Hey, it’s been a while!
Yes…I have a lot to catch up on before I make the book titled, “2019”.
But, for now, I really wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas.
Enjoy time with your family and friends today. Tomorrow, we can get back to watching 2019 disappear in the rear view mirror.
I think there are a lot of us ready to see a new year and the hope it provides!
Two weeks ago tomorrow we arrived “home, home” – the end of wheat harvest 2019.
As is typical, as soon as we park the equipment and get the cottage on wheels parked in the driveway, it feels as though the previous 100 days of being on the road never happened.
I don’t like this.
The transition of coming home is so much more difficult than leaving in the spring. When we leave in the spring, we’re leaving a world that we are used to and have accepted. The world we leave revolves around the clock and a schedule.
Harvest has it’s own schedule. It is, by far, more simple and I like that! Until you’ve experienced this simplicity, it’s difficult to explain.
I began working on emptying the trailer house the very next day. There’s nothing worse than living out of two homes. I figured I may as well just suck it up and start the process of moving back into the house.
We came home to Nebraska to summer…leaving the very cold temps and rain to the northern country. The first night home was nearly impossible to adjust to the heat and humidity. Sleep was not good since we were still sleeping in the trailer house (and we can’t run the air conditioner).
The very next day, the weather we left up north caught up with us. And it’s been cool (and very rainy) ever since. Goodbye summer! This was another motivator of getting moved into the house – it was warmer. Crazy weather!
On Saturday, October 5, we celebrated Taylor and Baby Josoff. Jamie, Jenna and Callie planned a wonderful baby shower – and I got to be there to enjoy it! I was afraid with the way things had been in Montana, I wasn’t going to be able to attend.
The day was absolutely gorgeous – and the party…even better!
We celebrated Callie’s 22nd birthday the next evening. At home. In our teeny, tiny little house. We are so short on room when everyone is together but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world (well, maybe for ONE larger room). How in the world can my “baby” be 22????
The past two weeks have been a blur! The trailer house is empty and cleaned. The flower gardens are showing less and less weeds. The equipment has been changed over to fall harvest (Jim has even had a couple of days in the soybean field). I’ve emptied nearly 8″ of rain from the rain gauge. We’ve had a couple of things to celebrate. Life is beginning to be feel more “normal”. It seems to take me a couple of weeks to get to that point.
And then I did this…
For those of you who kept up with us on our Zeorian Harvesting Facebook page, you probably watched my daily videos. As the season got longer…so did my hair. And towards the end, more and more gray was showing through. My TRUE color.
I started coloring my hair in my late 20’s. Recently, I’ve been feeling like it was time to just quit. There has been a lot of soul searching, thinking and reading.
It’s just hair…right?
Well, that’s what I say about a haircut. The decision to quit coloring my hair has been a very difficult one. It’s like a step into the next stage of life. I mean, my birthday tells me how old I am. I just never really wanted to LOOK that old. My brain tells me I’m still 25. 🙂
The process of going all white scared me. I didn’t know if I could actually live with the drastic line between color and gray as my hair grew. I did a lot of reading on Pinterest and realized it could be done easier by blending the color into the white. Becky (my most awesome hairdresser) reassured me if I absolutely hated it, I could always go back.
Okay…I’m just going to do it! It’s time to be 100% me. No more fake color!
Now, how in the world is the rest of the world going to accept it? Another scary thing to think about. The shock of seeing something different. Change is different. Change is scary. Change is something we can all count on.
The reactions from the family have been varied. The best was watching Ben stare at my hair while I talked to him. Eli and Nora are surely wondering when their other Grandma will come back. Each time I pass a mirror, I have to back up and wonder who that person is looking back at me.
Social media needs to have a place to click, “Embraced the Gray”. You know, like “in a relationship” or “married”. Maybe one that says, “accepted the next stage of life”.
Looks like I’m going to have to get Taylor to take a new profile pic!
This custom cutter business of ours is one low-budget operation!
What I mean is…we do things on a pretty low-scaled manner. There’s nothing big and/or impressive about our crew – except The Beast.
We do whatever it takes to get by so we can be on the road again next year. This “crew” that I speak of is just the two of us. Jim and me…me and Jim.
It takes us a whole lot longer to do anything. More so than most crews with hired men. It’s okay – it’s how we roll.
It was a week ago Jim told me we were done cutting wheat for 2019. Since then, he’s done quite a little servicing and maintenance on trucks, dug out growing wheat from the combine and header and cleaned. Well…I cleaned. I cleaned trucks, pickups and the trailer house. Needless to say, once we roll into home, home for the last time, we’ll be ALMOST ready to cut beans and corn. (In Nebraska, we pick corn.)
We finally left Jordan this afternoon about 3:30. We’re parked for the night at Belle Fourche, SD. And because we are the low-budgeting kind, we will be spending the night in the parking lot of the livestock sale barn…in the luxurious Hotel Pete.
Because I have time tonight (not much to do in a semi), I thought I would share the beauty of the mountains we saw on our raincation.
It was such a welcome break! We spent three nights out. First night in Thermopolis, WY. Second night in a cabin in Silver Gate, MT. The final night in a lovely cabin south of Anaconda, MT.
The girls are tired of me saying, “we need a family picture”. But they are usually so good about just giving in…most of the time.
Memorial Day was spent working outside. Jim on the combine and me doing whatever I could. The days without rain have been few and far between. It seems the moisture in our part of the country has been way more than needed since about January. It just changed from snow to rain.
Continue reading
Julie contacted me with an idea about a fundraiser. I have to admit, when she wrote the note to me, I loved the idea but was unsure how it was all supposed to work.
She and Rod run Sizzlin’ S Outfitters near Jordan, Montana and wanted to donate a 5-day Eastern Montana Mule Deer Hunt valued at nearly $5,000 for a Facebook auction. I had never seen anything like this done before. There would be 100 numbers and each number would cost $100. When it was all said and done, they would generate $10,000 to donate to the Nebraska Cattlemen Disaster Relief Fund. 100% of the relief fund is distributed to Nebraska cattle producers affected by the recent flooding.
As with anything else that’s new to me, I hesitated. But only briefly. As long as Julie could explain how it all would work and what my involvement would be, I didn’t see why it wouldn’t be possible. But 100 names at $100??? THAT seemed impossible.
Well, as we all know…with God NOTHING is impossible.
The auction began on Saturday, April 6. My job was to collect the money through the Nebraska Wheatie “Shop” and keep the numbers updated with names of purchasers on the original Facebook post.
Order notifications became something I looked forward to seeing in my email. Every time a number was purchased, I would receive a copy of the transaction. I would immediately go to the Facebook page and update a blank number with the name.
I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing! What seemed impossible (100 numbers at $100 each) began unfolding into something VERY possible.
And do you know why? Because people care! Because people want to help. I had contact with several of the purchasers via email. Each one of them said basically the same thing…they felt bad for the Nebraska ranchers who had experienced such loss and all they wanted to do was help.
The definition of help – the action of helping someone to do something; assistance.
Everyone stepped up to the plate with this fundraiser and it worked! The last number was purchased at noon on April 9. The auction lasted all of 2 1/2 days! WOW!
The lucky number was chosen last night. Lucky number 81!!! I was “rooting” for all of them because they are ALL winners in my eyes! Thank you to everyone who purchased numbers and made this possible. I know most would have liked to have won but knew this was one way they could help those who needed help.
Thank you, Rod and Julie, for allowing me to help YOU! For trusting that I could help you create something that would mean so much to so many. You’re THE BEST!
And…now an update on Jenna’s t-shirt fundraiser. We have sold 232 shirts. This is getting very close to a $2,000 donation to the Nebraska Farm Bureau Disaster Fund. Shirts are still very much for sale! They are $28 each and the price includes shipping. If you’re interested, be sure to go to the Nebraska Wheatie “Shop” and check them out!
With another very intense spring storm about to hit most of Nebraska, people’s nerves are a bit weary. I know we can and will survive but the help of the helpers is what’s going to get everyone through this. We are Nebraska, we are persistent, we are built to carry on and we will continue! We are Nebraska Strong!
The following post was written by Jenna. She put into words what the rest of us have felt. The weather event, which began over a week ago, has affected so many Midwest farmers, ranchers and communities (large and small).
To all who have been directly affected by the “bomb” which dropped on the Midwest a week ago, please know the entire Z Crew has prayed for you, thought of you and cried with you…and will continue to do so!
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It was a Great Plains hurricane, some said.
Continue reading**WARNING – this could be much longer than you’ll want to spend reading and could have way more pictures than you’ll care to scroll through. However, if you find it interesting at all, just take a break and come back later. :)**
There were other things happening in our lives other than harvest. I had to look back on the past couple of posts just to see what I have already told and how much I really do have to get caught up on. The last post was about what I learned about fall harvest. And it was plenty.
But there was more to the story than just harvest.
Christmas music is on the radio, there’s snow on the ground and it’s probably here to stay. Winter has arrived in Eastern Nebraska.
It’s been two weeks that I made the final lap in the corn field – November 19, to be exact. Seems much longer than that, honestly. Fall harvest felt like it was about a year long. We had so much weather to deal with…just like so many others.
Yes, we have started fall harvest. Up to today, though, Jim guessed only about 5% of the crop has been harvested in our area.
It was two weeks ago today that I crawled off the combine (I’ve been hired to drive a New Holland combine for a neighbor). I haven’t been back since. I was just sort of feeling like I was getting it. I’ve never picked corn or cut soybeans. Ever! I may have crawled in the seat for a little while way back when to help Jim while he got a truck moved or something. But to say I’ve had experience with corn or soybeans? Nope!
Picking corn is a whole different animal than cutting wheat. You have to line the combine up with rows, know how the field was planted with terraces and watch to make sure you’re on the right row. It’s not mindless cutting like wheat is. There’s not much forgiveness. If you’re off a row, the entire plan is off. And…I’m TRYING to do a good job for the farmer that hired me. The expectations I have on myself are great.
We had an amazing amount of time off due to rain (3+”) and SNOW ( 4″). Jim got back in the field today. I will be back tomorrow afternoon. The entire central part of the United States has been unable to harvest due to the amount of wet stuff we’ve had. With the cooler temps, it takes a whole lot more time to dry the grain and the ground than when we have rain delays in the summer.
So…what have I been up to the last two weeks, you ask? Even if you really don’t care, I’m about to fill you in. Continue reading
One week ago yesterday, we began the final journey home.
Our first trip – Pete/the “job” trailer and Frank/the header trailer – began two weeks ago today.
So, within the past two weeks, we’ve traveled nearly 3,000 miles getting equipment moved back home. The same road gets a bit weary and I often think about the over-the-road truckers and how monotonous their days must get.
Once the final turn is made and the trucks are shut off, the reality of what’s next sets in. And it doesn’t take long for the harvest mode mentality to disappear. In fact, it all feels like a dream now. A bit of a post-harvest “hangover” or depression sets in. I can’t explain why it happens or even why it does what it does but unless I get busy right away, it can feel pretty rough.