Picking Corn

Does doing something twice make it a tradition? If so, then we've got ourselves a nice little tradition! This past weekend, we made our traditional trip to Nebraska to visit our friends Brad, Kara and Braden. Last year we went earlier in the fall, but this year we planned it to be during corn harvest!

There was just one snag in our master plan...fevers. Both Noah and Levi developed fevers as we drove to Henderson on Friday afternoon. Thankfully, Kara and Brad were still willing to host us.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early waiting for Brad to let us know when they were going to start picking. In the mean time, the boys played on the kitchen floor.

Braden's just a few months younger then Levi and we exposed him to lots of toy tractors. See, last year he wasn't crawling yet when we visited, but Levi was and poor Braden would get attacked by Levi and he didn't seem to appreciate it. This year, there were many fewer attacks, but the boys did show him how to fight over a tractor and we worked on boosting his immune system, too.

The funniest thing is that he pretty much carried around the toy combine all day on Saturday, he just loved it!

Their dog, Ellie, would often appear at the living room windows, wanting to know what we were up to. Noah and Levi thought this was terribly exciting, they would always announce when they spotted her!

Finally, Brad called and like busy bees we got ourselves bundled up and out to the field.

While we waited for the combine, tractor and grain cart to get to our end of the field Ben checked out the corn. It was impressive corn.

Levi, with his medicated fever, wasn't too sure about the chilly wind and tall corn.

Ben and Noah waited in the car to stay warm. Do you see the corn dust on the car? I knew nothing about corn dust until this weekend. It looked like red snow...kind of.

I believe this is a flail chopper, or so I've learned from watching John Deere DVD's with the boys. Brad calls it a shredder. John Deere's website calls it a Flail Shredder, which means we're both right! It chops down the corn stalks that the combine leaves behind.

Brad's dad Royce in the combine while Brad operates the tractor.

This is serious harvesting, a well-oiled-family-farm operation. Brad, his dad Royce, his brother JD and his cousin Kevin work the fields. The women in the family do their share of work too by bringing hot meals to the field at lunch and dinner every day. This farm girl was fascinated.

It takes them about 6 weeks to complete fall harvest.

Ben, Levi and Brad driving over to the trucks to unload the grain cart.

I realized when I got home and looked through my pictures that I didn't have a picture of Kara, at all! What a shame! But, I did have this photo with Brad in it, so I'm posting it. Brad hates having his picture taken, so I know he'll appreciate this candid shot. Right Brad?

This photo is blurry (I'm still figuring out how to take a good picture when there isn't adequate lighting) but this is my best photo of little Braden. He's talking quite a bit these days and his words were so crisp and a little sing-songy, very cute!

Kara and Brad - thanks so much for hosting us and our fevers in your house! We had a wonderful time. All the best as you continue through harvest season!