Yep…still here.
That’s the question that’s asked a lot by everyone we come in contact with who knows we shouldn’t still be here. Here it comes…next question…”when are you leaving?” I just shrug my shoulders, squint my eyes and say, “I don’t know.”
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Well…once again, the days have run together and more weeks have gone by since I allowed myself to sit down and write about the adventures of the Z Crew. Our time in New York City was phenomenal! One major thing I would have changed (if I could have) would have been the weather. The “winter-that-just-won’t-quit” continued the entire time we were on our trip of a lifetime. It was so cold, we were ducking into stores hoping to find gloves and hats. Unfortunately, all the winter items had been taken off the shelves to make room for summer merchandise. Dang it was cold! The final day of New York was spent at The World Trade Center site and Central Park. The girls LOVED Central Park (especially Taylor) and I really wished that it had been more spring-like weather instead of a strong bitter cold wind. All we wanted to do was get somewhere warm. Our last evening was spent washing clothes, packing and preparing for an early morning departure. We had tickets to take the Amtrak from NYC to DC and had to leave the apartment at 6:00 a.m.
I’ve been away for a little bit…
I’ve been extremely busier than normal with putting together a fairly large event for the U.S. Custom Harvesters. We’re celebrating our 31st annual convention and trade show in Wichita, KS on March 6 – 8. It’s been a work in progress, that’s for sure. The biggest event I’ve ever done was Jamie and Curt’s wedding. That seems like a piece of cake. 🙂
Jenna, on the other hand, knows exactly what this is all about. She’s the trade show coordinator for CLAAS and travels the farm show circuit with the CLAAS equipment. She knows how hard it is to make things work and click and look good and deal with stress. So, for the past several days, I’ve talked to her about all of this because she knows and understands.
As I mentioned in one of my last posts, I struggled with the Christmas spirit this year. I’m still not REAL sure what the reason was but I sort of think the fact that we started hearing about what we should purchase before Halloween had something to do with it.
The event that jumpstarted the ‘ole excitement of what Christmas is all about was a bloggers gift exchange spearheaded by none other than Jamie Rhoades of This Uncharted Rhoade and Laurie Link of Country LINKed. These two gals must have known I was having an issue and decided to fix it for me – and include a few others, as well. Thank you, Jamie and Laurie!
A weird sort of feeling just swept through me.
I’m sitting here listening to the rain hit the window next to my “desk” in the living room. If this were six weeks ago, we’d be enjoying a day off. And, believe me, there’s nothing better than waking up during the middle of the night hearing that sweet sound of rain pinging on the cottage roof. No lunches would need to be packed and I would be able to sleep just as long as my body would let me. Unless, it meant ANOTHER day of sitting.
Tonight, it’s just rain. Our lives aren’t controlled with weather as much anymore. Well, it still is for Jim. He’s still harvesting but the rest of us are involved in the “real” world again. Speaking of Jim, he finished with the soybeans last night and was going to start with corn today. Not so much now. I talked to harvesters today from North Dakota to Kansas and everyone is sitting now due to rain. It’s a harvester’s holiday!
In my previous post, scenes from j & t’s excellent adventure parts 3 & 4 (cont.), I left you with the arrival at “home, home”. This gets a little confusing with referring back to posts but if you need to be reminded where we are from this point with the pictures I posted, you can refer back to scenes from j & t’s excellent adventure parts 3 & 4.
After we got home, we TRIED to turn on the water, went through mail and whatnot. The next morning, we packed for a week and headed to Grand Island for Husker Harvest Days. We ran into all kinds of people we knew – including the Miseners.
Entering Husker Harvest Days in Grand Island, NE.
I’m not sure where this is going to lead but my intentions are to share with you some of the scenes of our travels from Montana to Nebraska, back to Montana and then, finally, back to Nebraska again.
We’ve been “home, home” for two weeks. ONLY two weeks. Harvest feels like a dream. Callie and I made a trip to Omaha on Saturday in search of the perfect Homecoming dress. We met Jenna very briefly at the mall and had lunch with her but basically the day was just a me-and-Cal-day. This doesn’t happen very often. Anyways, she and I had some fairly deep discussions that day; one being about harvest. She and I agreed that unless you’re involved with harvest, you just can’t explain the feelings this industry creates deep down in your soul. We discussed how sad we were that there are people out there who haven’t any idea what a wonderful place Jordan, Montana is because it’s not within their 10 mile radius. Did we find the perfect dress? We found “plan B” dress. “Plan A” dress is on it’s way in the mail. Continue reading
I’m not sure where this is going to lead but my intentions are to share with you some of the scenes of our travels from Montana to Nebraska, back to Montana and then, finally, back to Nebraska again.
We’ve been “home, home” for two weeks. ONLY two weeks. Harvest feels like a dream. Callie and I made a trip to Omaha on Saturday in search of the perfect Homecoming dress. We met Jenna very briefly at the mall and had lunch with her but basically the day was just a me-and-Cal-day. This doesn’t happen very often. Anyways, she and I had some fairly deep discussions that day; one being about harvest. She and I agreed that unless you’re involved with harvest, you just can’t explain the feelings this industry creates deep down in your soul. We discussed how sad we were that there are people out there who haven’t any idea what a wonderful place Jordan, Montana is because it’s not within their 10 mile radius. Did we find the perfect dress? We found “plan B” dress. “Plan A” dress is on it’s way in the mail.
We had visitors in Jordan the other day. Before our “chance” visit, I knew Jenny (aka @jenlynndewey) and Mark (aka @sunflowerfarmer) only through social media…Twitter, Facebook and Jenny’s blog, jldphotographblog.com. Who would have guessed my simple question, “Coming through Jordan?” on a Facebook status would result in meeting a love story face to face?
The view from on top of the combine.
I’m sure there are a large number of individuals involved with agriculture who aren’t taking today off. For this, I say THANK YOU! Agriculture knows nothing but daily work (unless it’s raining). And, even then, there’s always something that can be done. Required maintenance on equipment and animals still need to be cared for regardless of the weather. Picnics, vacations and holidays are taken when there is a window of opportunity – not because it says so on the calendar.
As for this little piece of the Ag world, we’re sort of in limbo right now.