I'm the Farmer's Daughter

Well, now that planting season is in the books...I suppose it's high-time I post about last year's HARVEST!  I'm embarrassed that I've waited this long, but the truth is, it's too emotional for me. 

You heard me. 

Yes, I managed to make harvesting corn emotional.  It really wasn't the harvest that made me emotional.  It was the time I got to spend with my dad and brother.  Let's be honest here...I'm not exactly "farm-help" material.  I didn't know what I was doing, but they let me be out in the fields with them.  I probably cost them more time and fuel money than I was worth, but they let me come back more than once!

Dad knew I wanted to help and called one day saying it would help them out if I could drive the wagon up to the combine so Shawn could stay where he was without driving to the wagon everytime the combine filled up.  Then I would drive the wagon to the semi, unload and meet Shawn before he was full so he wouldn't have as much down time.  Did you get that?

Let's take a moment to emphasize the fact that I don't know a lot of farm terminology.  Corn, combine, semi, tractor, wagon...those I got...Kind of pathetic for a girl who has been around it for 27 years.  So, bear with.  It's not really about the farm anyway. 

My first day out was cold.  I wore some old coveralls and prepared for my lesson in tractor-driving.  It had been awhile, but I had before.  Way back when parents used to make their kids walk beans, I drove an old AC while Dad sat on the (insert correct word here, maybe bean bar?) and sprayed beans.  I also am very good at driving the tractor forward...backward...forward...backward when Dad and Steve and Shawn or Ryan unload square bales of hay into the barn.  Those were good tanning days for me!  =)

Back to harvest.  Dad gave me a quick lesson (probably too quick! He trusted me a little too much!) in driving and which lever to pull or push to make the PTO run and the auger (again-? arm? hmm.  I should have taken notes) so the corn would dump into the wagon.  (I think I owe the boys a new clutch in the tractor because I know I smelled smoke by the time the sun set!)  The plan was that I'd drive up to Shawn when he was starting to get full and he'd transfer the corn from the combine to my wagon, then I'd take the corn and transfer it to the semi, drive back and do this over and over and over.

Not ten-minutes after I'd been set free in the tractor alone...Shawn, out of no where, decided we should try "dumping on the go."  It sounds about as good as I was at it!  For you non-farmer people, it's when the combine driver doesn't stop, he just keeps on picking corn while the poor wagon driver (moi!) tries to keep pace AND appropriate distance from the combine so the corn is continually dumping in to the wagon instead of the combine's bin.  I was so not qualified for that!  But, I did it!  I even got comfortable driving the wagons up to the semi without the horrible fear of ripping the auger off the wagon or tearing the top of the semi trailer to shreds.  Never happened.  I don't think I caused any costly damages...unless you count that time I over-estimated how much corn would fit in that semi-trailer and the beautiful yellow, high-dollar grain started pouring over before I could pull (or push!?) the lever to stop it! Dad claims it was less than a 5 gallon bucket full, but to this little girl it looked like a lot. 

My first field was right across from the, now demolished, farm place I grew up on.  My kids now call it, "The Heifers" because...well, that's where Dad and Shawn winter the heifers, of course.

I'll always remember how Dad would stop and come talk to me, reassure me.  Then he'd start to walk away and look back and say, "you know how proud I am of you?"  or "you know how much I love you?"  We talk like that freely and often, but there was just something about him saying it out there that meant something different.  I knew I wasn't really that much help, but I also knew Dad was glad I was out there.  Just out there.

There were several times I would just look out the window and thank God that I was able to be out in the middle of that lonely field with those two boys. I can't count the number of times I had tears in my eyes...and believe it or not...only one of those times was because I was nervous (or thought I could be in trouble!)  But, there were also times I'd just giggle like a little girl!  Kind of like the first time I rode Steve's mini-dirt bike when we lived at the farm.  Just a nervous, "oh my gosh, am I really doing this?!" kind of giggle and I couldn't stop!

Dad's said before that sometimes he feels closest to God out in the field and I totally 'got-it' those days.  I'd meet them out as soon as it was dry enough to start, then pick kids up from school and hurry back out to the tractor.  The kids had so much fun riding with Unlce Shawn in the combine or with Pa in the semi to the elevator.  It was weird, days felt so short...(feeling like we didn't get much done)...and so long, ....(when will this field be done!) all at the same time. There wasn't anything I'd rather do and next year...I am scheduling my substitute teaching calendar around harvest!

I can't wait to get back out there
this Fall, if they'll have me. 

Better go ahead and pre-schedule that
next clutch repair, Dad...

cuz' the Farmer's Daughter is hooked!

D & Dig with Pa before heading out to the fields.

I came bearing gifts...Balvanz family faves: 
Fire Hot Jolly Ranchers and Wint-O-Green Lifesavers!

Who's taking these pictures, you ask?
Dad had orders from Mom, of course!

That tractor smells so good to me.

Believe it or not, my hands are the perfect size for
fixing whatever it was I was fixing here.  =)
I better watch out how good I get at this farming stuff
or soon I'll be hired as the resident mechanic!

Uncle Shawn is also on the Harvest Entertainment Committee. 
Per his favorite nephew's request, 
any free moment he had he was supposed to be playing football.
He's kind of a popluar guy around here.

Is that not the cutest picture!? Dad next to his Mack.

Oops. Not a very good picture, but Uncle Shawn hard at work.

My view.
See that knob on the steering wheel? 
My Grandpa Balvanz put that on years ago to assist his
turning in the very same tractor.

I didn't need to use it.

But every once and a while I'd grab on to it anyway and say,
"Can you believe they let me drive this thing, Grandpa!?"
I think he would have thought it was pretty neat that I was helping,
but I also know he would have been a nervous nelly the entire time.
Wonder where we get it!? =)

Hey, it's not a beauty contest! Don't judge!

The life of a farmer is not easy.
But when you're called to be a steward of His Land,
life is good because God is Good.