The harvest is great, the workers are few....

That verse in the Bible is very literal, to me, this time of the year!  Really, the kids and I aren't very involved in the harvest process.  I help move augers, move guys who move trucks, make cookies, take phone calls, run for parts.  I like taking pictures of the whole mess, though. 


Vern is cutting the Willow Creek winter wheat, here...it's an incredible awnless wheat variety that makes great hay.  We hay some of it, but also sell the seed grain, so that's what they're cutting here.

The grain gets dumped in the short truck and wagon...it's alternated, so while one is being unloaded, the other is sitting empty, waiting to be filled.  The reason they are both here is that the Farmer hustled around and got one emptied quickly.  You can't see it, but he's sitting in the pickup truck, reading Men's Journal or a gun magazine...

Dumping the winter wheat into the wagon....

It always looks so rich, to me...bushels and bushels of red winter wheat, pouring into the truck or wagon.

Wait...wait....Angus is carrying a container of scotcheroo treats for PopPops and Dad, but he can't go until he gets the signal.  *Maggie is barefoot.  Remember that Merle Haggard song, "Mama Tried"?  I sing that a lot. 

I felt obliged to warn you about the bare feet, because they are showcased here in all their filthy glory. See how the red wagon looks sort of fuzzy and out of focus?  Chaff in the air, still, from dumping the wheat!

Why is Angus running away?  Well.  It turns out that he handed PopPops the scotcheroos and PopPops handed HIM a salted nut roll candy bar.  He is disinclined to share with his sister and thought he'd beat it back to the car to eat it in private, like a little raccoon. 

He was called back.  And manfully put away most of the salted nut roll, since his sister decided she didn't want slobbered-on peanuts.

This is the kind of bouquet farm girls like!

Well...it's not a salted nut roll, but still pretty cool...

This just makes me smile...

Back to work...

And the load of wheat, headed to the bin!

FREE KITTENS FOR SALE!!!

That's how Maggie says it.  It would seem they have less value if they aren't for sale....just giving 'em away kind of takes the zing out of it!  Be that as it may, we DO have three little orange and white tigger kittens who need good homes.  Here's a couple pictures...they slowed down long enough, finally!

  Kitten-toes...gosh, they're sweet!

And a picture of a fully alert kitten, wanting desperately to tigger-bounce the tom cat, but unable to formulate a plan that would allow a glorious attack, yet live to tell about it.  He never did...

Interested? Leave a sticky note on the fridge, saying so, and we'll work something out.

I think we CAN ship them, although I don't know what kind of shape they'd be in when they got to, say, Jayton, TX....

In honor of School Board Monday...

You know what the dumbest thing is?
I'm the only one in my office, and I still think these cartoons are funny AND can relate to them.

And this one is for a friend who actually ends up having meetings EXACTLY like this.

Tell me, truly...

Isn't she just the most beautiful little cow you've ever seen?

Daisy

Posing like a bovine supermodel....

Crazy Mary...again!

It has been awhile since Crazy Mary has had any questions to answer, hasn't it?

Here's the thing: I'm starting to think the reader who submits THESE questions, regularly, might be a leetle crazier than I am. 

I KNOW.

I didn't think that was possible, either, but judge for yourself after reading the questions. (And subsequent answers...)


1. What posters did you have in your room as a kid?
This one was sort of embarrassing for me to answer.  I was a pretty quiet, devout, serious, sensitive kid (yeah, I don't know what happened, either) and at the time, the Sam Butcher Precious Moments were big, so that's what I had.  Here's an example:

Yes. In fact, I think I HAD this one.

I ALSO had horse posters, just as sentimental in their own way.

*blushing*

2. What’s the biggest belt buckle you own?
It's actually quite modest...about 3 1/2 inches across, by about 2 1/2 inches high.  I have two...my folks gave me one when I was a little girl and George Yost gave me a roping buckle when I was 21-ish.  No rhinestones, no bling of any kind...German silver, I think. 

3. If you were to arrange for your son to marry a Disney princess, which one would you choose?
Now THIS was a question I spent some time considering...
Belle, from Beauty and the Beast...although, she may be eliminated as a princess, since technically she was a peasant until she married Beast and lived happily ever after.  Whatever.

First of all, she's literate...that's big.  She was brave, strong minded, fiercely loyal, kind, whimsical and brunette.  (I get a little tired of the blonde Disney princesses.) She put her father's happiness and well-being ahead of her own and found a way to be happy in a place that was rather frightening at first.  That's my pick. 

4. When you were growing up, where did you hide stuff you didn’t want your parents to find?
Seriously?  Two places...under the bed in a box that held EVERYTHING and also in a tree cubby of a big cottonwood by the creek. There may still be something in the tree cubby; I haven't been there for a long, long time!

5. What is your favorite highway rest area?
This is the question that made me think the question-er had completely flipped out. 
I don't, as a rule, stop at highway rest areas.  Mama always said that's where the scary, bad men hide in the bushes, waiting to grab unwary travellers and do them great harm. That warning stuck with me, you know?  NONE are my favorites!  I guess the only one I really end up using is the one in the Hysham hills, only in the broad daylight.  Montana isn't really known for her charming rest stops; I mean, if you can even FIND one...
 
I'll take ANY Crazy Mary questions...just email me!

You might be from Garfield County if....

• you were baptized at Hell Creek or Devil's Creek. (It's TRUE!)
• you gauge coat weather by whether or not Basco has the garage door of the old Fire Hall open.
• you talk fondly about Sweet Marie and everyone knows you love ice cream.
• you know a pickup by the dog in the back.
• you've had to drive at least 81 miles for a dinner-and-a-movie date.
• you're related to a Murnion. (This is true, too! I think nearly everyone is, here, by one marriage or another...)
• you have a story about "The Trees".  Good OR bad. Or both.
• your outfit is muddy to the hood and people congratulate you on your good fortune.
• you had the Ryan Grocery phone number memorized before age 10.

Feel free to add more in the sticky notes section!

From the judges' booth...

This week was the Garfield County Fair! 

I have two jobs at the fair, now, every year.  The first job I wrote about last year around this time was that of 4H Foods and Photography.  It's a mixed blessing.  The good part is that I get to taste the best food, mostly cakes and cookies and brownies, all day.  The bad part is that I get to taste the best food all day.  By the time I finish up, around 3:30 p.m., I feel like throwing up, simply from all the sweets.  I'm frantic for protein!  But let me tell you this: there are some GREAT cooks coming up!  Beautiful loaves of bread, pretty cookies, amazing candies...

My other job is that of helping to clerk the 4H sale on Saturday morning.  I go to a little judges booth/announcer stand and wait for the sale to start so that I can take money and issue reciepts.  The booth is pretty basic; some years we freeze, some years we cook.  This year was perfect...coolish and no real wind to speak of! 

Because my job starts a little later in the sale, I get to watch part of it, which is so very interesting.  People know we're in there, but I don't think they ever really think that we can see them, you know?  It's an insider-observer sort of thing, and I like that I can see the stands of people, the 4H kids waiting for their animal to sell, parents, buyers, auctioneer, runners...everything.  I didn't think to take pictures until my phone was just about dead, but I managed 3.  (The funny thing, to me, is that I ALSO managed unknowingly to get three people who constantly worry about their picture/story coming up on the Chronicles.  I won't identify them, but it truly was a coincidence!)

Looking out at the stands and the reserve champion steer being sold.  It was a pretty good crowd for the sale, considering how much harvest is going on in the county right now. 

Waiting to sell the steer....
I was never in 4H (still a little mad about that, because I desperately wanted to), but I think I'd have been one of those kids who walked out of the arena in tears, knowing my steer was going to the processing plant that afternoon.  Even though, you KNOW it's going to happen, it would still be hard, I think.

This is my favorite picture, taken out of the window where the buyers come to pay for their animals.  These kids are also waiting in line to sell their steers; it's sort of a behind the scenes image.  At the bottom of the picture, you can see the buyers' sheets, listing the animals/exhibitors/weights/placing.  There are ranch pickups in the background, the 4H concession stand on the hill next to the arena stands for the rodeo later that day.

About 3 minutes after this picture was taken, buyers started showing up and it got crazy busy!

Next year, I'll try to get pictures of the rest of the fair.  I just didn't think of it in time!