A great community!

The farming community is a close community.  It seems like every year you hear of farmers getting together to harvest a crop of a fellow farmer who is sick, injured or who has passed away.  This summer we had bad news come from two different people we deal with when it comes to our Hagie sprayers.  


Our Hagie salesman's wife was diagnosed and passed away from cancer within a very short time period this summer.  After she was diagnosed with cancer they needed some updates on their home to make things easier for her and to take care of some repairs that needed to be done so they didn’t have to worry about their house during all of this.

One of their neighbors and clients headed up the work weekend and word was put out to friends and farmers in the area as well as a lot of Gary’s clients.  Over the course of the weekend they installed a wheelchair ramp, a new wider door, an addition for a downstairs bathroom, and roofed the house.  Brad said there were over 20 people there the day he was there and that several of the wives provided lunch for everyone.  It is always great to hear of people coming together to help out, but unfortunately there is usually a sad circumstance tied to it.


The other sad news was that one of our mechanics that works on sprayers all over northern Illinois had a larger sprayer tire fall on him and crush him.  He was under it for many hours before help arrived.  The good news is that he survived the bad news is among other injuries that had to amputate part of his arm.  An entire town and many clients across Illinois came together for a benefit held in his honor in September.  It was held in a small town and I am not exaggerating when I say there was no room left to park in the town unless you knew someone that lived there.  Every street had cars parked on both sides of it!  I couldn't believe how many people were there and how many people I knew there!


The farming community is wonderful and we are blessed to be a part of it!

Finishing up with Harvest

We finished up our corn harvest at the beginning of November.  We were all very excited to have it done.  Bean harvest took a little bit longer.  It seemed to rain or snow just enough to make the beans to wet to harvest.  We would have a dry spell and then when they were just about ready to go it would rain or snow again.  When they were finally able to go in beans they would run until they could no longer go.  We are talking working until 2-3am when they knew rain or snow was in the forecast.  One Friday night they called because it was 10pm and they were starving and planning to work for several more hours.  I cooked some frozen pizzas, grabbed some chips and drinks and headed to the field.  Diane was nice enough to come sit with the kids.  They were all so excited to have food that they thought the frozen pizza was delicious.  I think if I brought steak or PBJ sandwiches it would have made the same impression.   They were just starved and thankful for food.  That night they finally had to stop with 90 acres to go.  They weren’t happy about it but they couldn’t work any more either!  It rained the next and and made for some tired and grumpy farmers!

On the day before Thanksgiving they were finally able to get the beans out of the field!  We still have field work to do, tile work to do, equipment cleaning and repair, etc.  but we are done with harvest!

Farming: A spill and driving during rush hour.

One of the things I worried about when I was filling grain trucks this fall is that I would spill.  No one would ever let me forget about it if I made a mess and who really wants to clean up a mess in the field.  I have never had to help in the past when there had been spills, but I have had to hear about it and it didn’t sound fun.

I was filling Brad’s truck this fall, toward the end of harvest and as I moved from filling the front hopper to the back hopper I noticed that the hopper door was open and I quickly shut off the PTO.  There was a nice pile of corn under the truck.  Brad was in the tractor talking to me at the time.   I quickly pointed out that it wasn’t my fault and he should have made sure his hopper doors were shut.  He said I was supposed to double check.  Which may be true, but I didn’t.  He grabbed a shovel and started throwing corn up and over the side of the trailer.  He made it look easy and I decided I better start helping.  I told him I would agree to help if he agreed it wasn’t my fault we were shoveling corn.  He mostly agreed and said it was 95% his fault, which to me rounds up to 100%!

I grabbed a shovel too and started shoveling corn up and over the side of the trailer it kept raining back down on me.  Brad thought it was hilarious!  He said “don’t you know how to shovel corn?”  I told him clearly not!  It turns out there is a proper technique to shoveling corn and you stand parallel with the trailer and basically lift the shovel straight up and over your shoulder and the corn nicely falls into the trailer.  It works so much better than what I was trying!  It is pretty easy too once you get the hang of it.  Brad and I had fun shoveling corn together, as much as that is possible.  It was quite the workout!  I am glad I didn’t wait longer to shut off the PTO.

A big mess!

We were trying to hurry so nobody else noticed what happened, but they finished the field while we were shoveling and they all (Bob, Craig, Efren and Randy) saw our mess.  Bob and Craig walked up with smirks on their faces and I quickly told them it wasn’t my fault!  I thought they would give us a hard time, but they didn’t.  Craig just started helping us scoop up the last little bit while Bob got the combine ready to move to the next field.

Driving to the next field was quite the test on my road driving skills.  I had a general idea of where the field was and how to get there, but I wasn't 100% sure where the field entrance was.  It was 5pm when we were driving and we had to drive on some busy 2 lane roads to get there.  I was following the combine, but Bob drives faster than I do and with all the traffic I ended up far behind him.  At one point as I was sitting at a very busy 4 way stop, where no one thought they should actually let the large tractor turn left, I lost sight of Bob.  Right about then a nice older man let me finally turn left and off I went to find the field.  I have never been so happy to get to a field!  When you see a tractor on the road please remember they are trying to feed you and don't get so upset that they are slowing down your travels.  We don't love driving on the road with you, but we have a job to do!

Cecilia Goes Farming

This fall Cecilia came with farming a couple times.   Both times were because I didn’t have anyone to watch Cecilia until later in the day.   It was fun to have her along; she is a very good passenger!  The one day I was in a hurry and didn’t feel like moving her car seat into the tractor, so I just buckled her in the buddy seat with a seat belt.  She actually sat better than she did when she was in her car seat.  I think Uncle Bob liked seeing her happy face too!  She would wave at him.  

 

Mommy's littlest farmer.

Cecilia talked most of the time and also insisted on bringing her collection of animals, dolls and blankets with.  We had a full tractor!  She also had fun waving to Efren in the other grain cart.  After that day whenever we were talking about farming she would say “Where Efren?”  She loves farming!  Although she calls tractors and combines both combines, so we are going to have to work on that!

She would drive if I would let her.

Kelli's New Job

Sometime in the beginning of fall Brad asked me if I would be willing to run a grain cart.  I agreed because I like helping and I like driving a grain cart.  It helped that he said he would work around my schedule, which meant I would work from 8:30 ish to 5 ish Monday thru Friday.  It was hard to plan because weather played a huge part in when they would be starting up here and what days they would need me.  Sometimes I knew ahead of time and sometimes I got a phone call saying “hey could you work this afternoon?”

The corn head was having problems.

Maisy came to farm one day.

Tally was riding with Craig.

Craig and Bob hard at work.

It is easy to lose things in the corn stubble.

Craig.

 I started out in the older tractor and with a quick refresher course remembered how to do everything and learned to use the new scales.  Then I had to learn how to fill the trucks in years past I never learned.  After a day or so I was doing pretty well with that.  It helped that we were loading in the field and not along the road or in any tricky spots.  As the season went on I had to load trucks in trickier locations and for the most part I did pretty well.  There were a few times where the truck driver had to move over a little for me or get out and give me a little guidance.  There were also a couple times where I gave up and made the truck driver (Brad or Randy) do it for me and one time Efren saved me too.  All in all I think it went pretty well!

Brad and Vincent came to see if we needed help.

The combine.

One of our landlords riding with Bob in the combine.

Vincent brought his book out to read  and we read it in between loads.

An almost full grain cart.

I love working with this guy!

As the season progressed and I got to drive the newer tractor I found out how much nicer the newer tractor was to drive.  If Randy and I were running grain carts he gave me the option to drive the new or old one.  At first I chose the old one because I didn’t know better and I was used to driving it.  If Craig and I were grain cart operators then I got the old tractor and he took the new one.  It is only fair he has seniority.  If Efren and I were grain cart operators for the day then he insisted I take the new one and he would drive the old one.  That is actually how I found out how great the new tractor was!

Tally eating corn.

Vincent driving!

Our yellow semi in another new field for us!

Cecilia had fun farming too.  She liked it better when I didn't make her sit in her car seat.

Another view of the combine.

While we were in fields close to home Brad did a great job at picking up the kids from the house and bringing them out to the field to either ride with me or stay with him in the semi or a little bit of both.  It was fun getting to spend time with them one on one in the tractor.  They even got to drive a little bit, but only when we were in the middle of the field and no one else was close to us.  They all seem to like farming!

Maisy riding with Vincent and me.

Where's your grain cart Bob?  That's right the operator was too busy taking pictures!

One of our many nice landlords!  He even used his cane to help clean off the combine.

I take a lot of pictures in the field. 

I really enjoyed driving the grain cart and getting to work with Brad (and everyone else) on the farm on a daily basis.  It would not have been possible without Diane and Amy being able to watch the kids and take Joel to therapy or without Sarah being willing to pick Vincent up from school.  Farming is a team sport and there are a lot more people helping out to make it all possible than the few people you see in the field!

When it snows in October it can mess up the combine.  Then they have to crawl in the back end and clean it out. 

Mom, can I drive?

A picture when we were on the move.  My auto steer was working then.

Joel came to visit!!!

Sword Fights, Farming, and School

Brad stopped by the house one night to grab something on his way back out to the field.  He asked the kids one by one if anyone wanted to go farm with daddy for a little bit.  Vincent and Joel wanted nothing to do with it they were very concerned about eating dinner before heading to Vincent’s school for an open house.  Cecilia was the only one that said “yes”!  Brad grabbed the spare car seat and Cecilia and headed to the field.  I was a little surprised he was going to take her, but they were in a field close to the house and if it didn’t work out I was available to go get her.  Brad strapped her car seat in the grain cart and she did a great job.   He tells me that she got to get out of her seat and to “drive” a little bit too.  By the time I got there she was sound asleep in her car seat.  Brad took some videos of her driving the tractor.

Cecilia hard at work!

While Cecilia was off learning how to farm her brothers were at home playing pirates.  Joel was Captain Hook and Vincent was Peter Pan and they were using their plastic swords to have a sword fight while I cooked.  They were loud and banging into things in the kitchen and living room.  While to some people this doesn’t sound like fun or even anything that is worth reading about it represents progress for Joel.   I was so excited because Joel asked Vincent to play with him, Vincent agreed, Joel was pretending and playing for an extended period of time with someone.  We were told that he may never pretend!  School and therapy are paying off! 

Joel and Vincent playing.

Sword fights in the kitchen.

After we picked Brad and Cecilia up from the field we headed to Vincent's school for an open house.  He was excited to show us his room but nervous about Joel not listening and getting in trouble.  He even told his teacher that sometimes Joel doesn't follow directions and asked me about leaving Joel at home with a babysitter.  It all turned out fine.  Vincent was excited to show all of us his classroom and school.  Joel did a very good job following directions and so did Cecilia.