Harvest time

I took these pictures over a week ago. They're quite outdated, as harvest is almost finished, but I wanted to show them to you, anyway. I've noticed different times when driving along the roads this fall that the fields of grain, harvested or not, had such a beautiful, bright golden color to them this year. I don't remember ever seeing them quite like that before. The leaves are even somewhat shiny. I can only figure that it must be because of the dryness. Other years they seem much more faded and dull-looking.

I tried to capture that pretty goldenness in these photos. Click on the pics to enlarge them and see it better.

This one below particularly shows the shininess.

Here are some close-ups, just for fun.

All the above corn is gone now. Harvest has gone amazingly fast this year, with minimal breakdowns and especially with no precipitation to hold things up. Of course, the farmers haven't had any break, either. They've just kept going and going and going. But by the end of the week, everything should be pretty much wrapped up in this area, with only tillage left. I think it's record-setting early, and the yields have been good, despite the lack of rain.