it's harvest time

The last couple weeks have been completely crazy.

Luckily we have slowed down quite a bit for the time being, but life got a bit busy.

Once I got out of school we had a few more parties (more on that later), one last hurrah and then farming started.

I didn't get to help much (read: not at all minus one all-nighter baling sesh) during first crop and I kind of felt bad about it. One night early in June I was climbing into bed not wanting to go to school the next day and I looked out the window and saw all the balers heading out. I felt so bad, like I was missing out! I eventually got over that, but I did have to fill in for Tylee one night. It was the all nighter mentioned above and I started thinking maybe I didn't miss out on so much after all. (Brevan actually came with me that night and stayed awake the entire time. I couldn't believe it. He was so excited to see the sun come up and then completely drooled-all-over-his-coat-he-was-using-as-a-pillow zonked. Laughing at him was the only way I was able to stay awake.)

But then second crop came around and I was definitely involved-more than I was hoping for. Kolton and I didn't see much of each other during those couple weeks. About the only time we saw each other was in between naps and when we'd fall into bed the next morning. We would start baling around midnight-ish and usually went til about 5-ish (we had a few all-nighters this time around too). Then I'd come home, crash for a couple hours (sometimes Kolton would be home, sometimes not) and head back out to do it all again. I was getting quite sick of it and was definitely needing a break, (but mostly needing at least eight hours of uninterrupted sleep) when grain harvest started.

Kolton sat in a combine all day every day (they fell a little behind and would sometimes go til two or three in the morning) and I baled straw and disced and did whatever other odd jobs I needed to all day long. We were so lucky to have our families taking care of us. Our moms each brought us out a lunch and cooked us dinner every night too. We had zero food in our house. Not even milk or eggs, so I couldn't have really cooked anything even if I'd had a spare minute. When I was finally able to get away and get to town my grocery cart was full to the brim. Actually, above the brim. I seriously considered grabbing two carts before I realized that one of me probably couldn't push two carts at the same time. As I was walking out of the store, one arm was loaded down with bags that wouldn't fit on top of the pile in the cart and the other arm was holding down the few items I had managed to haphazardly stack. I'm sure I was quite the sight to see hobbling across the parking lot, but I was just so glad to finally have some groceries!

August was quite the month for us, but we had the best harvest I can ever remember. No rained on hay and beautiful weather for combining. The day after we finished baling straw it poured rain. We were definitely blessed this year.

We still have third crop to go, so we're crossing our fingers and hoping for the best. Most of all we're just glad the craziness of August is behind us.