Back Story Blogging Week - Our Summer Harvest Adventures, Part I

Happy Monday, Sweet People!! 

So, so much going on around heeeerz that blogging is about as random and frequent as a a boy's clean room. There's so, so much to tell, yet so little time to tell it all! Not that you actually want to hear all the juicy tidbits concerning a crazy give-away I'm working on, why my Moscow Mule recipe will change your life, or why we are moving (yep, I said it - we're moving!).....

Oh, ya doot-da-do want to hear about it?? Okay, well, please send a super-nanny, a box of chocolates and something to caffeinate my brain and I'll dish it all out, with love, drama, correct spelling and complete sentences, too! Just kidding about the nanny and chocolate....sort of...I mean I wouldn't say no if you offered.  

Do you ever feel like your playing "catch up" with life? Can you feel my pain? You wake up one day and face the fact that you're seriously behind with life, so you vow to catch up on organizing closets, paying bills, cleaning everything, calling friends, shaving your legs, etc., etc. Now, I have to add blogging to that list.  Please, stay with me, while I spend this week catching up.  I promise it won't be terrible.  In fact, I've decided that it's officially Back Story Blogging Week.  Haven't heard of it?? Well, it's new, and it's awesome.

So, here we go.  Backstory numero uno: Our Summer Harvest Adventure.

I can already tell that this one is really gonna knock your socks off.  I mean really, who doesn't want to park it somewhere comfy and read my radical farming tales?? I'm just going to jump right out there and bet that almost everyone I know has read the Queen of bloggers, the Pioneer Woman's daily ranch report at one time or another. Her whimsy accounts of cattle branding and calf nuts are totally entertaining, but I think that's due to the fact that she also blogs about food and jewelry and entertainment and education and.....

And, well, you know I ain't got none o' dat -  no fashion, no food, no frolicks  - and I'm pretty sure that farm equipment is never going to sparkle quite like a well-worn pair of chaps on a well-worn pair of Wranglers (you haven't seen her photos??), but it's what I've got for now, so roll with me.

Late last winter, the farm was all a-buzz with exciting talk of the new tractors that were soon to be delivered to our door.  These weren't just any tractors, mind you, but a rare breed of tractors engineered in Germany by the name of Fendt.

If I haven't told you before just how much my husband LOVES to do research on farm equipment, I have failed to share a very important detail about him.  His love for equipment is comparable to my love for running.  What does he do when he can't sleep? He fires up Google and gazes at tractors 'till his little heart's content (I know, instant snooze-fest for me too!).

{From right to left: tractor, steamer, baler. Or, duck, duck, goose.}

Anyhoo, between the new tractors and balers and steamer (steamer low-down right here), I should have known a HUGE project was on the horizon.

Razor sharp, non-hormonal instincts confirmed.

Typically, during the summer, after wheat harvest is complete, Steve and his dad, Bob, work with area farmers to swathe, bail and stack their wheat straw (it's the stuff that's left over after the combine has cut the wheat). However, because of the severe drought we're in this year, most the wheat crop in our area was extremely thin and of low production.  That meant that we had to take our custom baling business somewhere else.  That somewhere else was central Kansas.

Once we realized we were taking the show on the road, the first order of business was to figure out how to transfer all of our equipment from one location to the other, the "other" being 3 hours east of here. The most logical answer was to drive some of it (if we held you up in traffic, my apologies), and haul the rest on flat-bed trailers using our semi trucks, .  If you've ever seen a traveling circus or carnival caravaning down the road, we might have looked a couple shades crazier than that! But, crazy is fun, right??

{Swather with header - unattached}

I spent the afternoon before the move avoiding laundry and snapping photos of the rigs as the work crew buzzed around the shop yard working hard to make sure everything was ready to head down the road safe and sound.  I have to admit, it was kind of fun being out there amidst all of the excitement!

Even the kiddos toddled around, climbing up and down the massive machines, mixing up tools in the shop, throwing rocks at each other and basically trying to be as unhelpful as possible.  Charlie gave us his usual dose of adorable. He is grandpa's buddy.  One sound of Charlie's sweet voice calling out "Papa" stops Bob in his tracks every time.  He always has time to hold his littlest grandson!

You might be wondering how we were able to get all of the equipment up onto the trailers. Some of the trailers have ramps that fold down allowing equipment to be driven up to the platform, but the swather trailer, which sits very low to the ground, did not, so it required Captain Equipment (my hubby, of course) to maneuver it into place.  Behold - my amazing videography/cheerleading skills:

In just a few hours, everything was loaded up, locked down, and the crew was ready to rock-n-roll.  Of everyone who was involved in this whole project, my son, Ben, would probably win the "Happy Farm Kid" award.  He's a lot like his dad when it comes to equipment love, and nothing would make his summer more memorable than to be able to hop in one of those tractors and work along side of his dad all day.

Can a 12 year old boy show a big techie-tractor who's boss?? I'll tell you more about that in Part 2 of tomorrow's back story blog of our summer harvest adventures!  Ya'll come back, now, ya hear??

   

Over -n- out!