Kimberly: Will we finish before the snow
The last few years our harvest season ended just before Halloween or just shortly after. That hasn’t been the case this year. We had a few rain delays and had to wait on the corn to dry out but we finally got going on corn the end of October. We still are battling the soft, muddy fields but we didn’t let that hasn’t slowed us down.
They are predicting three to seven inches of snow for our area starting Monday night ( November 24th). So, we have been going hard the past few days to get equipment cleaned up, put away, pick our corn and everything in between before winter weather hits.
We finished our last customer Tuesday and jumped right on to our corn. We might not finish before the snow but we are going to try our best! We have roughly seven to eight hundred acres left and our season will be done. One of our fields that we have finished ran about 200 bushels per acre with a 17-18% moisture.
Logan finished in Westhope and got everything home on Sunday (11-16) and started cleaning up those machines to head to the shed for the winter.
We decided to bag our corn this year, so Bentley and Kyler were in charge of getting the corn in the bagger this weekend. Kyler ran the bagger tractor while Bentley was unloading the grain cart into the bagger. Something new for these boys to learn but they picked up on it pretty quick. We had one field of corn roughly 20 miles away from our shop so we were filling trucks and bringing them back to the shop to then unload them with the conveyor into the grain cart and Bentley would hop over the highway to fill the bag. I spent the day in the truck and Payzlee rode with me for one load and decided she would rather go home and hangout with Kaydyn. It’s getting much easier with older kids that can do things on their own on days like today. Karlie was helping at the auger and then her and Roger got in the other two combines and started to cut the field across from our shop. So, now Bentley was unloading us truckers and then would head through the field to dump the combines, back to the bagger and dump, back to the shop yard and unload another truck. He sure was busy today! Both boys have already asked if they could skip school on Monday so they could keep the corn moving. Unfortunately, that will not be happening but they get a short week so they can deal with school for two and a half days. Even though I’m not ready for them to get older, it’s been really fun to see these two helping out in the field more and more each year.
We still have eight employees here helping us out and some are going to head home for Thanksgiving while a few are going to stay back to help us get everything done. We are so thankful for employees who are willing to finish the season with us even though it can be a long one. They are all amazing and we cannot do this without them!
I have spent a lot of time in a truck this season, something I never thought I wanted to do, but I have enjoyed it! I am actually getting a little sad thinking tomorrow might be my last load to the elevator this year. I am ready for the season to be over but the end of the season is always sad. You start to see your family (employees) head back to their real families and hope you will stay in contact with them. They do become family and I will always treat them like they are my kids.
We had a family work for us last year and this past week they made the long trek from Pennsylvania to North Dakota to spend the week with us. I was so happy to see them as they left last year thinking they would be back to finish the year but our year finished before they could come back. So we never had the proper goodbye. Payzlee and Bethany are the same age so they were really excited to see each other. Bentley and Ethan are close in age and Kaleb got to hang out with Gus! They picked up right where they left off, like they never left. Emma was pregnant while she was on the road with us last summer and had a beautiful baby girl in February named Kimberly! Yes, she named her little girl after me. I am still in shock when I think about it and cry every time I see her picture. Isaac got to help out in the field while he was here and there to felt like they never left.
