Pictures of the harvest

We're done cutting grain for 2010!

I was lax in getting pictures of harvest this year, so when they got down to the last 60 acres or so, I grabbed the kids and ran to the field with the camera.

I thought I'd better see the Willow Creek winter wheat through to the end, so devoted readers like the Kaufmans and Millers could see how it all came out.

The child DOES have appropriate clothes. 

But really, is there anywhere a beach coverup DOESN'T work?

He hauled that water bottle everywhere.  The actual liquid in it, I think, was rather chunky and tinted by the end of the day....

These sorts of clouds always make farmers uneasy during harvest time....

Here's the field that they were cutting on.

I think it's so interesting to see the standing grain next to the stubble next to the straw next to the fallow.

Here comes Vern in the combine....

....and the Farmer in the tractor with the wagon.

Ready to dump some grain on the cart.

Isn't that wheat pretty?

Okay, Mr. Kaufman....it only made about 35 bushel to the acre. Not our finest crop ever, but at least we got it cut. All the hail missed us this year, and for that we were grateful.

(See the letters on the wagon? I think it's funny that those are the initials of our first names! And the portable panels we use are made by Vern's Manufacturing. They swear it's not intentional, but it's still chucklish...)

I don't know if you can see this very well, but Vern is looking to see if any grandkids want to take a ride in the combine.

Don't have to ask her twice!

The little man will take a ride, too.

But people with short legs sometimes need help through the stubble.

Waiting for the combine to return, I couldn't take my eyes off the clouds.

Living in the Big Sky state is such richness.

Here they come! You can see the little orange dress, pressed against the glass.

And the little man, supervising the grain dump.

Now they get to bale up all the straw. 

Starting that today, and they may be running two balers. 

Almost done!

My cousin, Beth, took a chance on an amateur photographer to take pictures of her girls this last Sunday. (The price was right...)

Here are some of the better images; Montana kids in their native environment!

(Beth likes pictures of people walking away, so that's why so many of the back of heads...)

*I should have been more clear, here...I was the amateur photographer!

Toothless....cont.

So....

We left you with the plan to give the tooth fairy a note and some money, since she didn't get a tooth. That was a pretty good plan and the tooth fairy was relieved that the drama was over.

It was NEARLY over.

My daughter, the child with elaborate plans and endless imagination, decided that perhaps if she made her little doll house a very hospitable place, the tooth fairy may just decide to stay and live with her. Forever. No amount of talking could dissuade her. 

Well, fine.  As long as you leave the little note and tooth case on the shelf by your bed so she knows what's going on....

The tooth fairy nearly forgot to check. Thankfully, in the dark of morning, the tooth fairy bumbled quietly into the child's bedroom, felt around on the shelf and there was.....NOTHING! Nothing there! Not a note, not a box, not a dead bug....NOTHING!

Drats.

So the tooth fairy went for a run. 

Maggie came out about 6 o'clock, looking like a thundercloud.
"Good morning, Sunshine!", I said brightly.
More glares.
"Everything alright?"
"I don't know why the tooth fairy didn't come last night!"

Well....um.....

"Did you leave your little box and note where you always do?" (Please say no...please....)
"No. I put it someplace special."
"Perhaps the toothfairy came and couldn't find it because you moved it..."
"She didn't come! I put it back after you came in my room this morning, and waited and waited for her!"

Drats.

We still have something like 28 teeth left to go!

Toothless...again.

Before I start this whole post, you need to know I lost the "Mother of the Year" nomination LONG before I lost the child at the fair.  But I'm okay with that.  So don't try to reassure me or be all nice about it, okay? If I can laugh at it, so can you...

This last May, Maggie came home with an envelope from her teacher.  She explained to me that she'd lost a tooth at school, but this time she didn't swallow it! How thrilling! I put the little envelope up on the shelf above the sink, so Angus wouldn't get it and so that I wouldn't forget about it. 

Today (YES. TODAY. As in "Tuesday,August 10, 2010...three full months later.) we finally got the tooth out and it was Tooth Fairy City! Maggie had a little tiny case in which to put it, and we wrote the most miniscule note possible to explain. I then sent her off to her room to put it up high on a shelf above her dresser, so Angus wouldn't get it and so that I wouldn't forget about it. (You see a pattern, here.)

Not TWO minutes later, I hear water running in the bathroom and think nothing of it. 
Then Maggie comes out, saying, "I have to tell you something funny, Mama."

She explains, "I was washing the tooth, because it had a little bit of blood on it and I dropped it. But that's okay, because I'll just leave money for the Tooth Fairy."

I know this was true, because she smelled strongly of antibacterial soap, which is sort of novel if I'm not standing over her putting it in her hands. 

So....

The child has lost two baby teeth, so far.
The first one she swallowed, with a mouthful of apple.
The second one, after being resurrected and dusted off three months later, is down the drain and gone.

Third time's the charm, right?

We'll keep you posted....