry about the crops, but glad you are able to salvage something. I’m fascinated by the lives of the small farmers, and you seem to be authentic.
Ps: are those Melissa’s boots in the last picture? They seem too small to be yours.
I’m sorry to hear/see your oats down, Curious. We (west and south of the Milwaukee metro area) got battered by that same storm Mon. a.m.–as did my friend in Palotine, IL. Power outages from 4-6 hours for each of us respectively. But it isn’t our livelihood that was under threat, as it was for you.
Thanks, guys. No, those are my boots, size 9.
Now you need to track the bale that square foot goes into. At least do an update when it gets fed.
This has been a really intersting series to follow
My husband and I have a small organic plot with 90 other residents at the Organic Community Garden in Sunnyvale, cA. I imagine having 1,000 acres and I get an immediate headache. Farming, no matter how well you plan, is a crap shoot.
I always vote for the farmer….never complain about the price of my corn nor beef etc…
I’m happy to see you have a plan and I hope the loss is not too great.
Hugs….
Karen