10 Jul Same trailer, different park

Limon, Colorado—Where to begin, where to begin. Callie and I are FINALLY back on the harvest run. And when I say “run,” I mean it. These last two days have been nothing but driving, and I’m glad my butt can finally sit in a recliner instead of the driver’s seat! From Nebraska to Kansas everyone in the Z Crew had a great Independence Day. Mom would argue that hers was really lonely and she missed us, but I know Dad doesn’t miss buying the fireworks for our entertainment! I hope your Fourth was just as good.

Callie and I packed up and headed back down south on Wednesday. The drive went incredibly fast even though Dad kept calling and texting to find out where we were because it “felt like we were taking too long.” We had about 10 miles left to drive back to the camper when my phone rang one last time. It was Dad. “Where are you guys? Oh, you’re almost home. Good. As soon as you get back you need to put on your work clothes and jump in the truck. We’re going to load the combine.” Yes, I complained. I tried to explain that all I really wanted to do was take a nap. It didn’t work! We made it back to the camper, changed clothes and were back on the road headed for the farm. When all four of us work together, the job gets done pretty fast. We got all of the equipment hooked up and ready to go. Dad and I even loaded the combine on the trailer in record time: 5 minutes and two seconds. I time us every time to see if we improve. We usually do!

Thursday morning rolled around. I had my alarm set for 7 a.m. Per the Taylor Style, I hit the snooze button a couple times and waited for Dad to walk back to the bunks and yell at me, but he never did so I kept sleeping. When I finally rolled out of bed it was to find a gloomy, foggy, drizzly day. Because we weren’t really in any true rush to get to Limon, Dad decided to wait to hit the road until the fog cleared up and the rain stopped. Well, we waited until 12 p.m. and Dad said it was time to go. The fog had cleared up but the rain never did.

We pulled into Limon at 5 p.m. Mountain time. The trailer’s set up and we’ll unload the combine tomorrow. I assume we’ll run out to a couple fields tomorrow and see if anything is looking close. I’ve had people tell me we could cut in two days around Limon and I’ve had people tell me the wheat is still grass green. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see for ourselves!

My pup, Stetson, was very happy to have me home! I missed him!

Colten doesn’t look so happy to have me home…but don’t let that face fool you. He was thrilled.

Callie and I enjoyed the parade in our small town.


We sat in the shade of the Corn Grower’s State Bank with pulled pork sandwiches and watermelon for lunch with our buddies!

To celebrate the town’s 125th anniversary an artist painted a mural on the town museum. It’s really cool!

Colten took me on my very first airboat ride while I was home. Louisville is right on the Platte river so I’ve often seen the boats near the bridge outside of town. 


The water was a little high thanks to all of the rain we’ve had and it started raining about 10 minutes into the ride, but I still had a great time.

Here’s our route for the last 48 hours. It doesn’t look like a bad drive, but when you don’t have much to look at other than corn fields and wheat it starts to drag a little. Ha!

And just like that we fell back into the routine of harvest work. But honestly I’d missed it the last few weeks. A lot.

It was time for an update on the decals!

Getting ready to pack up our home and move! Goodbye, Kansas!

We had to stop for lunch in Sharon Springs! It’s a tradition. We always have to sit at the same booth in the small cafe.

Finally set up in Limon. 

As I’m sitting here finishing up this post I can hear thunder in the distance. I check the radar and yep—there’s a storm moving over our fields right now. We probably won’t be cutting any time soon!

All Aboard Wheat Harvest™ is sponsored by High Plains Journal and New Holland Agriculture. The Z Crew can be reached at zcrew@allaboardharvest.com.