As the water swirled down the kitchen sink, I became aware that it was probably the last sink of dishes I will do in the Cottage in 2014. Suddenly everything I do tonight takes on a whole different feel.

Yep, the 2014 harvest journey is officially over. Tomorrow morning will be the first trip headed in the direction of home. The Beast will be waiting for our return in a few days.

I’m gonna miss you, dear Cottage! “How in the world do you live in a trailer house all summer long”? I hear this quite often. And there are others, “Don’t you go crazy in that small area?”, “Don’t you ever miss your house?” To most of these questions, the answer is no – except for the first question. And to that I have all kinds of reasons why I love our 40 foot of space…mostly because of simplicity. The clutter is eliminated because you don’t have room for it. Living in the close quarters teaches you to get along with who you live with. It’s easier to clean. The best reason of all? It means we’re doing what we love to do. We’re on the road chasing the ripening wheat from south to north.

Tonight marks our 49th night in Jordan, MT. Where will we be tomorrow night? Only the road knows. Tomorrow night will also mean finality. The journey is over for another year. Time to jump back into the “real” world. If you’re a harvester, I know you understand what I’m trying to say. If you’re not, I’m certain you’re questioning my sanity right now.

As a review of the summer, let’s go back to a few of my older posts and relive the summer. Maybe this will help me work through these feelings of knowing the journey we look so forward to all winter long is over again for another year.

The day we left home. Silly, I was trying to work through leaving the “real” world and jumping into the “harvest” world. (I’m shaking my head too) – the transition from “real” to “harvest”

Once we arrived at our first stop (which is usually our third stop), the battle with the clouds began – our EXTENDED raincation

The worst memory of the summer? Having to say goodbye to a friend – how quickly things can change I sure do miss you, Bub!!

Jenna visited us for the July 4th holiday – distant fireworks –  and the very next day, Taylor and Callie joined the crew – came as strangers, left as family

Something we’ve done a lot of this summer – waiting for the wheat to dry. Once we got to Colorado, this waiting game continued; only waiting it out with the family we helped cut was way more fun than when you’re by yourselves – let the games begin  We also cut some phenomenal wheat in Colorado. WOW!

While we were in Limon, Jamie and Eli flew to Denver and spent a week with us. Curt missed his family so much, he left home a couple of days earlier and joined up with the crew mid-week. It was so much fun getting to share the combines, trucks and tractor with Eli. He was in little boy heaven! However, the goodbye had to come and that’s not easy for this grandma – the goodbye will be hard

Our third and final move took us to Jordan, MT. Arriving in this stop is like coming back home. A lot of great memories and a lot of great friends here – the northward trek, final day

And then as quickly as they caught up with us, they left again. Taylor and Callie were only with us for a month of the summer and it was hard to see them leave – everything’s better when they’re here

We were staying pretty busy with the wheat around Jordan, to the point that I was wishing for a rain day. And, then it happened and caused nothing but problems – kaput!   

And even more rain…10 inches of it (nearly a full year’s worth of rain for Jordan in two days) – four hours

When conditions allowed, we were able to get back into the field and finish the acres we had left 12 days earlier – and those montana sunsets   While we were waiting, Jim surprised me with a three-day drive through the mountains. One day, I will share those pictures with you.

This brings us back to tonight. My final night of harvest 2014. Thank you for following our journey! I will continue blogging, of course, so check back once in a while and see what’s going on. The main event of the off-season will be welcoming our second grand baby in December. I’m certain of one thing…it’s a crazy, wonderful life we live but I wouldn’t change one thing about it!