Soybeans ready to harvest soon

A few weeks ago when I made my previous post of soybean fields surrounding the farm, the bean pods had not yet formed. The bean fields are really tall right now and are loaded with soybeans. I took this photo a couple of weeks ago and now you can see the fuzzy pods have formed. I have no idea when the beans will be harvested, but probably sometime in September. The bean fields are still very beautiful, as you can imagine.

Central Illinois Soybean fields

Central Illinois is quite the producer of soybeans. I'm sure any locals that see this blog are probably rolling their eyes at this blog post, since either soybean fields or corn fields are everywhere you look--big deal!

And that includes three sides of my farm. The farmer rotates his crops and this year we are surrounded by soybeans. Last year it was corn. Here's a view of the eastern back of the property looking south. I think the luscious green is quite pretty surrounding us.

Here's that same corner looking east. This photo was take a couple of weeks ago. Several rows of short sunflowers can be seen on the left (complete with some weeds). That white building in the distance is our local Nestle plant, where they make non-dairy coffee creamer.

Here is the opposite corner of the property facing west.

And this last view is looking south east. Right now the soybeans are about forty seven inches tall and are just now forming the fuzzy bean pods. It will be another month or two before soybeans are harvested. Tonight we caught a deer running from our sunflowers that are now blooming and the deer ran south through the bean field. I did not realize deer were drawn to the sunflowers, but a quick google search confirmed that they are!

Beauty on the farm and a train

I love this picture that I took last night of a section of the Sunflower patch. A beautiful Weeping Willow tree stands in the background. We have a lot more Sunflowers than these. I couldn't get a better photo, because the sunlight was shining too bright in the background. That is why I have the Weeping Willow tree in the picture--to block out some of that light.

This is that same Weeping Willow tree, but was taken about three weeks ago before the Sunflowers started blooming. This is my favorite tree on the farm and we planted it in 1995 near one of the corners of the back yard. It is a little asymmetrical due to damage from an ice storm last year. It has also been hit by lightning in the past. It's a very hardy tree though!

This hardy Hibiscus was planted last year next to one of the porch steps. This variety doesn't get very big, but the blooms are huge and the color is a very vibrant hot pink. On the other side of the steps I planted Veronica many years ago, but it's about done for the year. I also think this plant needs a little more care than I have been giving it. So, I'm only showing a glimpse of it.

This last photo is one I took of a train about two months ago using optical zoom. This is the view in back of our property, but it is much further away than it looks. I have tried a half a dozen times to get a picture of that train, and I barely got it this time. That is another farm on the other side of the tracks. All of that luscious green is soybeans, which surround the farm on three sides. They weren't but about eight inches tall in this photo. The soybeans are so pretty, I have taken more recent pictures of the soybeans, worth sharing...soon.