Julie Vogts – Spring Valley Farms Inc.
Day 2
Our second day of wheat harvest for 2017 started in a somewhat complex manner. The evening before, one of our family members had been hospitalized so my husband was up the entire night after cutting wheat that day. He knew he needed to be with this person, no regrets, but it made for day two to be a little more on the tired side. There was also the pull between being back at the hospital today or cutting wheat. This is a farm family so they understood the need to harvest the wheat, but it still pulls at your heartstrings. The person was surrounded by other family and we were kept up-to-date on things. My husband was quite ready for his head to hit the pillow by the end of day two, though. Which happened to end about 10:00 p.m. (in regards to cutting wheat) but then he was off to check the flood irrigation. He made his way into the house about 11:00 p.m.
Today we harvested 79.4 acres of wheat and it took about seven hours. We used our semi-grain truck, regular grain truck, and the Case IH6880 combine. Our drivers included my brother and our one of our son-in-laws which was a change from other years. It was nice to have both of them helping. My brother is heading back to Wyoming tomorrow, which makes me sad. It’s been a joy to have him here. I spent the day weighing the trucks as we stored our grain at home. If you follow us on Instagram or Facebook, you probably caught some of the photos I shared! This field didn’t do as well as our first field, in regards to production, but each field is different. A lot of components go into what determines the outcome in June, with weather being a huge one!
For supper I served a new recipe called Tuscan Chicken with Brown Rice, watermelon, and a green salad. It was SO nice to just drop it in the crockpot and sorta forget about it until about 6:00 p.m. I meant to get a photo of the food, but forgot, and when I asked my husband to send me one I had to laugh. He sent back a photo of an empty container, he said it was good. Tomorrow is Balsamic Roast Beef with vegetables.
I do enjoy weighing the trucks but I miss not getting to go to the field. When the trucks are empty, I have to wait until the pit is empty and then shut things down until the next truck arrives. I figure scale tickets or run to the house to catch some a/c or change laundry or watch my kiddo swim, this week will bring a lot of different things!
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1. Be ready to go at the drop of a hat...sometimes without a lunchbox.
2. Has removed the word impossible from her vocabulary!
3. Can hold a baby, take care of a toddler and drive a tractor or combine all at the same time.
4. Must be able to cook for a crew - large or small.
5. Must be able to read minds.
6. Must be able to banter with a parts man until he realizes you DO know what you're talking about.
7. Must be the entertainment director for those rainy days.
8. Be a wife, mom, friend, helper, cook, problem solver, taxi driver or extra crew hand at all times.
9. Can handle the call that makes you react, "You need what? When?" Dropping everything you're doing to make it happen.
10. At the end of the day say, "I really do love this life".