A Strange Day

Tuesday morning Joel was in bed with me while Brad was getting ready for work.  Joel's favorite word is "No" so it can be fun to ask him questions that you know the answer is "yes" but he insists the answer is "No!"  Brad was asking Joel a bunch of questions and then asked if he wanted to go farm with him.  Joel said "No" with a smile on his face and Vince (who we thought was asleep in his room) spoke up and said "I want to go farm with Daddy."   My only plans for the day were laundry and grocery shopping.  I decided we could probably squeeze in some time farming, especially since the grocery store was in the same general direction.  I figured I could drop off Vince, go shopping with Joel, come back let Joel ride in the tractor and head home for lunch and afternoon naps.

On our drive Brad jokingly said they were short a grain cart operator this morning and the boys and I could jump in and drive one if we wanted.  I knew that wasn't going to happen because Joel can't last more than 15 minutes in a tractor.  I told Brad he could take Joel (and his carseat) in the semi with him and Vince and I would run the tractor.  Vince wasn't thrilled with this idea because he wanted to ride in the combine with Uncle Bob.  He tells me that is his favorite part!  Vince did end up riding in a grain cart with me and also with Grandpa for awhile and then went into the combine.  Vince tells me he took a short rest in the combine, hopefully he was up long enough to enjoy himself.

Picture from earlier this year...I never took any pictures yesterday.

It has been a couple years since I have driven the grain cart and caught a load off the combine.  It makes me nervous for the first few times and then I start to feel a little better about it.  It used to bother me when I would think about how much the combine, tractor and grain cart cost and I would get nervous that I would break expensive equipment.  I have mostly gotten over that!  I never have been worried about anyone getting hurt.  The part that makes me nervous is screwing up royally and having to endure the wrath of my brother in law.  He isn't a mean person, but down time due to a breakdown is not a good thing and even though technically we all own the combine it really is his baby!  Then there is the endless ridicule from my father in law and endless teasing from my husband until either they or I die or someone screws up worse between now and then..  Because no matter what the situation is Stewart men rarely believe (or at least admit) they are in the wrong.  Plus, with my luck if something happened the part we would need to fix it would be in Germany and it would be sunny nice days until the part came and then it would rain for 3 weeks straight and it would be Christmas before harvest was over!  Ok, that is probably a little bit of an exaggeration, but in my mind that is how it would go, so even when I get comfortable after catching a few loads I always am just a little nervous when I am helping.  I tell myself they should be happy just to have the extra help and I am sure they are as long as I don't screw up too much.  Despite my (ir)rational fears I LOVE driving a grain cart!  I think it is fun and I really do like the challenge and wish I could help out more.   I think it is good for the boys to see their mom helping in the field from time to time.  They need to know girls can drive heavy equipment too!

After spending 2.5 hours helping and getting lunch for everyone we ended up not going grocery shopping or to the bank.  Taking 2 kids to the store that should have been napping just seemed like a bad idea, so we headed home for nap time!