final days of wheat harvest 2015

Most of these pictures don’t need any “splainin”.

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the end of wheat harvest 2015

Yep! You read that right. Just about as quickly as it began, it was over. Jim doesn’t agree with me when I said we’d only actually cut wheat for 3.5 weeks this summer. I didn’t write the dates down but I know it went awfully fast. It wasn’t supposed to be over this quickly. It happens, though, when the timing of jobs and weather come into play.

https://youtu.be/FYtHPsWQrs0

Normally, after we finish with our acres in Limon, we clean up, pack up, load up and head for Jordan, MT. (my most favorite place to be during the summer) Not this year. The weather dealt a rough hand for the Z Crew this year. The wheat in Limon was set back due to the late season freeze on Mother’s Day weekend. The wheat in Jordan was moved ahead of schedule because of heat and lack of rain. These two circumstances clashed and made our schedule unworkable.

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all of z crew present…for a week

IMG_6734-1Thanks for sharing your picture, Taylor! This little guy loves the equipment!!!

Sitting here waiting for my fingers to move and my mind to shift gears to writing is the reason I fail at keeping a journal. It’s not the writing that I fail at – it’s the getting behind and trying to catch up. When this happens, I become overwhelmed with the amount of time that has passed and then I just don’t even want to do it. Once I’m caught up again, I tell myself I’m not going to let that happen again. Guess what…I generally do let it happen again.  I’ll start catching you up and if need be, I’ll just have to make it a continuing story. Otherwise, I’m certain you’ll lose interest.

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welcome to our dining room

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Eleven days ago…

That’s how long it’s been since I actually took the time to sit in front of this screen and share what the heck is going on with the Z Crew.

The girls made it back. They showed up on the 6th and was put to work immediately. It was awfully good to have them back home with us – even though I’m certain they had a great time with friends while they were away. Callie and her group placed 4th in the nation for their Local Chapter Annual Business Report. 4th in the NATION. I’m so proud of her! So, her trip to Chicago was a success.

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a wheat whackin week

IMG_8593Testing the “bite” of the grain to see if it’s dry.

We began cutting the acres for our farmer in the Garden City, KS area on Wednesday morning (6/24) without missing a beat.  If you recall, we finished Shattuck late Monday afternoon and loaded as much as we could. On Tuesday, Jim and Taylor loaded the combine while Callie and I got the trailer house ready to go. After the tire on the van was replaced, we headed north. We unloaded Frank and the Beast in the dark. The next morning, as we were leaving for the field, the girls were headed home.

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a new field in a new location

IMG_8431Cleaning equipment after finishing at Shattuck, OK and getting ready for the move to Garden City, KS

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IMG_8442Zeorian Harvesting moved from Shattuck, OK to Garden City, KS in record time! We really did. We’ve never been able to move everything in one trip. It has always taken two trips to move our equipment which sometimes means valuable time in the field is given up for road time.

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mastering the art of mind reading

FullSizeRender (1) - CopyTime to unload (in more ways than the obvious).

We’ve been married 33 years. I still haven’t mastered the art of reading his mind.

I’m certain I’m not the only wife that feels this way. It helps me to think that, anyways.

This is how my morning began. Frank is loaded from last night and is waiting to go to the elevator. Cap’n Combine announces that he’s not going to be able to unload it for me this morning because he really wants to get things started in the field earlier than usual. We’re on our last field and it’s a weedy mess. I tell him that’s fine, I can finish what I’m doing here at the trailer house (making lunches and book work) and dump it. I knew there was an empty truck sitting next to mine so I wasn’t in too big of a hurry.

So, here’s where things go wrong.

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time for an attitude adjustment

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It’s been a slow start to Harvest 2015.

We sampled on Tuesday afternoon – late Tuesday afternoon – and the sample came back at 14%. The elevator in Shattuck said they would take one truck load. Hardly worth the effort so we just decided to shut ‘er down til the next day. Disappointment.

Wednesday rolled around but began with heavy, heavy dew and clouds. Not a very good drying day. We tried again. This time we cut two truckloads but the elevator closed before we could take them in. Thursday morning – again, heavy dew and not much strength to the sun. Lots of humidity on top of everything else. The trucks were taken to the elevator and the moisture came in at 15.2% – worse than the previous day. But, we kept moving along. I think we actually cut four truckloads that day. Friday – FINALLY a good sunny day! And that’s when I could feel the feeling begin to swell up inside of me.

I need an attitude adjustment!

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taking advantage of another rain day

IMG_8306Our anticipation and excitement of being on the road and FINALLY joining up with the rest of the “wheaties” soon came to an abrupt end. The rains we got the first night after we arrived, continued off and on for the next several days. That was Thursday – today is Wednesday. Almost an entire week has already disappeared.

Before we left, I planted my travelling flower garden. I try to do this every year mostly because it gives me a bit of a normal summer-type activity. Sometimes the busy-ness of the job and the heat of the summer take a toll on my garden. Right now, though, they are thriving.

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a calf named ruby

IMG_7806All pictures are thanks to Taylor Zeorian Photography.

Palm Sunday brought our family and  Jim’s side of the family together. This is our only link to the farm – a real farm. We visit farms with our business but Harv and Maureen’s farm is the only one left in our family unit. I was excited for Eli to visit the farm and even more excited that it was a beautiful day!

IMG_2723_editOne of the highlights of the day was getting to bottle feed the calf named Ruby.  As long as I’ve known Harv and Maureen (and that’s a long time), they’ve had cattle. They used to have quite a few hogs, too, but sold out after prices went too low to justify keeping them. At least when you visit the farm now, it’s a bit less stinky!  Anyway…back to Ruby. Harvey and Maureen’s grandson, Harvey Jr., has the chore of feeding Ruby every day. So, on this particular day when it was time to feed her, we tagged along.

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