Departure Time

Well, the plan as of right now is that we'll be leaving the Melchert farm at noon tomorrow (Tuesday). Of course we are flexible as plans tend to change on us without notice... Jon has to deal with some title transfers and getting more license plates in the morning before we can leave so that's why we can't get going early. With oversize loads we can't travel when it is dark, or even dusk I think, so we won't make it all the way to our destination tomorrow. We'll have to stop somewhere overnight and finish the journey Wednesday morning. After supper tonight I cut Jon & Ben's hair, and we'll be taking the buzzer along to keep all the guys cool this summer. If it gets too hot I may be tempted to buzz my own hair....I hope it doesn't get that hot. They are loading up the tractor and 2nd combine as I type this, and I need to finish packing and getting the house cleaned up. I am ready to get this show on the road! ...almost :)
I am praying that we have a safe / uneventful trip down, I will feel better when everything and everyone is safely at our 1st field.

1st Load South

We discovered that oversize loads can't be on the roads over Memorial Day weekend, so we were not able to leave when planned, but we still have some loose ends to tie up before we go, so it's ok. The first field we will be combining wasn't going to be ready until around the 1st of June anyway, we had just originally planned to get there a few days early. But today Jon, Marg(his mom), and Dan(his dad) headed out for Oklahoma with a trailer carrying 2 heads for the combine; this is not oversize so it's legal. They will leave it where we will all be headed next week, they should be back tomorrow afternoon. We are taking 2 pickup trucks this summer, but have 3 things that need to be hauled by pickups, so 1 will always be doing some back tracking.

New Adventure!

As most of you know, Jon & I have started a new company, Melchert Harvesting, LLC. We have been doing custom combining in our area for several years, but decided to take it to a new level, and on the road! We contemplated this for a long time, and ultimately decided to go for it. So this summer Jon, myself, Dan(Jon's Dad), Andy(Holly's cousin), along with 6 others will set out to harvest wheat starting in Oklahoma and combine our way to the Dakotas, then back home to MN in September to begin the fall harvest here! We are very excited to be at this point in time right now - almost ready to go! We have been educated on starting a small business literally everyday for months, all self-learning, sometimes painfully so. The amount of behind-the-scenes things to get ready to go has been overwhelming at times, and we are thankful that most of that is behind us. It has been a roller coaster ride getting everything ready the past few months. Not to mention mentally & emotionally. Yet I feel such a peace about this all, not like the anxiety that I had been full of at first, I feel like our prayers are being answered. There are still nerves, like 1st day of school butterflies, but we will do our best and hope to have some FUN on this adventure as well!


We have so many people that want to keep up with how things go this summer that I thought the easiet way to reach lots of people would be to do a blog that they can check whenever. I finally have the blog up and running now so that we can post where we are, how everything is going, and lots of pictures!!! I will try to update it often.

Thank you EVERYONE who has shown us support throughout this whole decision making and now preperation process. Do we know if this was the right decision? or if it will be worth all the effort? or if it will be lucrative? We think and hope it will be! But no, unfortunately we don't know any of that 100% for sure ahead of time. so are we taking a risk? yes, any new business venture is. But going for a dream and doing something you love is worth the risk sometimes. Not to mention excellent motivation (our "investments" that we now owe the bank for are pretty good motivaters too!)
You just don't know how much all those positive words of encouragement have meant to us though, this is fun and exciting but a little scary too, and we appreciate those supportive comments more than you know. Thank you!!