what? another week is gone?

You know, when you get involved with the day-to-day stuff that being in the field is all about, the last thing that gets done is posting on Nebraska Wheatie! Oh…I think about it at the end of the day but most times, taking my shower and finishing up the what-needs-to-be-done-before-you-go-to-bed chores takes precedence. And then, all at once, another week has gone by! No wonder it feels like the summer has zoomed by!

Late Wednesday afternoon, we finished with the wheat acres that brought us to Jordan. It’s a bittersweet finish. I know I should be excited and I contradict myself by saying this but it’s always such a hard emotion to work through – the last wheat acres. When I leave home, it’s hard jumping from one world to the next and when we have cut our last stem of wheat for the season, it’s even harder to leave this world and jump back to the “normal” world. Only other harvesters will be able to understand the almost depressing feeling it causes deep inside my soul. Every. Single. Year! Even this year – with a grandbaby to go home to and look forward to spending time with, that old feeling is beginning to well up inside of me. “Can’t we just cut a little more, Jim?” “Nope…got to get home. The heat will be turning those beans fast now”.

When I got to the corner and on top of the the hill, this is what I saw:

Frank looks so lonesome down there all by himself!

Just had a “Facetime” call from this little man – that helps any sort of mood a person’s in!

So, another week has passed and I haven’t shared pictures or anything about the wheat. I will probably have way more pictures than you’ll want to spend time looking at. Maybe I can break a few of them up and create a couple of postings. The wheat we cut was spring wheat. It looks like the average will be around that 40 bpa mark. This is GREAT! A typical, usual harvest here is 15 – 20 bpa. I’m so excited for Jennifer to have had this better crop this year! I don’t know any other stats for now. I’m thinking there were a couple of cans of the wheat that went to Moccasin for testing but I don’t know the end results…yet. Since I was the chief combine operator this stop, I was hoping we’d get a few more acres to cut. I think there must be something wrong with me because I honestly believe I could sit in the cab of a combine every day and not get tired of it. Maybe that’s why the week seemed to go by so fast.

The girls used to like to pick these round rocks up when they were little and in the field with us. We’ve even picked some up that were as big as baseballs.

We had just moved to a 30 acre patch of barley when the first scary looking storm rolled in. Yes…we still have a little bit of work to do. This won’t take long and then we’ll see what Jim decides he wants to do – stay if we can or clean up and head home. Anyways, since it looked like rain, we opted not to begin cutting and then have to hurry and leave the field. You don’t want to get caught on the dirt roads around here if and when it rains.

The first storm rolled in just as we were starting the process of moving to the barley field. The smoke to the left of the rain storm is the result of a lightning strike. Apparently, the Jordan firefighters rolled one of their firetrucks while heading to this fire. One reason you want to stay OFF the roads when it rains!

Before we could finish our move, we needed to take the last load to the grain bin. So, rather than just killing time sitting in the field waiting for Jim to come back, I opted to ride with him. It wasn’t far – just through town and up the hill. Look what was helping themselves to a free, easy meal:

Here’s a few pictures of the town of Jordan from a different point of view.

See the golden fields towards the top of this picture? This is the field we’ve been working on for the past week.

I HAD to take this picture just in case it’s the last load of wheat for 2013.

After we dumped this load of wheat, we finished with the equipment move. By this time, the second storm was beginning to threaten. It was the few rain drops that began falling once we got there that confirmed to us that it was time to head back to town.

We were nearly back to the  cottage when Jim suggested we go downtown for supper. “Do you want to stop at the trailer house and clean up first”, he asks? “Naw, we probably won’t see anyone we know, let’s just go down. I don’t feel like taking a shower yet”, was my reply. He agreed. So, we pulled up to the Hell Creek bar and realized that it was the place to be. There were quite a few cars already parked in front. We walked through the door and who should we see – Tom Thumb, Kenny, John, Terry, and several others. Great – guess we should have gone back to the cottage and took a shower first! Oh well…it’s just Jordan and the Hell Creek and no one judges you for having a little dirt on your shirt and hair that’s flat to your head. And…after the couple of times this summer of people seeing me wearing my first-thing-in-the-morning hairdo, what the heck? Remember the other two times this happened? The first one was the night we slept in the dually in the truck stop parking lot outside of Hot Springs and the second time was the truck stop in Scottsbluff. 

We had a GREAT time reliving memories of the many summers we’ve spent here in Jordan! They were, of course, the same stories we’ve told over and over again and yet they were still just as much fun to laugh about all over again! It’s the benefit I’ve mentioned before – meeting some pretty great people. 32 years of good memories and stories that brought tears to our eyes – tears of laughter and tears of sadness. What I found most amazing, though,  is that we were STILL talking about the people we knew who have passed away. Made me wonder if after we’re gone or not coming to Jordan anymore will there be stories that include those damn harvesters from Nebraska?

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