The hydro was going out in the newer combine that Jon had bought this spring. He bought the parts and the local Case dealer let him use part of their shop space so Jon, Winston, & Charlie could replace it themselves and save big $$ in labor costs. It was super nice of them. There were a few other repairs on trucks and machines all in short order as well. We finished up in central KS and moved to NW Kansas where we had a few hundred acres to cut in 2 towns about 3 hours apart. It wasn't quite ready so we didn't have to rush. The 1st farmers fields had hail damage and didn't do that well, but he had something at least, averaging around 17 bu/acre. It has been raining in NW Kansas every few days, the ground is saturated, and there is water standing in many areas. When they moved to the next town 3 hours away the wheat was excellent, averaging 55-65 bu/acre. But with all the rain they have had a lot more down time than combine time. There was a pretty severe storm one night that blew rain right in the edges of the door on the camper. Hopefully tomorrow the combining will resume.
I was hoping to make it home for the 4th of July as I missed it last year. The plan was that when Dan came out with the car I could take it and go home. But Dan ended up having to replant some soybeans and didn't make it out as early as he had planned. My Grandma & Grandpa offered to take a road trip to come visit and bring me home for the 4th, aren't they the best?! They are very interested in the wheat harvest and like to visit anyways. We got home on the Wednesday before the 4th. It did feel good to get home for a few days, though it was very hot & humid!
Laura, her boyfriend Felipe, and I re-painted the church sign by Hwy 60. We wanted it to look nice for the 4th of July Celebration that our church hosts every year. I took a before picture but it is on our computer at home unfortunatly. It was looking pretty tough though! It took WAY longer than I expected, re-doing all of those letters by hand. We are glad its done and hope it lasts a good LONG time! The 4th of July Celebration this year was one of the best turnouts we have had, it was great weather that day which helped. It was such a fun, busy day I didn't take any pictures and now I wish I had. The pie stand sold around 1000 pieces of pie - all homemade and donated by church members! I had a great time visiting with so many people.
I was home for a week and a half and really got a lot done. Aside from the busy-ness of prep and take-down for the 4th of July celebration, and our re-painting the sign, I cleaned up my flower beds (I was home to see the lillies bloom this year! Last year they were mostly done when I was home), helped with hay and chores at my parents farm, weeded the big vegetable gardens at my moms house really well (it was getting so you could almost not tell the garden from the lawn, not good!) caught up with some of my bookkeeping clients, picked 7 cake pans of strawberries from the garden (that I made some pies and jam with and froze the rest) which Laura had already picked a lot in the week before I got home, plus I got to spend some time with friends and family which was overdue and wonderful.
Jon's Dad, Dan, & I left home on Sunday after church to meet up with the rest of the crew. Dan was very anxious to get out there as he had missed most of the wheat harvest this year already (except for 1 week with us) due to late planting at home and then some replanting from flooded areas. He really enjoys the combining and traveling so he was happy to finally be heading out to join the crew for the rest of summer. Instead of driving straight to the camper, we went to South Dakota first to meet with the farmers we work for there, see how the wheat looks, and get a feeling of when it will be ready. The winter and spring wheat look great as of now, with the winter wheat just starting to turn yellow on top in the area we have work. So we are thinking about 2 weeks until that will be ready and a few weeks after that for the spring wheat. They will have some great crops if no bad weather destroys it, we hope and pray that doesn't happen.
Some pictures a little north of where we work in western South Dakota. It is beautiful in this valley. They have been having similar weather as us this spring, with a lot more rain than they normally have. They are having bumper hay crops and may get a second cutting this year, that's right, second cutting. They normally only have 1 cutting of hay a year in this area. And we easily get 3 or 4 cuttings of hay back home.
Dan & I narrowly missed 3 good storms on the way out but got stuck in 1 bad storm late Monday night. They were popping up all around us. We drove through pouring rain for over 30 miles and at times were going less than 40 mph because the rain was so heavy we could hardly see. The lightning was constant and so bright it was like strobe lights every few seconds, our eyes were hurting. But the hail and 70 mph winds were just north of us thankfully.
Jon's "New Look"
It makes him look older anyways! While I was at home Jon told me that there was a surprise at the camper but I might not like it when I got back....hmmm....I asked - another tattoo?? no he said. the camper is a mess? yes it is right now but it will be clean when you get here he said and it was which was great.
So when Dan & I rolled in close to midnight on Monday and Jon met us at the door I screamed and said his "surprise" scared me! I wasn't expecting that at all and it took some getting used to. He said he will probably shave it off soon as it was kind of bugging him but we will see. We hadn't seen each other in almost 2 weeks and had really missed each other. Love you Jon!! The guys survived while I was gone (I had no doubt) but apparantly they are very sick of eating burgers, brats, hot dogs, sandwiches, mac 'n' cheese, and ramen noodles. Both of my WONDERFUL Grandmas sent along dozens of cookies and treats with Dan & I for the crew. They are probably already 1/3 gone....
One of the farmers we work for thought Jon & Andy were brothers with their matching looks!
Jim, Jon, Andy, Dan, Winston, & Charlie enjoying the day with temps only in the mid-eighties. The RV park in town was totally full of harvesters so the farmer we are harvesting for let us hook up the camper here at the Threshing Association grounds that he is a member of. He gave the guys a tour through the many buildings of over 200 antique tractors and combines, many of them restored. Their big annual Threshing event is coming up at the end of the month. They do threshing demonstrations with steam and gas engines. I'm not sure if we will get to see it but it would sure be neat. I remember my Grandma & Grandpa Wagner talking fondly of the Threshing days in our area from many years ago and think how much it has changed in just their lifetime.
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