By Kate Procter

Determining which season is more stressful – planting or harvest – has been a discussion topic over the years. For me, this changed when we improved our grain handling system, which has made harvest much less stressful. But there is one day, every year, when planting and harvest happen on the same day. High Stress Day brings it all together with about 100 wheels turning at once and one big stomach knot of “I hope I didn’t forget anything”. 
This year, it happened on October 3, which already takes the stress down a notch because this is relatively early, but not too early. For anyone who doesn’t grow winter wheat, it is usually planted after harvesting some type of bean. Beans are a tricky crop to harvest because the plants get damp after the sun goes down and require a bit of drying time to get going in the morning. As I have learned the hard way, using a draper head is awesome because no matter how damp the beans get, it will keep feeding them into the combine. The downside of this is that instead of refusing to go into the combine the way they did with our old head, they sail right on in and plug up inside the combine. This is a much bigger deal, and results in a lot of unhappiness and usually some cursing. But it does give you something to do with those three hours you would have had the next morning waiting for the beans to dry. 
I usually think that bean harvest is the break-in period for the big show, corn. Corn harvest has a few more moving parts because it all must go through the drier. If the harvest is going right, the sun does that job for beans. So I get a gentle reminder of all the things about the combine I forgot in the past 11 months and some new things I had not learned yet. As I write this, I am in the small window between bean and corn harvest and have had a chance to put together some harvest tips, continued from other years. 
Harvest Tip # 75: Check the bin. Again. Take the extra five minutes, open the doors and look inside. This year, there was a big fat raccoon running around in Bin 3, which had already been swept and checked weeks earlier. This leads to Kate’s Critter Corollary: Any critter that gets into your grain bin and dies, will die over the unload hole, or eventually find its way there, blocking all movement of dry grain. This usually happens on the coldest, windiest day in January when everything is frozen and covered with snow. You are probably already late trying to load your grain because you had to spend two hours blowing snow. Check the bin before dumping anything in.
Harvest Tip #76: Check the bin doors. Do not get distracted – make sure all the inner doors on your bins are closed tight. Do not trust the innocent-looking closed outer door.  
Harvest Tip #77: Expect the weird. If any glitchy thing is going to happen, it will be on High Stress Day. This year our phone line with only a printer connected decided it was also stressed to the point where it needed help and started calling 911. This resulted in multiple police checks. By the time High Stress Day rolled around, we had already had four OPP wellness checks by 9 a.m., and one we weren’t even sure about because it happened between midnight and one in the morning, when everyone was asleep. We were picturing some well-meaning officer tiptoeing into the bedroom and tucking everyone in after giving the stressed-out and underused printer a gentle pat. I think perhaps the definition of irony is having a communications company that cannot communicate with any more accuracy than … “service technician will repair between eight a.m. and six p.m.” Really? You couldn’t just shoot us a text when you are 10 minutes away so we could arrange for someone to be there? No. And, don’t expect that repair to be reported either – four days later, another repair person showed up wanting to comfort our now quiet printer. 
Harvest Tip #78: Take care of your diet. Not just what you take into your body, but also what you take into your mind. Pack a healthy lunch, with lots of water. A game changer for me has been noise-cancelling headphones. I load up some audio books, podcasts, my favourite music and turn the radio with its constant advertising and endless news repeats off. Having a mental diet that is positive and teaches me something helps keep my mental space a happier place to be and lets me deal with the minor stresses in a better way. Packing your brain with negativity and eating junk is the same as fueling your combine with sugar or forgetting to check the oil. Take the same care with yourself as you do with your machines. 
Harvest Tip # 79: Life goes on. If you have someone in your life that keeps all the wheels turning – especially during high stress times –  caring for youngsters and oldsters, feeding everyone, paying the bills, doing the chores, buying the groceries, providing encouragement, covering any and all emergencies…. make sure to give them an extra hug and let them know they are appreciated. Maybe even do something special when things calm down to make sure they know that. ◊