We started to pack up and leave Moline, IL and two guys stayed behind here. We had to say goodbye (Hopefully not for good! We better see them again sometime!) and then soon realized we won’t be home until Tuesday and we have three more leaving by Monday! 😭 We had to say all of our goodbyes to the five people we won’t be seeing when we get back to Colby. It’s a very odd feeling…losing part of your crew whom you’ve hung out with and been around all seven months of harvest.

Words really can’t express how thankful we are for all of our crew’s help this season. We had our rough patches, that’s for sure, but I think the good times totally outweighed those times this year. We could not have and cannot do what we do without their help! Whether it’s the cooks making us an awesome supper and lunch and bringing it to the field, or one of the guys helping me with my hood, or changing a sickle on a header! Everything these awesome people have done has helped us reach the end of harvest for 2016!

Machine shed!! The best place to eat in Iowa! And I think almost everyone in the state agrees!

These guys and gals have been troopers for taking all the group pictures I’ve forced them into! 😁😋 Almost every time they turned their backs, I was herding them to take another picture of all of us and they did awesome putting up with my crazy requests! (They will thank me later for making them do this!)

We have to take a picture by the Deere outside of Harvester Works, of course!

We got 7 in the shovel!! I was hoping for more but that’s still pretty good!

We did our Harvester Works tour today and a tour of John Deere World Headquarters. It was pretty neat because we were their first tour for the 2017 model combines.

Our guides let us all sneak a picture in the factory where gold key members start a combine on the line.

My favorite part is the painting section of the tour. They have (I think but I’m not 100% sure) six 55,000 gallon steel tubs of different solutions they dip the machines into to get ready for paint. 💥 FUN FACT: It takes 20 gallons of paint to paint a combine!💥 They also have over 200 acres for the factory and just over 70 of it is under a roof.

The World Headquarters is my most favorite out of all of the tours. I love, love, LOVE that building. Not only do they give us an awesome meal every time we go for a gold key tour, but the history of the building and people who ran it are so interesting. The building is tucked away in the hills and the building is made of 120,000 tons of steel! 😳

We had some hungry guys that couldn’t wait to dive in! And I don’t blame them, I was right behind em’!

They have an atrium full of exotic plants which we got to eat in today. Another fun fact is that instead of normal offices where you work your way up the building, the higher up people in the company like the CEO, etc work their way down. They do this because the thought is they are closer and more linked to the land that way. SO COOL!!!

In the atrium with all of the plants and where we got to enjoy an awesome lunch. 😊

I hope everyone is having as much fun as we are, and that everyone is winding down safely.