No Place I Would Rather Be....

It's harvest time.  Usually I miss out on everything to do with harvest, especially during the last 10 years while I was teaching at Ivy Tech.  I could never work my schedule to have any day time free enough to ride in the combine and what free time I did have was focused on grading.  This is midterm week, if I am counting the weeks correctly, and I would have had at least two sets of major papers to grade before those could be posted.

But not now!  This week I have been wearing the 'Farmer's Wife' hat.  Since Gary's dad died on March 31, he has lost his helper, not that Leo has done too much in the way of helping for a few years, but he could drive the truck and pick up Gary at the machine shed and transport him back to the field for another piece of machinery or another truck to move.

Also the last couple of seasons, Gary's folks have sat in the grain truck, waited for Gary to fill it, then they drove it to Medaryville to the elevator.  They would make a couple of trips before they needed a coffee break, then a nap to rest up, then sometimes they would decide just to wait until the next day to continue their offer of help.

 

Now I don't (and won't) drive a grain truck. For one thing, I don't know how.  For another thing, grain trucks scare me.  Karen had a great idea a few days ago - call Butch Brick!  He used to work for Leo years ago (and I found out this week that he quit when he got married in 1963), and he is retired, so he is free to help out.  Yes!

The thing I CAN do (besides drive Gary back and forth between the field and the machine shed) is ride along in the combine.  When we were young and newly engaged and during our first years of marriage, I would drive out to The Farm after school, change my clothes, and hop in the combine to ride with him until sunset.  Agnes would always have dinner ready for us, then we would go home.  Notice - eating dinner, farm meals, nearly every evening = weight gain for Beth.  Not a good thing.

Several things have changed from 30+ years ago.  One is that it is harder for me to climb up into the combine with bad knees.  Another is the seat is bigger so there is room for me on the edge and I don't have to sit on a bucket like I used to do.   There is much more room in the cab, it is cleaner, and there is AC.

 

I like sitting there, watching the corn rows go by.  It is quiet (as quiet as a combine can be), and it is peaceful (as peaceful as a noisy combine can be).  While I am in the cab, there are no expectations.  I don't have to 'do' anything except watch the hopper so it doesn't overflow and raise the lever (and lower it) to start the grain running through the auger into the truck.   That's all.  I have been told I cannot read my book in the combine.  I do have my phone but only to take pictures, to check the weather forecast and radar (we made it back to the machine shed before the big rain started), and just in case I need to make a call or receive a call from Agnes if she needs something.















 

 But most of all, I like two things the best. One is being with Gary.  He loves farming, always has, always will.  This will probably be his last season, though. He is tired of fighting Mother Nature, of worrying about whether we will have enough money from the crop to keep us afloat for another year, and he wants more time to spend with the kids and doing things with me now that I have more freedom.  The other is just being out in the field.  What can be better than the fresh air, the perfect rows of corn, ears on each stalk, sunshine, clouds in the blue sky, and knowing that the crop is one that we planted and are harvesting and that it will help feed some people in this world of ours.

What can be better than that?  There is no place I would rather be, than right here on the farm.