an atypical season winds down

meteorological autumn is twenty days old and the equinox is three days away so i wandered out into the fields for an end of season update...and things have not changed all that much...there are some fields of dense yellow #2 ( with saw-tooth sunflowers in the berm ...but not nearly as many as one would have seen in a "normal" year in the bi-annual industrial monoculture that passes for agriculture around here...

bean fields are far more common out there and they are clearly beginning to find an end to their season...the field corn may not be ready yet but the beans will be coming soon...they closed at $328.12 yesterday...down $34.57 a metric ton from the closing price at the end of last month...the harvest may be good...they prices may not...

fallow fields are as populous as planted ones...some have been left truly fallow and have become home to "native" plants like these...and to signs that farming might not be what it once was...

others have been turned to control the presence of those "native" plants...even though it has not prevented them from making an attempted return...

while the farm machinery has been kept busy freshly turning still others...this could be in order to plant small grain as cover crops for winter...although i haven't seen a farmer plant winter wheat or rye as a cover and turn it under in spring since we used to drive down rt. 231 on the way south to visit my grandmother when i was a child...this does not preclude a return to old ways...it does seem unlikely to me...that won't stop me from looking into it...i am due to plant small grain in my yard very soon...i may be in harmony with some segments of the industrial world...still...i am left wondering just how much fuel, time, and money has been expended in the process of this mechanized "weed" control...and how much in the way of green house gasses as well...the entire season has seemed futile to me in the face of the climate, the weather, and the political shenanigans, none of which helped the season...or will help the harvest either...things may be dodgier than the powers that be are telling us...their truths or distortions will come out soon enough.