Riding in the Barley Fields

I remember riding in the combine with Uncle John and John Trent when I was younger. Being able to have my children experience this same thing was great and it wasn't planned! When we drove out to the farm they just happened to have the combine in the field next to the farmhouse. Beth told us to ask Dave, the hired hand, for a ride. He was really nice and let us all take turns (only 3-4 of us could fit in the air-conditioned cab at a time.) Tyeta explained that they were late starting to harvest this year and they had just begun, thus they were near the farmhouse that morning. How perfect! The kids loved watching the barley being threshed with the long combs and then the kernels being dumped into the trucks. Most of the time I really loved this as a child myself, but sometimes it took too long and I became bored. That happened especially when I rode in the grain truck to the plant to have the grain weighed. We would be waiting in a line for hours it seemed. And of course I was in the field for longer periods of time. My children weren't bored at all this morning, though. It turned out to be a wonderful farm memory.