Merry Christmas!!!!

It's been a while I know, but I didn't want the year to end without telling you all MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 

This was our Christmas Card for this year.

Every year I kinda go picture overload when doing our Christmas card. I figure it gives me something to do with all the pictures I take every year. 

Hope all of you have a wonderful time this Christmas Season and GREAT New Year!

JP 

Summer Fun Ends When Corn Harvest Begins

*If you don't like looking at lots of pictures, then you run away now, cause this post is loaded with them! ;)

SO, I really have no idea where the month of July went to, but it sure did fly by...Shoot August is now over halfway done too! It doesn't really feel like we ever really slowed down since Wheat Harvest got over with.

We celebrated the 4th with our little firecrackers....

It's been so long ago now, I can't remember if we were done with wheat harvest or not.

I think we were and that we were still planting beans.

After that was done the guys were back in the hay field finishing up....

Hay seemed to drag out forever this year....and I still didn't get any pics. I got some back in the spring, but I didn't go and look for them.

After we were finally finished with all that it was farm show time...

Which means drive an hour to talk with all your neighbors. 

Fact: Caleb and his dad stood in the same spot for I don't know how long, but three different groups of guys came along and they never moved, just kept talking. Chester and I walked around while this was going on. ;)

Chester's goal was to climb on everything...

We came close to doing that!

This time of the year we don't check our cattle everyday, because they have grass to eat and water in the pond, but every Sunday we try to go for a drive (after we took our Oh soo important naps) and check some of the herds. If we are checking the ones close to the house we take the gator other wise we will take the truck.

 

When you have kids this is about as good as it gets for a family picture.

He love's opening gates....

I hope that continues to be the case when he gets bigger, but I kinda doubt it.

Then there was sweet corn, where Miss Sally got up close and personal with us.

 

I don't remember how many bags I put away that day, but all I can say is my how was a total wreck cause I didn't do anything else and pretty much let Chester do whatever he wanted to do....

But hey I have sweet corn in the freezer now!

Chester also dug his potatoes and too first place with both his red and white potatoes. He was very excited about it!

Then Caleb and I took a very much needed trip with no kiddos. I missed my babies, but it was sure nice to get away! 

We kayaked down a river in SW Missouri. It was our fist time ever using a kayak and we loved it.....I now want my own kayak for Christmas!!! 

On one of our Sunday afternoon drives I made Caleb help me in taking pictures of the kiddos. He wined and complained about it, and then he saw the pics and loved them and was so very glad we took the time to do it. I loved them all so much!  I will try and do another post and share them all cause they were so fun!

Every once in awhile we would get a rain, but it usually wouldn't last long and then the sun would come out and we would get a beautiful rainbow!

Somewhere in the middle of all this I was also taking picture of our friends son, who will be a senior this next year. We took farm pics back durning wheat harvest, and then at the end of July we did some baseball pics....

With fire!!

I won't lie these pics were hard for me, but by the end I kinda had if figured out and Love the way they turned out!

 

About a week or so ago we were able to make a trip to  NE Missouri to hang with my family and help my dad feed his cattle

 

And Chester got to go swimming with Grandma.

Caleb and I drove around and visited some of my favorite places

 We also visited the newest addition to the farm, Porkey.

One the way back home we stopped at the Missouri State Fair (one of my favorite places) where we saw a lot of Porkey's cousins.

Chester asked every pig "Hey pig, what ya doin' " 

Chester made friends with a sweet little girl and her pig.

And we ate ice cream....oh boy was it good!!!

And now with all the traveling and going out of our system, it's time to get back to work and start doing something. So Corn Harvest 2014 here we come!!

These are some pics I took from our neighbors field, but we actually started yesterday. The corn was still a little wet, but give it a day or so and we will be going strong, which is why the kids and I made a run to town yesterday to load up on food supplies so we will be ready to feed the guys when they are running all day long. 

 

There are days while we are in harvest that we are so very tired and ready for it all to be over and done with, but at the same time we love every minute of it. We love planting, we love tending to it and watching it grow....but we really love harvesting it and seeing the fruits of our labor. So we may look a little sleepy over the next few weeks, but we wouldn't trade it for the world.

JP

My Sweet Husband

Well the guys finished with the wheat harvest on Saturday right before it let loose and rained 3 - 5 inches on all our crop ground. So since it was so soggy Caleb hung around this afternoon and worked on my dryer some cause it was making some noises. 

After putting both the kiddos down for their naps. I head out to pick some green beans....

By some I mean a lot....

That bag is full too...
 
I will be busy for the next few days ;) 

Well when I'm about 3/4 the way done with my picking I come in to get a drink. That's when I discover that Chester has never fallen asleep and has since woken Iscel up...

That's when I quickly head back out to finish picking, cause I knew if I stayed in to long Caleb would sneak out and I wouldn't be able to finish picking.  

Well after I finish picking I come into this...

Daddy and Little Miss have passed out in the chair and Chester was asleep in his bed....

It was heaven...

That was until I jumped into the shower and woke him up....but it was nice while it lasted!!!

Now I must get to work on snapping some beans....

Later,
JP

Wheat Harvest 2014

Oh where in the world has Janet been oh where, oh where could she be.....

It's been forever since I've been on here I know, but between....

2 kids, a farmer husband, Church, weddings, laundry, mowing the yard, gardening, keeping the guys fed....keeping my kiddos fed....and 5 million other things I am usually just barely making it. In fact right now I should be either folding laundry or cleaning the kitchen....oh well it will all be there later! ;)

As of right now on the farm we are staying busy with wheat harvest and soybean planting. 

Due to an extremely dry spring our wheat isn't anything special. Most of our fields have been averaging 30-39.5 bushels/acre (Our best field topped out at 39.5....we were hoping for 40 but just couldn't make it there :/ ) 

While the combines are going in combining wheat Caleb is at work trying to get all the double crop soybeans planted while we still have good moisture. Soil moisture is huge around here when planting double crop soybeans. Getting a good strong bean plant up and going makes a huge difference cause when it gets dry.....and it will get dry....it's nice to have a nice strong plant that will handle it a little better.

We've had few issues with the combine this time around, but they are stemming from lots of green weeds due to late rains and a thin wheat stand. 

 

Little man has a blast whenever we are at the field.

 

 

Little Miss is now on the go and getting into everything she can get to or whatever big brother brings her!

Man she's growing way too fast!!!

 

Even with some of the setbacks we have had we are still plugging along here in Southeast Kansas and are over halfway done with this years wheat harvest! 

JP