Slowing Down a Bit

The big news at the end of last week's post was the impending arrival of Her Majesty and The Girls.  When she arrived Saturday and walked into the camper, sniffed, looked around and said, "Not as bad as I thought it would be". She still spent an hour or so cleaning it more, but I will take that as a win! 

The next few days went way too quickly. I still helped out around the farm, but not nearly as much, so I could spend some time with Barb. The first night we went out to supper with Bob and DeAnne as it was to be the only day Bob was going to be on the farm while Barb was here. The next day he was flying to D.C. for part of his legislative duties with National Farmers Union to lobby congress to pass the farm bill that expired in 2023. 

We also made it to Minot twice, once by ourselves when we went to N.D. Asia for some sushi and Chinese food. The epicenter of sushi in North America. I mean when one thinks sushi, isn't North Dakota the first place that comes to mind? Not the best we had, but not bad. 

Then we went out to lunch with Chris, Holly and Tessa to Wings and Rings. That was very good! Speaking of Tessa, Barb spent a lot of time down at Holly's holding Tessa and talking to Holly. 

Chris and Holly also had some professional pictures taken of Ms. Tessa this week.....

I even built up the courage to hold her, which is a big moment for me. Little babies scare the bejeezus out of me. I just sat on the couch and had Holly lay her in my arms. Then I did not move. She basically just slept and after a few minutes my arm started to cramp. Apparently, I did not relax. After 20 minutes I got a phone call from Chris asking me to come out to the field, so I was released of my duties and away I went. 

Barb went out to the field with me a couple time to help me a few times. I even got her to change a few sections on the combine!

Before I knew it, it was time for her and the girls to head home. But it was great seeing them if only for a few days. 

I also got a chance to harrow this week, which is the process of fluffing up the residue in the field which gets rid of it in the wind. 

We also combined the chickpeas this week. So, everything is in except for the soybeans which need a week or two to finish before being harvested. Barb was still here when we were doing the chickpeas, so I sent a bag full of them home with her to try and do something with them.

Chris was telling me something interesting about chickpeas. Did you know that of all the 400,000,000 or so acres of cropland in the U.S., only 54,000 of them were planted in chickpeas? There is just not a huge demand for them in the U.S. and the tariffs for exporting them make it cost prohibitive. 

Once those were done, we got a break of sorts. No more 14-16 hours days, we have a lull for about 2 weeks waiting for the soybeans. So, what did we do? Played poker of course! Almost 8 hours of poker, before we knew it, it was 3:30am and Ty had all the chips on this side of the table. 

We have also been cleaning and organizing the shop, no small undertaking. Barb sent me a couple of pictures from home. She is being Barb. Remember that table she was working on from that slab wood she bought? Well, she finished it! It now sits proudly in the gazebo with some stools she purchased. 

She also went to Octoberfest in Hill City with Dan and Bonnie this past weekend. She just loves sending me pictures showing how much fun she is having without me!

She did take the time to check my trail cameras, however. No big bucks yet, but we do have some thirsty deer and fox!

So here I sit, toiling away, while Barb is out carousing the Black Hills of South Dakota. What is wrong with this picture? I've already started next week's post which will detail some of the challenges we have had to overcome during this fall's harvest. Some unavoidable, some self-inflicted. With luck, by the time the next post comes out, the beans will be off the field and it will be time to start duck hunting!