The girls and I made it to the mountains! Jim opted to stay back and work on equipment. This gave us some great mom/daughter time to hang out and have fun. And…have fun we did!
Tag Archives: memories
Celebrating the 4th “Wheatie” Style
Picture taken by Taylor in 2011
A year and a half ago, a man I loved and respected passed away unexpectedly. Oddly enough, just a week prior to his passing, we had a very lengthy conversation. He had been a past President for U. S. Custom Harvesters, Inc. and his love and passion for the custom harvesting industry was quite evident! The one thing I took from our conversation was a comment he made to me, “We have to tell our story”.
A couple of weeks ago, Ryan Goodman (Agriculture Proud) asked me if I’d write a guest blog for his site. Of course I agreed. It was published yesterday – THIS ONE’S FOR YOU, RON!
Thank you, Ryan, for giving me the opportunity to tell our story!
Cutting Wheat in the Desert
We were back in the field today before 10:00 a.m. I know we could have been there earlier but we had to get the equipment serviced and moved to the first field which takes time. The fields we cut here are in mile long strips. I like cutting these because there’s very little turning and it feels like you get a lot accomplished in a short period of time. Each field is approximately 100 acres – we were able to get two of them cut today. Unfortunately, the yields aren’t as good as we’ve been cutting this summer. Jim thought we’d be lucky if we cut 20 bushel wheat here.
Eastern Colorado – The Land of Brown
We got up at 6:30 and were driving away from the campground at 8:30. That really does have to be a record for us. The girls worked together and we were able to get the trailer house “tore town” and hooked up in no time. It was difficult to have to tell the pups goodbye. They were at our cottage on wheels bright and early. I think they knew.
Happy Father’s Day!
Father’s Day has come and gone for another year. It was yet another day of nothing happening in camp. Taylor insisted she wanted to make supper for her dad so that’s what she did. She decided it was going to be BBQ meatballs, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. This would have to be one of Jim’s favorite meals – except for roast beef.
We are now residents of Kansas
The above cloud formation was something we saw nearly every night since Saturday.
Since we finished on Saturday, the past four days seem like they lasted FOREVER! The rain we received on Sunday morning continued on and off nearly every day. We were going to load up yesterday but it rained most of the day so we decided to wait one more day since there was no hurry to get to Deerfield.
“Pure Pleasure”
Yesterday seems like a week ago and I’m even struggling to remember what we did other than cut wheat.
We finished the smaller of the two fields near Arnett yesterday and moved to the larger one. This field appeared to be a piece of cake. However, it’s yielding 60+ bushels per acre and the straw causes a little bit of an issue at times. So, it feels like I’m creeping when travelling at 3.2 mph. I remember when that speed was tops! The field is relatively flat – no terraces like the rest of them have had. And, the best part, it’s across the road from the elevator.
A 500 mile jaunt
Today was the day we made the trip with the first load to our new “home” – Shattuck, OK. We were in this area last year but stayed in Arnett. The fields are closer to Shattuck and it’s easier to get diesel fuel in Shattuck so we decided that’s where we’ll hang our hat for a while. When I mentioned to Taylor that we’d be staying there this year, she was disappointed. Even though there wasn’t much in the town of Arnett for them to do, it was a memory and had been “home” to them.
Yes? No? Maybe? NO!
Nope…not today. We thought we might get to start later this afternoon but it just didn’t happen. And, it wasn’t because we weren’t ALL anxious to get started.
Jim and I are helping another harvester on this first job of ours. The other harvester is a longtime friend of ours (Delane and Travis Reimer) whom we’ve known for over 20 years. Our kids played together when we reached the Chappell, Nebraska area. There were always a whole slug of kids at that stop – Zeorian’s, Krumbach’s, Reimer’s, Trummel’s, Slattery’s and more. It was the stop the kids looked most forward to (except Jordan, MT) because there were friends to get together with. There were times when the kids were all together in one trailer and the old folks were in another. Rain days were most looked forward to in Chappell so we could gather together for a meal and friend time.