Nancy Eberts – Eberts Harvesting Inc.
This morning I watched the last two guys and the tractor and grain cart leave the yard.
I spent a considerable amount of time remembering all the years I have been doing this or just being in that line of equipment leaving home headed for harvest.
The rush, the excitement/worry, and all the chaos of traveling all those miles to get to our stops.
Technically, we left three times this year. The guys moved some equipment over the first of June and then Myron and two of the combines left on the fourth. So, this morning makes the third time. All of them include last-minute to do’s and watching the clock a lot!
Now, it’s quiet.
I am here at home watching things grow, as if for the first time, missing my harvest friends, the towns, the business’s where I could shop, my husband and all that. But, I am totally pumped to be waiting on two new grandbabies due to arrive in the next couple of weeks. I can easily find a hundred things to keep me busy…but need motivation, lol.
Here’s a video I thought worked but lasted only a few seconds and landed me full of bugs…aka dandelion wishes.
I cannot tell a lie, I do look forward to the next week or so (no laundry and cooking). 😉
However, if all fifty plus pounds of hamburger and all the other items I made to fill the two freezers in the two campers were spread out, it would make things a little more even. ;-]
I have often wondered what it would be like to plant a garden, or flowers, or see the wheat grow from somewhere other than from the window of a truck cab heading south through South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.
I often wondered how the women who stayed back to continue their jobs, or raise kids, or have retired really feel when they see other combines and crews moving/harvesting or even just looking at social media…
- Did they do a happy dance when everyone finally left? I did…albeit short.
- Did they feel torn between relief and anxiety for the harvest? I do.
- Did they look up and put it in God’s hands and simply continue with their day – doing what needed to be done? I am!!!
- Do or did they look forward to when they can meet up with their hubby and crew and be a part of the team again? I most certainly, without a doubt, do!
I see pictures and read stories of kids on harvest and remember our own at that age. I see gardens growing, lilacs blooming (it was a good year for them) and our own growing wheat and I think, “Wow…what rain can do and what a beautiful sight.”
I see all the work needed to be done on the farm and in the house after three goodbye’s and I think, “This is our life. This is us!”
I ponder how I (wait, really it’s WE) did it.
When the kids were not yet in school and then, before a blink of an eye, were in high school.
How quickly it went back to me and Myron and the crew.
When it was single axles and tandems and long lines at the elevator.
When kids gathered at our camper and we had babysitters.
When young crew members got over being homesick and thrived.
When townspeople put on meals for harvest crews.
When tarps were fastened with tarp straps.
When I could run all the equipment.
And on and on and on…
It’s hard to put into words what it takes, how it happens, or why. But, I know now what it means when I say it runs deep in our blood. So many emotions felt but pushed aside because of needing to get the work done. Things always worked themselves out, business is still on a handshake, and our family is still #1 (even when we can’t both be here) and “loving what we do” is still who we are.
It is comforting to know that we’ve made it this far (40 years for Myron). That we have educated/trained and even irritated a lot of young men and women along the way. Without a doubt, or regret, both Myron and I are thankful for getting to raise our kids on the harvest. It truly is a good thing.
It is a blessing to know that I can be here to be present when our next two grandchildren are born. Yet it’s also difficult knowing the strife these farmers and harvesters are coping with during the 2018 harvest run…plagued by drought and heat.
It will improve. There is always two sides to everything and, regardless, we will always keep moving forward and HOPE for the best.
So if there are any of you wonderful, stay-at-home, elderly, or retired HarvestHER’s out there, tell me how you feel, or felt, and what makes you smile when you think of harvesting. I want to hear your story!
