It was the Sunday before Halloween and thus began my nightmare. You might remember that it started raining shortly after daybreak and it rained all day, all night, and into the morning the next day. Everyone received 3 plus inches of rain with some reports of 4-5 inches. The rain was only part of my problems that day.

Earlier in October I received a letter stating that my farms’ production records were being audited to verify the accuracy of my reported yields. I suspect very few people love hearing the word audit. The letter stated that I had 20 days, by October 26th, to respond. My first thought was who asks a farmer to dig through their farm records and do extra paperwork during the harvest?

I had reassured myself that this would be no big deal; I have improved my record keeping each year, and I could get it done when it rained. Of course, every time it rained I was sidetracked with important repairs of equipment, hay and straw sales, and many other farm chores so I could maybe finish harvest before the whims of Mother Nature unleashed any more surprises.

On Sunday, October 24th , the “big” rain started. We were under a flash flood warning so I knew I would be in the house and could complete the paperwork needed. The easiest way to confirm yields of commodities when requested is to supply a copy of your yield reports that were submitted with a crop insurance policy. If only it was that simple. The information I needed was for wheat, a crop I had not insured. I was out of luck. I would need to verify my yields with receipts from sales.

I started with the most recent year, 2020, and was met with quick frustration. I could not even find the grain settlement paperwork for when I sold my wheat. After several hours of futile searching and inventing new curse words, I proceed to find the information for all the other years I needed all the way back to 2014. However, the data for the 2020 crop year was still eluding me.

After 4+ hours of searching records, interspersed with lots of tidying up and reorganizing my files, I sought a break. I decided to turn on the radio and catch some of the Bears’ game while working. Even though they were playing the Super Bowl champs, the Buccaneers, I was optimistic that they could win since they did last year. Boy was I wrong the score was 21-0 Tampa and it wasn’t even halftime yet. This soured my mood even more.

When all seemed finally lost, I remembered something. During the whole Covid lockdown the computer for my farm records crashed. I waited until the end of summer when we all finally emerged from our cocoons to get it fixed. During that time all my deposits were stapled together and filed in a separate folder. Thankfully, I finally found the grain settlement for my 4562 bushels of wheat to verify my yields.

There was indeed another factor drowning my spirits on that Sunday. The heavy rain had exposed a leak in the front bay window of the dining room. The rain not only poured on my crops, but 3 gallons of rain came through the ceiling.

I do have some good news. On Monday it was confirmed that I passed my audit. I will state that if you find yourself in a similar audit, you are on your own. The hole in the dining room ceiling remains, as well as the end of the 2021 harvest for me.

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