Nebraska Harvest 2010

Corn and Soybean harvest this year only took five weeks. I know many people are thinking that sounds like an eternity, however, it was rather quick, considering how long it has taken in years past. I believe we only had a little over a day that we couldn't pick due to rain. Otherwise, it was warm and sunny. Great harvest weather!

We made many trips to the field this year taking suppers out in the "supper van" as Maddie began to call it. Her and Ben both loved taking out supper because that also meant getting rides in the combine with grandpa, and the truck with daddy. Ben even managed to get several rides in the tractor and auger wagon with Uncle Brad. (Thanks Uncle Brad!)

Maddie and Daddy after supper one evening.

This is how Jay Dee spent his time during bean harvest while waiting for the truck to be filled. Thank goodness for technology!

Daddy explaining all the up's and down's of farming to Madalyn.

Our cute little Maddie standing on daddy's truck so she could watch the combine.

This was on the last day of harvest. The guys were close to York, so my sister-in-law picked up lunch for them in York, and they sat on the tailgate to eat. We all managed to get to the field about the same time for one last ride for all the grandkids.

I also happened to only have one daycare child that day, so I brought her along. She is the same age as Maddie and loved seeing all the trucks and combine. Grandpa Royce was nice enough to let Riley have her first combine ride as well. She really liked it. And surprisingly, this is the only photo I have with Ben in it. I don't even have any combine photos this year. Guess I was preoccupied with keeping Maddie in one spot.After harvest...its cleanup time! I don't usually help with this, but I thought this year we would, so I got Ben and Maddie to help me wash the supper van. As you can imagine, that only lasted for about 10 minutes, and then they were cold and tired of it. So I washed the entire thing myself. It was a good harvest, and we're happy its over.

Mrs. Handy

I have always enjoyed working with wood and taking old things and making them into something new. So when we decided to get rid of our large bedroom furniture, and go with something different for when we move, I decided I wanted to attempt DIY-ing (do it yourself). Mainly because I thought it would be fun to see what I could come up with, and it would be a lot cheaper than buying something new.

My first idea was to figure out what we wanted for a headboard. I have watched lots of HGTV over the years and have realized you can make anything look like something else. So I started by looking at Craigslist and I got lucky. Very lucky. Someone close by was selling several old solid oak panel doors out of an old house. All we had to do was go pick out what ones we wanted and we could have them all for $100. We ended up coming home with 6 or 7 panel doors, and a matching pair of french doors. I picked out one I wanted for a headboard, and the rest went into storage...to be used some other day. So this is what the door looked like to start. My great brother-in-law agreed to cut both ends off for me and I was able to use some of his scrap molding to finish off the top of the headboard. After a coat of primer and 3 coats of black paint.......this is what we ended up with! I am so excited to get this all put together and see how it looks. Probably my favorite piece so far.Then I was on a quest for a dresser, and one again I went to Craigslist. I had to travel about 30-45 miles to get this one, but it was worth it. Very clean, only one scratch, and clean lines...just what I was looking for. So once again, a good sanding, primer, black paint, and some new hardware.......makes for an updated modern dresser.

Then for one more dresser. I was looking for a possible chest of drawers, but never found anything I liked. So I went with another dresser, this time with a mirror. I lucked out and found this one in York at Goodwill! It is actually the same brand as the other dresser and also had simple lines, so it matched well. I did the same thing again, sand, prime, paint, and new pulls. I don't have a finished picture as it is already in the new bedroom at the farm. Once we get everything put together and are living there, I will post a finished photo. Total cost of my COMPLETE bedroom upgrade: $200 (that includes a new bed frame because I couldn't find a used one.)

Hauling in pipe

I know I'm really behing on posting, but this is just one that had to be talked about. This year, at the age of 4, Grandpa told/asked Ben if he would like to help haul in pipe before harvest. And of course he jumped at the chance. That meant he got to drive daddy's big 4 wheeler all by himself. I was a little nervous, but since daddy and grandpa were there, it sounded like it went really well. On one of their final days of picking up pipe, Maddie and I headed out to meet them and take a few pictures. Maddie crawled on the 4 wheeler with Ben to "help".

Look at that load! Way to go Ben! I think he's ready for next year.