Yeah, it's corn pickin' time. Shouldn't pick until you have two frosts. Then it is prime time! 

Long story short.

Plan one. I had dump truck loads delivered and dumped in the open barn. Worked out fine except I had to fend off crows, turkeys, squirrels, raccoon and deer when I went to get some to feed the herd. Plus, the empty ear population was exploding. 

Plan two was picking up loads in my F-150 and then shoveling into the makeshift crib. Killed my back. 

Plan three was pulling a corn wagon from the field to the crib and using the bottom shoot to load the crib. Well friends, pulling a loaded corn wagon up and down winding rural switchback roads was a horrible experience! 8000 pounds of corn in nothing more than a dumpster with wheels is a white knuckle nightmare. Never again.

Plan four. Put a loaded corn wagon on a fifth wheel flatbed along with a generator and a electric loader. Back and knuckles seal of approval. 

Corn Picking 1956 - Afternoon Break
Tom Hennen


I needed a heavy canvas jacket riding the cold red tractor, air
an ice cube on bare skin. Blue sky over the aspen grove I drove
through on the way back to the field, throttle wide open, the
empty wagon I pulled hitting all the bumps on the dirt road. In
the high branches of the aspens little explosions now and then
sent leaves tumbling and spinning like coins tossed into the air.
The two-row, tractor-mounted corn-picker was waiting at the
end of the corn rows, the wagon behind it heaped so high with
ears of corn their yellow could be seen a mile away. My father,
who ran the picker, was already sitting on the ground, leaning
back against the big rear wheel of the tractor. In that spot out
of the wind we ate ham sandwiches and doughnuts, and drank
hot coffee from a clear Mason jar wrapped in newspaper to
keep it warm. The autumn day had spilled the color gold every-
where: aspen, cornstalks, ears of corn piled high, coffee mixed
with fresh cream, the fur of my dog, Boots, who was sharing
our food. And when my father and I spoke, joking with the
happy dog, we did not know it then, but even the words that
we carelessly dropped were left to shine forever on the bottom
of the clear, cold afternoon.