Time flies

Wintry prairie view

Before you know it, it’s Monday and the weekend turned into the week. Throw in a holiday and it feels more like a Wednesday than the first day of the week. Of course, it’s Cyber Monday and sadly I didn’t spend my day shopping. Instead, I attempted to conquer the chaos of post-holiday travel and accumulated bookwork. Yeah, the bookwork didn’t get too far because, well, it’s Monday. And who wants to do bookwork right after a holiday? (Hand not raised.)

Thanksgiving was fun in a whirlwind let’s-clean-everything-and-bake-everything-eat-wash-too-many-dishes and then finally collapse. The fun part was probably due more to an out-of-town cousin joining the festivities and all of us cousins playing a card game, Ligretto. If you don’t have good eye-hand coordination resign yourself to having a negative score (cards leftover in your deck count double, in the negative). Surprisingly, because hey a migraine wanted in on the fun too, I managed to win. No, no applause, really I mean it. A lot of laughter was shared over our mutual inability to pick up cards quickly as the tablecloth invariably came with the card.

Somehow, Thanksgiving speedily came and went; now the calendar is informing me that it’s hubs’ and my second anniversary tomorrow. Wow, does time fly. It feels like it was July just a week ago and harvest a couple days ago. I have to say I’m getting the hang of this thing called travel for my almost-monthly visits back home. Still, long hours of driving get dull so lucky for me I have a co-pilot for most of the road trips to SoDak.

Looking back, it was an interesting year, from the anniversary time clock, that is. I have driven through more auction lots (coincidentally on or right before an anniversary), gone on ‘dates’ to crop scout or check out potential equipment purchases. Side note, some of those equipment review ‘dates’ were booooooring because some old-school Mennonite or Hutterites will not talk to women. You might as well not even be there. Guess my opinion wasn’t needed, right? At least there was good convo and coffee before and after those sketch encounters. Ah well, hubs did well though, he randomly bought flowers (or had flowers waiting when I came home from planting/harvest) and will cook the occasional meal. I taught him well, haha. And we actually made plans for a vacation this year. T minus one month!

He really wanted a goofy photo :)

And speaking of time moving on fast forward, Christmas is the next target up. Who has their shopping done? One of my best friends had her’s done in August, it’s disgusting really, and is half done for next Christmas! I consider myself ahead of the game if I’m making an ideas list in July and saunter through the shopping process. Casual-like because Black Friday shopping is amusing to watch but insanity if you’re wading through it.

May you have survived Black Friday (your wallet too), indulged in the candy cane mochas and start December (this Friday yikes!) with gratitude for (fill in the blank). Me, gratitude for family.

Giving thanks for harvest end

Dressed for comfort in layers for Last Day of Harvest. PC to Dad

Inhale the frost-edged air and exhale an opaque, silvery plume. Delicate, fantastic designs swirl and dance over crisp leaves and up ramrod-straight stalks. Ears of corn rest in their husk jackets safe from the frost. Below the tassels, golden leaves pause in their gentle wave like banners frozen in a moment.

My last day of harvest for 2017 started with such a day. I had to take a couple of minutes to enjoy the novelty and wonder how frost always turns out such ethereal beauty. It gave my combine a different look, especially the windshield. As the frost retreated in the warmth of the sleepy sun it was time to begin the process of starting the combine. It most definitely grumbled to life and took its dear sweet time to warm up and defrost.

This was one of my favorite final days of harvest. Why? Well, it was such a beautiful day and I could cruise to the finish line. Now the cruise was more of a casual saunter with the time to be picky to make sure the cut was excellent. It has to look good from the road, don't ya know.

I saved the final round for Dad so he could officially end harvest. Also, I thought he deserved a little fun time. What better way to end harvest than with the last, easy round on a gorgeous day? As we’re cruising and eating up the final rows, I look over. I see a fat opossum (with a bad hair day) in a waddling jog on the other side of this baby draw, racing us. (I thought he was cheating since he was running between the rows, ha.) The monitor shows a ground speed of 3.5 mph and this dude is keeping up with us. We estimated he kept up the good fight, er, race for about 100 feet before the lack of oxygen on his part sidelined him. Mouth breathers. Everyone knows you’re supposed to inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth for an efficient breathing strategy.

How did harvest yield? Well, like everyone says, better than expected. If you’re looking for specific numbers, well, you should know by now that farmers are coy when it comes to that. Similar to back in the day when ladies would flutter their ornate fans as they danced around a question (or flirtation).

A nice sight, minus the dirty windows of course

Best part? Done before Thanksgiving. It’s kind of unfortunate for me because then I’m at Mom’s mercy for doing the weird little jobs for food prep.(You can only have so many chefs in the kitchen.) I’d rather clean the house and set the table. Then I don’t have to wash the hordes of dishes that mysteriously appear after the feast. And this is after the dishwasher is filled. Yikes. The dog said he would clean only so many plates and then he would have to take a nap. I’m kidding, I don’t let the dog help ‘clean’ the plates. That is for fairy tales.

Well, I’m off to begin the pre-cleaning of the actual cleaning process of the house. If I’m quick-like, I might get to work outside and get the combine prepped for winter storage. Ahh, the life of a motivator. Sometimes I wish I was a tad bit more lazy but then I would be bored.

May your harvest wrap-up be sweet, (American) Thanksgiving a time with family and the pie outstanding. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Time to put my feet up, ish. Still work to do. (repost from Insta & FB)

Badgering corn

Bone-chilling cold wind slapped at my face. It didn’t say hi or playfully nip at my nose. It was rude really. Oh my goodness, that north arctic air was my motivation to stay INSIDE the cab and never leave. 

One of the few visible sunsets this week

In true SD fashion, for weather, the brisk autumn air fled in the night and left the field wide open for the light breeze (30+ mph) from the north. I was overjoyed to open my weather app and read that the outside air felt like 6F but it was actually 23F. Yup, my favorite weather temps for harvest right there. Guess I should’ve packed my parka for work.

It’s been awhile but I’m back in the corn! The rumbling of corn ears passing through the feeder house under my feet is disconcerting, especially when a slug of them run through and play knock-knock along the way. Seeing the shelled corn in the grain tank, a gorgeous dark gold, is so satisfying.

While I was finishing the last round of corn on this field I saw a furry animal running away from me. I thought of hubs and grabbed my phone, swiped for the camera and attempted to get a decent photo. Well, this guy was running away! In this awkward side-to-side lumbering trot. So I did the logical thing and speeded up. I was going 5.5 mph and I didn’t dare look at my screen to see the losses monitors. Still, this animal, which I now realized was an infamous badger, was pulling away from me. I did my best but this is the best photo I got while in a moving combine and a subject that wouldn’t stop and pose. 

Silly badger

 There’s something artistic and beautiful about a well-combined field, be it soybeans, corn or another commodity. I enjoy as each round passes, more corn stalks are chopped and shelled corn blooms in the grain tank and the vista of gleaming, dark gold harvested field expands. 

Clouds shuffled off and an uber bright sun gleamed above. Thankfully, a warmer air had blown in from the south. As the morning wore off I noticed the haze that seemed creep in along the horizon.

Then the moisture on the screen started to creep up. Dad, in the semi, reported that the neighbors were parking and quitting for the day. Well, you can only haul in so much corn at a high moisture (like one truck load) before admitting it’s better to stop for lunch and hope the humidity drops. Apparently the corn was sucking up the air humidity like a child gulps down chocolate milk.

Noon hour goes by and it’s even more hazy outside than when we stopped. So what do you do? Well, I go for coffee. :)

And a big thank you for your service to all veterans for your service. Semper fi.

May your week be the lull before the storm called Thanksgiving, your harvest roll into the finish (if it hasn’t already) and the coffee be plentiful.

Me and the pup

Busy Busy Bee

Pre-snow, thanks hubs

A darkened dawn, birds still asleep, greeted me this Monday morning. Air so crisp exhaled delicate, lacy frost patterns across glass. Remote start saved me the short-walk-but-you-run-because-it’s-cold. Coffee in hand, hubs and I trekked south.

This harvest, especially this last week and weekend, has shown me that life is constantly busy with always something ‘important’ happening. Over the course of four days I had returned to Canuckland, traveled for a wedding, came back to SoDak and then went to Nebraska. The days had been highlighted with mile marker events for friends and family.

If you want to put miles on and properly break in your vehicle you:

1)      Drive 7 hours in one day

2)      Drive another 1.5 hours each way the next day

3)      Take a chill day and only drive an hour round trip

4)      Now ‘rested up’ drive 7 hours in one day

5)      For kicks and giggles (but mostly for family) drive another 3 hours each way the following day

It’s really as simple as that. Don’t forget the snacks and the dog though. And the coffee, that’s important.

Annnnnd now we have snow in MB

The long days of harvest coalesced into one big, long weekend. Every farmer knows the sacrifice of personal time, family time and sleep. Somehow my calendar had filled with busyness and sacrificed personal time, time with hubs and sleep.

In the moment I might momentarily regret making the time for ‘x’ when I could have been doing something busy. But was I productive? Was I going to regret not making time when I looked back on the highlight’s reel of memories? Some say time is money. Some say time is love. I dare to say time is family and friends.

One short hour of work left in the day! Clearly a long day

I try to keep in mind that the work will always be there and it won’t miss you in return. However, family and friends will remember you being there for them. And no one knows the days or years they’ll be blessed to live. It’s the achievements, laughter, jokes, etc. that make a moment memorable. They say love your work but I think it should be said in conjunction with love your family and friends. Be passionate about what you do, be bold in life but share that bold passion with time with family and friends.

May your week be productive, have a good visit with a friend, and hopefully no snow.