T Minus 3 Hours And Counting

Well folks, it's here. Ready or not, here we go. Preparing for harvest is like planning for a family reunion, Thanksgiving, Christmas dinner, and giving birth all at the same time. Dramatic? I doubt most farm wives would think so. For the past two weeks I have been shopping, planning, cooking, cleaning, cooking some more, and cleaning some more just to prepare for what is about to happen 3 hours from now.

At 1 o'clock today, my oldest son is coming home to clean out his combine and start cutting wheat for the first time. This evening my AWESOME mother-in-law will arrive with her camper, 19+ dozen cookies, multiple precooked frozen meals, kimchi for me!!! and that amazing elbow grease and unending patience and advise that I know I can count on from her. Tomorrow morning our truck driver will move in her camper and we will welcome one other truck driver and a new combine driver that I have yet to meet, but that I pray likes my cooking! 

Yesterday we had a fabulous car wash for 4-H. Those kiddos hustled and washed 37 cars and made well over $500. My arms still hurt, but it was blast!!! Last night,  I managed to make 4 batches of my girlfriend's yummy cheesy campfire potatoes, a ton of Frank's Red Hot Chicken (recipe credited to another girlfriend!), some BBQ chicken and a pesto pasta. I also filled all of the fire extinguishers, so if there is a fire story in here this year, it will be my fault, and I managed to harvest some of my own crop - my raspberries to make raspberry jam and put away pie filling. At about 5:30 my girlfriend stopped by to tell me that she is pregnant. (I'm still crying!!!) and my father-in-law dropped off boxes of peaches that needed canned right now! And you all wonder why I have yet to publish another book, right? 

Today, starting at 6:00 AM I wrapped my sleeping son in a blanket and moved a truck out to the field, sharing probably the last cup of coffee that I will share with my husband for a month. I already miss him like crazy, but I am happy for him too. This is what his does. This is to him like a book signing is to me. This is why we do what we do, as an old friend of my so eloquently philosophized every time he drank whiskey and got to talking about farming. 

Since then, I have been Spring cleaning! My house looks freaking amazing, until...T Minus 3 Hours from now.