29 Aug Jenna: So long, sweet summer

Manley, Neb. – Another harvest season has come and gone. It’s the time of year that most custom harvesting crews are wrapping up their summer wheat harvest and heading home to cut fall crops or beginning their fall harvest route.

We (Zeorian Harvesting) finished our summer harvest about a week ago, ending our three-month season in Denton, Mont. Mom and Dad, who are all that are left of our “crew” in the northern country, spent several days looking for more work but weren’t able to come up with anything. So they’ve started the clean-up, pack-up, load-up process, and will soon be on their way home to begin the soybean and corn harvest.

Meanwhile, the other half of the 2011 crew, my younger sisters, Taylor and Callie, are already back in Nebraska and back to school – back to “our other life,” as we often describe it.

Anyone who’s been on the harvest run knows what we mean. It’s always a strange feeling to go from living a life that ultimately really only revolves around the wheat and the weather, to a more typical, scheduled, less fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type of life.

But we, like most other custom harvesting families (and most all families involved in agriculture), live by the seasons. And after we make it through the fall harvest, lack-of-harvest, and pre-harvest seasons, the wheat harvest season will roll around and it will be time to hit the road again.

As the 2011 All Aboard Wheat Harvest tour comes to a close, I would like to thank High Plains Journal, DuPont and all of the tour sponsors for again providing and supporting this avenue which allows myself and fellow correspondents the opportunity to share our lifestyle with the world.

And here’s a big shout-out to you, the readers, followers and friends: thank you. Thank you for your support, loyalty and general awesome-ness.

Since I wasn’t actually on the road this summer, I wasn’t able to post as frequently as I had in past years, and I missed it – I missed you! I’ve learned that you all are what make this experience meaningful, and if I could shake the hand of every one of you who have made All Aboard a part of your life throughout the past three years, I would.

Have a blessed year, my friends.

You guys knew I had to keep the tradition alive, right?!

And a few final 2011 harvest photos to enjoy from the Jenna Zeorian archive (all were taken in Kansas):

My dad, Jim. Jimbo.

My younger sisters, Callie and Taylor. (Who did an outstanding job stepping up to the plate this summer.)

“Look at the camera, Ma!”

Who’s the nerd?…

Jenna can be reached at Zeorian@allaboardharvest.com. All Aboard 2011 is sponsored by High Plains Journal and DuPont Crop Protection.