I’m sure they’re eating something but it’s not GREEN grass. 

We’re home, home! The final miles were driven yesterday. It’s been quite a long 5 days!  And so very HOT – 110 degrees on Wednesday and 105 yesterday. The Pete kept running hot all day on Wednesday – to the point it shut itself off going up a hill. That has never happened before. I asked Jim why it had decided to do it at that particular time and he said it was because of the intense heat and the four mile hills we were climbing. This heat and no rain is really taking a toll on our country. The Midwest is very, very sick right now!

I’m sitting here acting like I have NOTHING to do, when, in fact, I have a tremendous amount of stuff to do. I decided to give myself a break for a little while because I set off a bug “bomb” in the house this morning. After I got out of the shower (which is in the basement) last night, there was a rather large wolf spider waiting to welcome me home. I took his picture…and then I killed it!

So, I’ve got a couple of hours to sit in the trailer house pretending like I have nothing to do. Actually, it feels good to be here – it’s home. It’s complete. It’s clean. It’s organized. It’s not overwhelming. Getting to this point, though, was tough in May. At that time, I wasn’t real excited about preparing to leave the house and kids. I like being in a unchaotic state and that just isn’t possible with packing and unpacking for the summer wheat harvest.

Coming home is a huge letdown to me. For the past 100+ days, I’ve been geared to nothing but the field and doing all it takes to get the wheat cut. It’s a transition coming home to “normal” life. This morning while hanging clothes on the line, I was thinking and listening to the noises of my surroundings. These noises are all about people and their lives that haven’t changed (much) over the past four months. I felt like yelling, “STOP! Just stop and let me get caught up before having to jump right back into your world – your harvest-free world”. I know I have to come back to that world but does it have to be overnight? Can’t I just do it when I’m ready? Do I really have to try to do it right now? The fact of the matter is, yes, I do have to get right back to it. And, the sooner the better. Dragging this out will only make it worse. It’ll feel good when my world is  less chaotic and normal like the rest of the world – it does happen (eventually). At least I’m not trying to get ready for a wedding reception this fall!

In the meantime, I need to prioritize what HAS to be accomplished in my day and then ask myself, “what do I need to do next?” Two weeks from now, things will be so much better. It doesn’t help that we’ve pushed ourselves to get to this point. We left Jordan on Saturday with the first load. We were home, home Sunday night about 9:30. We left again on Monday, arrived in Jordan on Tuesday, loaded the combine and was back on the road early Wednesday morning. Jim really put the push on yesterday and we were home again at 8:00 p.m. – just before the sun went down. Whew! Little sleep and not much to eat has taken a toll. Why did we do this? Right now, Jim’s in the process of changing the combine from wheat to corn and will begin cutting possibly tomorrow…that’s why.

I have quite a few pictures I wanted to share with you. Most of these pictures have been taken from the window of the truck and are of the drought stricken Midwest from Eastern Montana to Eastern Nebraska.

This was the best dryland corn we saw the whole way home – just east of Sturgis, SD.

Bear Butte – also east of Sturgis, SD

Frank’s newest blemish. Thanks to the pickup that I met.

South Dakota corn. From the truck, it looked like there were no ears on the stalks (which were VERY short).

Nebraska Sandhills – near Valentine.

This was just south of O’Neill, NE. Farmers were swathing and baling the roadside ditches.

Central Nebraska soybeans. The green is under an irrigation pivot – the brown is the dryland corners. It didn’t look like there were any bean pods on the dried up plants.

Another picture showing what a little water will do. The green soybean plants were in a lower part of the field.

Dry land corner of an irrigation pivot – Central Nebraska.

The Platte River near Clarks, Nebraska. Not even a trickle of water!

More Central Nebraska dry land corn.

On the way back to Jordan, we took the interstate across a portion of South Dakota. The Wall Drug signs are everywhere!

The sign you see before entering The Belle Inn in Belle Fourche, South Dakota. Jim’s favorite little diner to eat whenever the option is there!

The final load of the season.

The night before we left Jordan, we had supper with Jim and Mardrie (one of the farmers we cut for). The two guys on the floor were playing a round of  Indian Wrestling…only in Jordan, MT. 🙂

Firefighters pumping water from the Miles City pond.

A Sheepherder’s wagon.

Wyoming cattle

A nearly dried up pond

We spent the night in Faith, South Dakota on Wednesday night.

Early morning take off on Thursday.

How fitting to see this as we’re leaving the town of Faith.

This is a field of milo or sorghum in South Dakota.

The wind was blowing fairly strong yesterday. The heaviness of the sunflower’s head made the plant appear to be dancing very gracefully in the field – almost a wave as I drove by.

Herrick, South Dakota Feed Mill

North of St. Paul, Nebraska

The leaves on the trees are just drying up and falling off.

The final pull complete. The “blue moon” is shining brightly as we parked the equipment for the night.