Northwest Kansas: The first moving day of the season is one to behold. Actually, they all are, but the first is a little extra.

There is something about sound of motors firing up and the smell of diesel in the morning. I’m convinced that even after our final season is behind us, whenever that may be, I will be instantly transported back to harvest in my mind when I hear those sounds and smells in a parking lot somewhere!

Moving day can be one of mixed emotions. For some, the excitement is super high. The thought of hitting the open road drives

Kansas–Sometimes I feel like I live on two different worlds. Both are very real, but so very different. My worlds are that of home and on the road.

On the road, my time is governed by the crops, weather, sun and moon. At home, my time follows a more orderly calendar around deadlines, bell schedules, and generally neat and tidy-ish start and stop times.

On the road we will have three meals a day, at some point during the day. At home, breakfast is before school, lunch is during school hours, and supper is after school, between activities.

On the road, my bed

Northwest Kansas–It is 7:18 p.m. on Monday, May 2. The temperature is 40 degrees with a wind chill of 30. NOAA tells me the wind is blowing out of the north at 22 miles per hour with gusts up to 30. Wind has been abundant these last few months. Humidity is at a rare 89%, and we just enjoyed the most beautiful rain. Rain makes our world go round, but has been in very short supply. In fact, our whole lives revolve around the weather because we are custom harvesters.

Hi everyone. It’s great to be back and chatting with you

Northwest Kansas—The summer wheat run is complete. There's always a feeling of relief when the last team member pulls in the yard with the final piece of equipment from the summer run. The crew immediately switched out and converted equipment for the fall season. Corn harvest has been underway for several weeks now.

What a run it was. This year was marked with many twists and turns and unexpected challenges caused by weather. I would rehash all those adventures, but I thought I would do a little something different this year.

I've said before that one of the best things about harvest

Nebraska—This season I've had a theme and pleasure of introducing other crews and industry professionals to the readership. I hope you've enjoyed learning about them. This will be my final crew highlight for the summer run with the exception of my final post of the season which will have a different twist as well.

Meet Briggs Harvesting.

On the day we met, he emerged from his truck with a bounce in his step and twinkle in his eye. I got the sense that I may need to be on my toes with this one and I was right. Justin Briggs, of Briggs

Northern Montana: Recently when Ryan was visiting with the farmer, he received a warning, "When you're at the bins, keep an eye out for the bears. Sometimes they come up and feed on the grain, but they usually run off."

So far this season, we haven't seen any bears, but the crew has in past years, though never at the bins. There have been deer, antelope, coyote, upland birds, and the kids and I think we spotted swift foxes running across the road on our way two and from the field the other night. We were excited to see them as

Northern Montana: Harvest continues in the northern part of the "Golden Triangle." The crew ran hard for a few days then caught a rain delay. They ran hard again and then caught another rain delay. The rains are welcome though. In an area that has suffered from drought this season hope is increasing for favorable winter wheat planting conditions. The rain has also given the crew a chance to make needed repairs.

The wheat is currently making around 45 bushels per acre. Through no fault of the farmer, the yields are lower than what is normally expected. The drought mentioned above,

Glacier National Park, Montana—Harvest is work, but sometimes it puts you within striking distance of places you may not normally be able visit.

This has recently been the case.

Glacier National Park has long been on my bucket list. With harvest being earlier this year, coupled with the kids and I's extended stay in Montana, we were finally able to make the trip and check this wonder off the list. Some of the highlights have been ranger programs, hiking by mountain goats, playing near waterfalls, glaciers, photographing the approximately 1,000,000 (my made up number) cute chipmunks that call the park home, watching

Northern Montana: There is a faint light at the end of the summer run tunnel as crews are heading to or working on their northernmost job of the season. However, they aren’t alone. There are some other important teams that have moved north as well and are in position to support the harvest.

One of those teams is John Deere Harvester Works.

Earlier this summer I had the opportunity to visit with the team behind Van 2. The group is led by Darren Jacobs, senior product support representative, who is on his 21st season supporting the wheat run. He is accompanied by

Montana: We have made it to Montana. This will be our northernmost state for our stops this year. As you may have heard, drought is plaguing the northern United States, and we will not be needed in North Dakota this season as a result. Farmers aren't the only ones affected. Some ranchers are in need of feed and have had to cull their herds. If drought isn't enough, some of our acres in the area were decimated by a terrible hail storm about a month ago. The air here has been hazy due to wildfires across the state. We are