Stuck in a Rut, Making tracks (2011)

 

 Our 2011 farm year started with a record snow fall, nearly 10 ft of snow.

Snow around our bins in early march.

Our roads

Farming begins and not what we expected to find in the fields.
The worst parts were the side hills where springs showed up.

 

 

Natalie even played in the mud like daddy.

 

Heavy rains caused the creek to almost come out of the banks.

 

Many of our fields were flooded in spots.

 

And made spraying really intersting.

These tires are about 6 ft tall.

Some spots were still wet at harvest time.


Yearly tally

12 times stuck with the sprayers
4 times stuck with the air seeder
2 times stuck with the combines



2012 Farm

Here are a few pictures of what 2012 looked like.

We wanted to set up a one man spraying operation, so we set up this trailer to haul the sprayer and hold a lot of chemical and water.



Pre spraying the fields to kill all the weeds before we seed.

Seeding directly into CRP

Seeding into last years stubble.

 

Lots of rain in June. Natalie standing in the winter wheat at heading stage.

With lots rain brought disease.  I had to spray for stripe rust.

Over last winter my guys in the shop built hoppers for us too.  Here is a picturee of putting the bins on the hoppers.

The Finished bin yard.

Cutting an unreal yield of winter wheat.  We dropped some of the straw for baling.

 

The trucks waiting to be filled.
It took
4 Truck drivers,
2 Combine drivers, and
1 Grain cart driver
to keep everything moving.

We took time on Sundays to relax at the lake

Your eyes are not playing tricks on you.....that is dry land corn in Montana.

 

 

 

After a month and half of harvest we went camping as a family.

 

 

Now it is time to haul the grain to the elevators.

Catch-up

To sum up summer and fall 2012 up until now...since I fell way behind.  For the record, we had lots of internet troubles this summer and fall.  They are finally fixed!  Aren't you overjoyed? 

Sadly, now I don't have any excuse to not keep you updated!

Anywho...here we go...

(Be prepared...this is chock full of pictures!)

 

We went to Nebraska for Uncle Biff's high school graduation and my cousin's wedding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went camping in Rapid City, South Dakota.

 

Surprised Papa and Nana with a 30th Anniversary night of suspense!

 

 

Uncle Biff came to visit for a couple weeks and help with harvest.

 We had some fun too!

 

We did a fair share of camping this summer in Fort Peck.

 

 

We enjoyed some amazing sunsets.

 

We spent a bunch of time out on the lake. 

Aleah's first tube ride.  She LOVED it!

 

Natalie's first ride without an adult. 

Loving it with Ava and Noah!

Our captain, most of the time.

 

Our captain enjoying some board time.

 

We did some resting this summer too.

 

 

We ate from our garden.

 

 

 

The girls continued to 'crack' me up.

We learned lots from Daddy.

 

 

We harvested.

 

 

 

We attended the annual GHS Homecoming Parade with the Runner family!

 

We played in the lovely fall leaves.

  

We had to start spending more time indoors due to cooler temperatures.

 

We had some boys from the dorm stay with us for a long weekend. 

Chris, Josh, and Tony