For photo Friday here are a few photos from a very quick…I’m talking 36 hours here…trip to Washington DC to tell our farm family story!



Such an amazing opportunity with the USFRA and Smithsonian! More on Monday…
For photo Friday here are a few photos from a very quick…I’m talking 36 hours here…trip to Washington DC to tell our farm family story!



Such an amazing opportunity with the USFRA and Smithsonian! More on Monday…
I finally sat down and took a deep breath today. We are in the heart of harvest here and there’s a part of me that thrives on all that we accomplish in a day. And there’s a part of me that’s just exhausted and wishes I could sleep for days. I am harvest excited and I am harvest tired.
Catching a quick lunch in the shade of our seed truck.
There’s a part of me that sees harvest as dragging on forever then there’s a part of me that laughs at that part because we aren’t even close to being done. There’s a part of me that gets so excited with good yields and very frustrated with fields that aren’t producing. Because for us, this is it, this is when it all either happens or doesn’t for our whole year.
A very rough, very awful cabbage field….wondering where the crop is? So were we unfortunately.
Harvest has been long, long days, long nights. Days filled with paperwork that still has to get finished, bills that still need to be paid. Logistics of who goes where and what needs to get done, what fields to irrigate, what fields to harvest…a constant triage of priorities. Then evening comes, the boys in tow, and dinners and family time out in the field. Which moves us straight into nights of infant cries, and the many needs of a toddler at 3am. We are smiling, because that crazy spirit in us, that now 4 generations of harvest, heat, dust and dirt…we just can’t shake it.
And the truth is, I already know I’ll be sitting in the same pickup, watching the same beautiful sunset next year, looking forward to the harvest on the horizon. I am continually excited at the potential, and feeling of a years worth of hard work, just hoping it all pays off. This farming thing, it isn’t easy, it’s tough on levels that you put your heart and soul into. It’s something that maybe only a farmer understands and only a farmer would sign up for. It’s our life though, at times it’s beautiful, at times hard…but either way here we go again for another day!

Grass seed harvest has begun…well then it started raining so it stopped. But it will pick up again once things dry out. Until then here are a few photos from the first few days.

This is tall fescue seed that is being harvested. It has been cut and cured on the ground for about a week. Once harvested the seed is trucked to a cleaner, tested for weeds and germ, then sent all over the world for golf courses, laws, sports fields, etc.

Here are some photos from day 1 of harvest out in the field. We run two combines, one John Deere and one New Holland.


Davor is learning the life of harvest, which means family time is spent out in the fields. The boys and I bring dinner to the crew every night, and sometimes Hoot and I get to drive the “bines” (as he calls them) while the drivers take a break. I use the term “sometimes” very lightly, it’s hard to keep that boy out of those combines!
So while this break because of the weather is frustrating, we will get back out into the fields soon. Until then we will enjoy a little slower pace this weekend, and pray for more sunshine to show up…very soon!!