Loving the Harvest

It has been a long, long, long time since I watched a harvest take place.

Mark, Lena, Ryan and Todd have all been city dwellers their entire lives, and so this has been their first real look at this big event.

The funny thing is, I think I'm the only one excited about it!   Maybe it is because I grew up in a small town surrounded by fields.

There is something so very amazing about watching the crops grow, appear to die in the field, get harvested, yield truckloads and truckloads of seed, and then leave behind wide open plowed fields which make the world seem so big again.

My kids are going to tell stories one day.  It will start something like this, "Do you know what my Mom - the goon - did the first year that we lived in Indiana?" 

Yes.  I deserve it.

I have been a goon.

I am the one who parked the van between a soybean field and a corn field in July and forced my kids to get out and take a close look at the two kinds of plants when they were just producing their respective fruits.

(They just had to know where the corn and the beans were growing so they could watch them get bigger and bigger!)

And, I am the one who stopped the van several times to take photos of the fields at all stages of growth.

And I am the one who stopped the van several times to take photos of the harvest in process.

And I am the one who stopped the van to pick up some of the spilled corn and soybeans, just so that everyone could see and touch the corn kernels and soybeans that came out of those fields.

It has been a blast!  (Although, I am not sure anyone else in my family would agree with that statement.)

Here's a photo of the incredible Indiana sky over a soybean field. 

A closer look at those rows of soybeans.

See the millions of bean pods hanging on those plants?  Who would have guessed these sprigs of brown would produce a huge harvest of soybeans?!?

But, they do.  Here is a Ziplock snack bag with some soybeans in it.

Then, there's the corn.  How could anyone look at corn in this state and wonder if the farmers got it wrong.  Surely there isn't anything good that comes from this brown mess!?!

But, here they are harvesting the corn. (I love, love, love the big machines! It is so fun to watch them work.)

Here is one of many trucks we saw on the side of the road 'filled to the gills' with corn.  And, we were under the impression that the drought killed all the corn.  I guess that's not the case.  (Although, we have heard the grade of the corn is not as high because of the drought.)

Those brown stalks grew this.  Corn kernels.  It's truly remarkable to think about how many ways these kernels will be used in our world.

I cannot end this blog without another photo of the incredible Indiana sky.

 
One thing we've learned:  when the fields are plowed, the big black icky spiders exit the fields and travel all over the place.  With only our neighbors across the street and their yard separating us from the nearest field, we've had our fair share of them at our door step.  Ick!   We are definitely living closer to nature now.

The harvest is 99% done now, but I am already excited for the next planting, growing and harvesting seasons.  I seriously doubt that I will ever get tired of it!