Kylee DeBock / DeBock Harvesting
Winter has come and gone and Spring is in the air here in North Dakota.
I even planted some flowers in the flower beds at our rent house. It sure did spruce the place up ;giving it a more “homey” feel.
With spring, comes one of my favorite events, the HarvestHER Retreat.
I look forward to this time with friends all year! Usually, I would load my car up with 3-4 other ladies and we would drive to Omaha, Nebraska. Since I am in North Dakota now, I ended up flying to Nebraska this time and then rode home with some North Dakota friends.
As always, upon arrival we were welcomed with smiling faces and wonderful rooms filled with great gifts from our AMAZING sponsors. The first night we don’t do much but sit around and visit as everyone arrives at different times.
The next day, however, we hit the floor running at 7:00am with a devotional, breakfast and then headed to CLAAS!
We had a speaker first, then we got to tour the factory as well as drive three different CLAAS tractors. They always spoil us with a great lunch, too. We have gone to CLAAS several times now during the retreat but they have always come up with different activities to keep us coming back each year.
We then traveled to Baker’s Candies. If you have never heard of them or have never tried their chocolate, you need to click the link and get your first shipment of candy. You will NOT regret it….well maybe, because you can’t stop eating it!
Once we returned to “camp”, we ended the evening with dinner and watercolor painting. There are lots of very talented ladies in our group that made some fantastic pictures. My Granny Jo and mom were great painters, but I did not get that gene!
Our next day was a fun-filled day in Nebraska City, which is about 45 mins from our “camp”. We enjoyed the drive, none the less, because it gives us more time to visit with our friends.
Our first stop was the Arbor Mansion, which was homesteaded by the parents of the founder of Morton Salt, Joy Morton. After his parents passed, Joy built onto his childhood home and made it the masterpiece it is today. It is called the Arbor Mansion because after Joy Morton became secretary of the Nebraska territory, he proposed a “tree planting holiday” which is known to us today as Arbor Day, celebrated annually on the last Friday in April.
This was such a spectacular place to tour that it took the whole morning so once we left, we headed to lunch and then shopping at a few of the downtown stores. Everyone went different directions so we all met back up mid-afternoon at the Roc Hopper Brewery for snacks and beverages before returning to “camp”.
Our evening was spent getting pampered with facials, feet and hands dipped in wax, massages (Tracy brings in two massage therapists to do 20 mins sessions) playing cards, games, and lots and lots of laughter! This is always one of my favorite parts of the whole weekend!
Sunday morning is usually when everyone packs up and heads home to reality, but this year there was an extra day. There was a speaker after breakfast but then the rest of the day was spent doing whatever we wanted. Some went to resale shops, while others went to the mall and some just stayed back at the “camp” and relaxed. It was a wonderful time spent bonding with old friends and making new ones too! I always feel so recharged after going and it helps get me focused on all the harvest tasks that will soon be taking up all my time!
The ground is drying up quickly and planting will begin soon. It is crazy to think that when we get finished planting here in North Dakota, harvest in Oklahoma is just a few short weeks away. Hard to believe that it is here again already.
When the boys were in school in Oklahoma they got out between the 12-15 of May. However, with us moving to North Dakota and them being in school here full-time, they will not get out until May 24th. That does not give us a whole lot of time to get all of our equipment down south to start harvest the first week of June. We did go back to Oklahoma over the boys’ spring break, which was the last week of March, so it fell on the Easter Holiday.
Our main reason for going to Oklahoma was to finish packing up the rest of our belongings since we have a contract on our home and papers had to be signed on March 29th. We decided to go ahead and take one combine down and dropped it off at our first job in Alva. One thing off the check list….only 4,873 more to go!
Since we were in Oklahoma, my parents, sister and nieces as well as Dillon’s youngest brother and his family came to see us. It was so wonderful being “home” and seeing everyone.
Our hotel was perfect, it had a swimming pool, foosball, corn hole, putt putt, ping pong, pool table, and shuffle board. There were several living room settings so we would just hang out in there and watch the kids play games and swim.
We enjoyed going to the sunrise service on Easter morning at our old church and then a delicious pancake breakfast. After service, my family all left to head back home and we headed over to Kitty and Levi’s for an egg hunt with my two nephews. It was fun to watch them open their Easter baskets and the excitement they had when running after the eggs. Hard to believe that stage with my boys is over and it went by in a blink of an eye!
For all those gearing up for harvest, I pray for safety for your crew and family.
God Bless,
Kylee
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".