Finishing up....

We've been in a big push to finish the corn and Grassy and I were both called into service when Bruce moved to the Ehlers farm on Friday. We had to haul wagons about 3 miles home so it was going to take both of us to keep him going.

This is Bruce's dream, Grassy was unloading the wetter corn into the drying bin (above) and I'm unloading the dry corn into another bin. He is the happiest when he is juggling at least three things at once, that used to drive his father crazy.

On Thursday we saw smoke billowing to the south of us and knew it was not good, this combine started on fire and it spread to the field of unharvested corn.....

....that makes our old combine, put out of commission by a fire in the motor, look pretty good. We think the insurance company is leaning toward putting a new motor in rather than total it out.

When we pulled it away from the bean head, bean stalks were stuck, making it look like the emoticon with 'Blah' coming out. It looks lonely out in the middle of the field, waiting for the final verdict. I can tell it doesn't want to end up at the combine graveyard.

"I can be useful again, I promise!"

We three worked all day and into the night, then Bruce and I were up at 4:30 AM on Saturday to finish unloading wagons before heading off to the annual Viking weekend in MN. Dennis and Debbie from WI met us at Bruce's sister, Carol's and hubby, Tom's house. Of course the first thing we did was go out to eat at our favorite sports bar and restaurant. Niece, Katelyn, who is going to school in MN met us, we ate, drank and were very merry.

 Then we all went back to the house where most of us fell into a stupor brought on by too much food. We went to bed early, the BIG GAME was Sunday and Viking Fans were off to the stadium,  convinced that this was the year for a VICTORY!!!

Tom and I, along with his faithful dog, as long as she is on a leash, Tinker, went for a walk, it was a beautiful day.

The fall colors are spectacular and were duly admired.

Back at the house, Tom and I caught up to the game and indeed, they were VICTORIOUS!!! Smiles all around from the returning faithful fans. They sang the Viking song with gusto, then came in the house and fell ravenously on the food that Carol had prepared and I warmed up.

Carol shows off her new Viking tattoo, she gets one every year but this one was much larger.

We hated to eat and leave but the farm called, there was still corn to be combined, arriving home about 9:30 PM after being stuck in a traffic jam on 169. How do people drive in that traffic every day?

Monday morning came too early but this was to be the day we would finish!! YEAH!! I shouldn't even complain, by the time I called Bruce to see where he was, he'd been to Ehlers, combined a load of corn and was back at the farm.

 I took my coffee to go and went to unload  while Bruce finished his chores, the cows were gathered by the gate, waiting for some silage. 

 By that time, Grassy had arrived and we all took tractors and wagons to Ehlers, where Brandon, our crop insurance guy, brought us all a tasty lunch to the field.

What a deal!! But did he think that we will expect that every year now??

Grassy was gone unloading and I was riding in the combine with Bruce, every time he unloaded from the combine into a wagon, he exclaimed over the corn. But it is beautiful, isn't it?

We did finish, filled all the bins with one big wagon left over that Bruce put in our shed, waiting to be hauled to the ethanol plant later. Grassy went home, Bruce took the baler to the corn field and I went home to the gazebo with my book, after all, Zoe had not had her gazebo time while we were in MN and she expects it every day.

And I can't disappoint my Zoe.