My favorite time of year

This (and calving season) are my absolute favorite times of the year! When we get to harvest the fruits of our labor is such a great feeling. And even more so when the harvest is plentiful! I love watching the grain fill up the combine hopper. I love watching it pour out of the auger and into the truck with the sun setting in the background and the crisp night starts to wrap it's arms around us. I love the smells of harvest, the air just smells different. (Thank goodness I don't fight with allergies) I love wearing sweaters and sleeping with the windows open. Drinking coffee on my verandah in my slippers and a sweater wrapped around me. Something else I love so much about harvest is that it takes all our family to make it happen. It is a lot of family time, maybe not always happy happy happy if you get my drift but none of this would happen without effort put forth from all of us. Even the kids. They LOVE riding and being a part of what's going on. We try to limit their time in the fields for safety reasons but the fact that my son usually knows more about what's going on out there than I do makes me pretty proud. If his love of farming continues, we will be so proud when he wants to farm the family farm some day. So, not only do I love harvest in the fields, I love harvesting my garden as well. It's not huge but it's producing! Here are some pictures of my favorite time of year so far. We are not yet combining....could be today, tomorrow or the next day. Still trying to dry the barley out that sat in the rain last week.

 Swathing barley. We were also swathing canola the same day but I did not get a picture.

 I have so far picked enough cucs to make eight jars of pickles and lots of fresh eating.

 And I think this is the earliest that I have some almost ripe tomatoes to pick! Yum!

Have a great day!

Ashley

Wordless Wednesday

Ashley

Nursery School & Back at Combining!!

 On Thursday Tanner had his first day of Nursery School! He did great and had a lot of fun. He said he wants to be a Skidsteer Driver when he grows up.

 With threat of frost the other night we went out to pick everything that would be vulnerable....let's just say I totally underestimated how many tomatoes were out there!!!! This is maybe a third... The kidlets were happy to help me!

 Ali's new obsession is wearing a toque 24/7. Except she gets them mixed up with mitts and calls it her mitt all the time. lol. At least it easier than trying to fight with her to get her to keep it on.

 We FINALLY got back to combining yesterday. We have not combined since August 17 and even then it was only two short days worth. One field of oats that we have cut is dry and ready to go so that's what we were working on last night. One field of canola is ready to combine as well. Our winter wheat is still sitting out in the field in the swath...it's pretty much a write off and very poor in grade so we won't worry about it too much till the better crop is off. Of course my hubby (glad it was him and not me) managed to plug the combine. Very badly. So while they were working on unplugging it, the kids had a blast playing in the swaths of straw. Lots of fond childhood memories came back to me of the fun we had playing on the farm as kids. The bale yard was highlight year round.

Ah, the life of a farm kid!

Have a great day and if your harvesting, stay safe and I hope you get lots done!
Ashley

Finally!

...some RED tomatoes in my garden!! I have lots of tomatoes on my plants but I have only picked one measly red tomato all summer long. I even cut all the tops off a few weeks ago, maybe it's finally paying off. These will delicious at our wiener roast at the cabin for supper tonight!

Chow for now! - The rain has FINALLY cleared out of the forecast. Here's hoping it stays away. We don't need anymore.

Ashley

Too late??

I think may be too late but I planted my peppers and tomatoes this morning inside. We'll see how they do.

Ashley

Apple's, cucumbers & sunsets.

The kids and I went to pick veggies out of my grandma's garden tonight. She is away for awhile and knew I didn't have a garden. So I picked her cucs and some tomatoes. I also picked up some cucs from my Aunt, I hope to make them into dills tomorrow. After we were done that we went to my Dad's for a visit. We found that his apples were ready! So I guess I'll be doing something with them this week as well.

Ashley