June 2014 - Brown Acres Custom Harvesting

Week #25 June 18-24, 2014 Moving to Kansas

We put a lot of miles on many vehicles this week! We moved combines and support equipment to Ness City, KS for winter wheat harvest. The yield is low and after only cutting 80 acres it has shut us down with rain just about everyday. It was an adventure, as always on the way down. We were split up for most of the trip due to tires. We made it to Miller, SD on Friday evening only to find out there were no hotel rooms available. Mick and I, our 2 boys and dog, Sadie slept in the crew camper with the guys. We had very minimal bedding and towels. One more thing to add to the list for next time! Saturday morning we ended up replacing all the tires on their camper so we weren’t traveling with the rest of the caravan from that point forward. One of the trucks had a tire blowout later Saturday morning, but luckily repaired very quickly without unloading the combine. Lots of road construction made for many extra miles and a very long trip. We unloaded the combines, setup and some of us headed for home. We were home for less than 24 hours, but Mick was able to spray some of our flax. Tuesday we left for Rochester, MN to see a pediatric specialist for Brett. Everything turned out OK and I’m glad we went. The soonest appointment was September in Fargo, ND (3 hours away). The Mayo clinic is top-notch with excellent customer service! I threw in a few extra pictures this week to show a bit more. Here are some of my captures…

Wednesday

We had a 4-H meeting about horses near Cando, ND. The kids learned about horse care and were able to ride a horse later in the evening. Our boys are still talking about it!

Thursday

The combines were loaded and prepared for leaving Friday morning. The guys were putting a cover for the windshield on in the first picture.

Friday

I’ve wanted a picture of this pheasant in Redfield, SD for many years! This is the first opportunity I had! Usually I’m driving and pulling something and can’t pull over. This is the first time I’ve ever gotten to ride and we even had a red light! We shut down for the night in South Dakota. Over-sized loads can only travel up to a half hour before sunset.

Ness City, KS

Saturday

Unloading in Kansas by the headlights.

Sunday

The boys played in the combine tires as they always do! Max didn’t want his picture so he hid behind and all you can see is his hand. The next one is corn in Nebraska.

Monday

This is our Brown Flax field just east of our yard.

Tuesday

We made it to Rochester late Tuesday evening. What a campus! What a blur of a week! We put on over 3000 miles!

For more information please visit the girls who sponsor Catch the Moment 365

Catch The Moment 365 Week #24 June 11-17, 2014

We spent most of the week preparing equipment to be moved south to Kansas. I caught everyone having a little bit of fun during this crazy week. It’s amazing how everything seems to magically come together and get done right before we head out. Here are my captures for the week.

Ricardo & Sven were up bright and early to play with Ricardo’s new remote toy. His remote car will go up to 40 mph.

Mick and the boys were out blading the yard right before it rained.

Brett has spent a lot of time watching the guys prepare everything to head south. Of course, he thought he should get his combine ready too.

We went to Art Fest in Grand Forks, ND on Saturday. The boys were able to jump on the inflatables for a bit. It has been nice being home a little later this year. We have been able to do things we normally miss out on.

The girls were out checking out the sunset with me on Sunday evening. I seem to have a hard time getting all 3 to photograph good for me. This is probably the best one we’ve ever taken.

Miss innocent, Peaches. I think she ate our baby ducks last week.

We found these little ones in our combine trailer as we were loading up.

For more information please visit the girls who sponsor Catch the Moment 365

Catch The Moment Week #23

Our planting season has come to an end and now it is time to watch for issues and control what we can. We will be preparing to head south to Ness City, Kansas. We’ve had some interesting weather this week which usually means amazing sunsets. Here are my pics for the week…

Wednesday evening we were on our way home from 4-H with severe weather warnings surrounding us. A tornado was spotted west of us along the border, but did not touch down. This photo is looking west towards Calvin, ND. We had rain and ugly clouds, but that was it.

The boys had fun flying a kite until it got stuck in a tree.

Sometimes the sky is more colorful after the sun sets, this was one of those nights.

These 2 Mallards have hung out in our ditch all spring and are most likely the same pair we see every year. This is the same ditch as the previous picture.

Sunday as we were trying to finish seeding we had strong winds with big rain drops interrupt our work briefly. Sven & Ricardo hung out with Max & Sadie under the tractor after lunch until it quit.

We found baby ducks in our ditch! The parents are above. I haven’t seen them since I took this picture. Peaches, our brown dog came home wet later that afternoon. I am hoping she didn’t eat them and they took cover, but we have not spotted them anywhere. Sad smile

Here comes trouble! We set Brett loose on Max’s four wheeler for the first time! Mick turned it all the way down. Brett did a great job and wore a big smile the entire time. The big brother came out in Max who had to stop Brett once in a while to share some pointers.

For more information please visit the girls who sponsor Catch the Moment 365