raincation – day 5

photo 5 - Copy (2)This was on the side panel of the New Holland demo combine.

I slept in this morning. Why not? Nothing was pushing me to get out of bed.

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you’re STILL here?

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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frank, pete and the yellow beast are now settled in for a long winter’s nap

IMG_4873The beauty of a Nebraska road as the sun starts to set.

The autumn color has been beautiful this year. And the sunsets…extraordinary! I don’t know if it’s the harvest dirt and dust to blame for creating these beautiful sunsets or if it’s because I’ve been outside at the exact time to witness them. Whatever it is, I have thoroughly enjoyed them.

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adios, oklahoma

Leaving a place that has become “home” tends to make a person think about certain things. The one thing that I’ve thought about a lot this year is the fact that I take for granted way too many things!  I found myself looking at my surroundings a little more intense this year. I sort of figured out that I don’t have a guarantee that I’ll be back next summer.  So, I soaked in the lush green countryside, the smell of the wheat chaff, the beautiful water-colored sunsets (especially after a brief thunderstorm), the intense oven-like temps of the south winds (or Oklahoma gales) and the birds. I tried to take as many pictures of the countryside and the wheat field as I dared. The hot winds and birds are a different story.

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On Your Mark, Get Set…GO!

The transition from “home, home” to the harvest world has always been a hard one for me. It takes everything I have to push through it year after year after year. This time, though, it was the worst!

When we began this way of life as a family in 1990, we had a young family. I was young, Jim was young and we only had two of our four daughters at that time. Jamie would have been 4 and Jenna only 2. Taylor and Callie came along way after this lifelong adventure began for us. Funny how at the time my children were growing up (and I was getting older), I never really thought about them growing up – and not being with us.

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#3 – Today’s post takes us to Texas

It’s fun going back and re-reading posts over the year and remembering that particular day as though it were yesterday. This is one of those days. However, for it being the third most read post of the year, I wonder if it was the headline that caught everyone’s attention. It certainly isn’t one of the better ones – no pictures and very short. Maybe I should learn from this 🙂

Today’s post, “We gambled and won – for once!”,  takes place  in Burkburnett, TX. We had just finished the last acres of wheat and then it rained. Maybe it would be good to look back at the posting prior to this one to better understand – “Something’s going on with the sun”

ENJOY!

HHD and The Dirt Blizzard

The flags can attest to the strong winds as we entered. As it was, this was calm compared to what we endured later in the day.

The plan on Friday was for Jim and The Yellow Beast to get back to picking corn AFTER the trip to Husker Harvest Days on Wednesday. That plan was spoiled by the hot temps that made their way back into the region. It was 96 degrees on Tuesday. I tried to justify to him why it would be ok for his taking Wednesday off to make the  trip to Grand Island. “It’s still so early in the fall”. “What? Is it going to start raining now?” “It’s not like the weather’s going to drastically change”. However, because of his strong work ethic all my attempts were met with a strong NO!  I wanted to go. Mark, Candi and Jenna were still planning on the trip, so I decided what the heck?! (One more day to pretend like I have nothing better to do.)

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Remnants of Harvest Past

I am so tired today! I really think I could sleep just about anywhere-maybe even standing up (I know someone who did that in the shower). We put in a huge day yesterday. Jim told me last night on the way back to the cottage he cut 120 acres. Doesn’t sound like much if you have more than one combine. With Ed’s combine cutting the same acres, 240 sounds better. Considering it’s 70+ bushel wheat (weighing 60 lbs and 11% protein) and only two tandem trucks to haul it away, I think we did good! Poor Frank didn’t get much of a break all day. And neither did I. Continue reading

A Little Too Camera Happy

 

We had a day off on Friday but we got right back to work on Saturday. Back to the early mornings and late nights due to the 80 mile round trip drive to the field. We had a bit of bad luck last night as we were driving home. Jim hit a fairly large buck – but as luck had it – the service pickup suffered minimal damage. I really think our vehicles are deer magnets!

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All In a Day’s Work

The wheat is yielding VERY well. Jim said he was seeing 70 – 100 bushels per acre pretty consistently all day. For brief seconds at a time, he was even seeing 180 on his monitor.

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