winter wheat harvest

we recently changed browsers on the desktop and i don't know whether it has anything to do with the fact that blogger no longer posts photos in the order i upload them or not but this is yet another post where the chronology of the photos does not match the chronology of the narrative...you will have to be imaginative...i went to campus to bring in the winter wheat...the third photo along shows the stand of wheat before i started and it is pretty clear that it was ready...it took about fifteen minute using a pair of hand shears and cutting the plants in small groups ( haven't counted them yet)the second photo along is from about halfway through the process...the top photo is the plot after the harvest and the bottom one is the harvest in one of those most utilitarian of devices... a plastic five gallon bucket...for me gardening would be infinitely difficult without them...the bird tape seems to have worked out well...i saw no damaged or assaulted seed heads...after i removed the posts the bird tape was attached to i took the wheat to my truck...when i cam back around the corner of hawthorne hall to water there were starlings in the garden ( first birds i have ever seen there) gleaning the stubble for any grain i may have missed...we'll see how well it works as the spring wheat ripens ( one wonders if i made a tactical blunder by leaving it unprotected after taking out the winter wheat...well...it has been unguarded for the entire season thus far...we'll see when i go back friday if it was a howling error...i think not...my back jungle has a multiplicity of birds in comparison to campus and the wheat here is intact without bird tape)...my plan is to thresh and winnow the grain...weigh it for produce data...and then use it to sow a cover crop on the garden after the cowpeas have run their course...it will act as a reservoir for the excess nitrogen as well as holding the soil together...i will turn it under in the spring ( leaving a stand to ripen and use as seed for a winter cover the following season...part of this project is an experiment in organic self-sufficiency and resilience..my goal is to purchase seed once for as many species as i can and produce new generations on my own ) there should be an entertaining blog post about the threshing business...winnowing seems fairly straight forward, if tedious...can't wait.