Jordan, Montana - The kids have been gone a week already. It seems much longer than that. It feels like a dream.

If you recall, we got started on winter wheat acres last Saturday afternoon. We finished them on Tuesday afternoon (7/31). I didn't even have time to think about it being the LAST acres of winter wheat for 2018. We changed settings on The Beast to cut lentils and kept right on rolling. It wasn't until we headed into town that evening that I realized the chase had ended. And then I felt a bit melancholy. Why? I honestly don't

Jordan, Montana - I tried it. I really did! And I thought it was going to work, until I turned the corner and the wind blew from a different direction.

I honestly believe that's the way it is up here. It was bad in Eastern Colorado but up here in the remote regions of East Central Montana, the cell service is virtually non-existent. Not only does it make it difficult to keep good on a promise (to keep the Combine Cam rolling), it's also pretty crummy to keep in contact with family.

It wasn't that long ago that we didn't have cell

Jordan, Montana - 2,100 mile trip...we made it!

I sorta pushed Jim to get as far as the Black Hills the first day. I was hoping we could spend an afternoon with Jamie's family. Ben's birthday was Tuesday (7/24) and I knew they would be spending the day touring and sightseeing. And then, they would be heading to Jordan to spend several days with us before having to head back home.

Well, it didn't happen. We didn't make it to the Black Hills in time. I mean, we did...sorta.

We got back to Limon about 5:00 PM on Monday (7/23). Our intentions were

Limon, Colorado - It was exactly a week. We walked away from the too-green-wheat field on July 11 and finally got moving again on July 18.

It sure didn't happen very quickly. After the showers we received on Monday and Tuesday, we opted to wait until the afternoon of the 18th to even attempt to get rolling again. What did we find? Well, good news and bad news. I was going to work on the north side of the field, Kyle on the south. He was able to roll right through the field he was on. Mine...just not good enough. I

Limon, Colorado - A week ago, I was feeling overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that was piling up on me, laundry, bills, dishes, dirty trailer house, etc. Amazing what a difference a few days can bring.

Cutting among the wind turbines. There are so many of these scattered all over the countryside. Personally, I think they visually pollute the horizon.



Moving to another field.



Jim...rolling the tarp and getting ready to head to the elevator.



The "golden" hour.



The straw of a recently cut field is just as beautiful to me as a field of wheat.



Man, we were going

Limon, Colorado - The custom harvester continues to struggle with the 2018 harvest season.

What began in May with severe drought in the southern states and the late season freezes, continues now with the nasty four-letter word…hail. If you haven’t experienced it yourself, the images on social media will provide you with a pretty good idea of what we’re up against.

I honestly believe when a farmer plants and cares for a crop, he doesn’t do it with the hope of harvest being eliminated by the Great White Combine. If that’s the case, why even farm?

Photo credit to Amanda Buus Thomsen of

Limon, Colorado - Goodness, it's such a catch 22. I either have enough time to do the things I need to do (which means we're doing nothing in the field) OR I'm scrambling to figure out how to make it all work.

I'm behind on catching the world up to what we're up to. I'm behind on paying bills. I'm behind on getting laundry done. Where do I start? But it's like this because we're working...and that's a GOOD thing. A very good thing.

Nice wind-blown hairdo there TZ! Shana and I have "known" each other for some time. But we've

Garden City, Kansas - Music has a way of taking a person back to a time and a place that meant something. The song, "The Boys Are Back In Town", was popular the summer of 1976. A time when I was a whole lot younger and never dreamed that one day I would be as old as I am now. Tunes and lyrics tend to make me a little sentimental these days! This one always meant a lot to me because it reminded me of the little towns we once pulled into during the harvest journey. I remember the days when the

Garden City, Kansas - The word that has been out of most farmer's vocabulary for a very long time, recently returned. RAIN...

It never seems to fail. As soon as the combines are unloaded and ready to go to work, it rains. I know I've said this before but I'm going to say it again. I honestly believe we custom harvesters need to travel the country with our loaded combine, unload it and wait. It won't take very long. It typically happens shortly after our arrival to a new destination. I would hate to say, "I guarantee" because there are no

Chase, Kansas - It's amazing how fast you lose all track of time and days of the week while on harvest! I often question myself what day of the week it is. So, when someone asks a question that involves a day, I'm like, "Ummmm...let me think. What day is today? I think it was on Monday. No, maybe it was Tuesday. Wait...Oh, dang! I have no idea what day it was." And I've only been on harvest time since Sunday.

We arrived with our final load on Saturday evening about 8:30 p.m. We parked the combine and immediately headed to