More Pictures from the gathering

Relaxing and visiting was good,



Hailey enjoyed the playground and especially the merry-go-round. She didn't get nearly as dizzy as grandma. The playground was enjoyed by all the little ones at one point or another during the afternoon and evening.












Kylee was about done after all the activity of the day.












The nearby Aquatic centre was also well utilized by the younger generation. Here they are taking a break for some other activity and supper before heading back to the pool. 

Funk Gathering

Yesterday was time for our annual summer picnic with the Funk clan. Marge and Glenn were in charge and they chose to host it at the Altona Park. A great place to spend a sunny, summer afternoon. A lot of the time was spent sitting in the shade and visiting and enjoying spitz. We were happy to have Aunt Joy and Cornie join us as well. We enjoyed a barbeque supper of hamburgers, hot-dogs, beans, salads, watermelon and dessert, to name some of the good food.


 

I came in for a break a few days back and my little sweety shared a relaxing time and cookies and milk with me. She does sit still some times. She liked the idea of having her own chair and no i did not give her any coke.

The soybeans are turning fast in the late summer heat. Not sure how long till they will be ready but everthing else this year has been early. 

A dotted wheat field covered in bales. The blue sky and sunny days have made for a very enjoyable summer. Very few bugs and very little mud. The work at Shauns house goes on and the siding and wiring have been the latest projects.
 

These combines cleaned off 135acres in 1hr and 10 min for MCC Food grains bank this afternoon. The canola yield of apx 35 bus per acre was better than the area average. Fun was had by all.

 

Life Goes On

Work on Shaun and Vicki's house continues. Not too much happened this past week because they were out in California to attend Vicki's sister's wedding. They did get the windows in before they left and while they were gone, Kerry had some time to start on putting on siding.
Once the combining is done it is time to get out some of the other equipment and start the land work. Erik is just getting started on deep-tilling the field across the road. This unit can eat up a lot of acres in a day.










The canola and the wheat are harvested but we still have quite a few acres of soybeans to do. The beans are starting to yellow but it could be a while yet till they are ready to combine. The rain we got last week was a real boost for the beans.






















On a different note......We are getting a new sister-in-law! Kerry's brother Ray and Kim Knelson came and gave us the good news on Saturday night. We are happy and excited for and with them. So far not many plans have been finalized and no date has been set but they are happily planning their future together. Congratulations you two! 

For those that felt my tomato plants looked like trees and might not produce fruit you can come over any time and eat a few toasted bacon and tomato sandwiches. 

Thursday was one of those days that could be less than fun. After half a pass on some of the furthest away land Erik and myself got the job of removing the rad and fan from the combine. After the fan broke and went into the rad. Things went quite well with the repair so far and hope to stay under $1,000 on parts . On friday we had a birthday party in the eve seeing some one was turning 25 and it was not Hailey even tho she thought it was when we sang happy birthday. She helped her daddy blow out the candles. good job
 

Well its Saturday eve and we today had a drought breaking rain. With totals of 2 plus inches the world will try to green up again.
Hailey will have to wait a few days till she gets her next combine time. We are pretty much done with the wheat and the canola should be ready to go this next week if we get sun. We are still keeping busy on spare time working over at Shauns house and now have the windows in and can now work inside when it rains or is windy. Oh if you read this blog it would be okay if you comment once and awhile so we know who cares. tnx ker 

It's Harvest time!

August 1st and harvest is underway. Kerry says this is the earliest ever in his memory. This field was seeded when the field across the road, (outside the dike), was still under flood water. The heat and drought hastened the maturing of the crops and so swathing got underway on July24th, with combining starting on July 31st. Now as of the 4th, we have done this wheat field, a canola field and almost 80 acres of another wheat field.
The heat and dryness made combining easy, and the wheat crop, in spite of all this, is yielding pretty good, there is no disease in the wheat and it is a nice color. It is definitely a #1 grade. The canola didn't yield quite as well, and the seeds are pretty small, but it came off dry and with no greens.

Getting creative. This is what I saw when I got up and looked into the truck box. 

Hailey and Papa enjoying a refreshing break in our little pool. It is small enough that she can walk around in it and play. She likes to hang onto the sides and kick out her feet behind her and pretend to swim.










Another view of our tomato plants. They continue to grow and now they are looking into my kitchen window. We put Hailey beside them so you could have something to compare them to. She wasn't sure about standing in among all those flowers. Oh yeah, we are starting to enjoy some ripe tomatoes. One slice covers a piece of bread.


Things have been getting a little dry around here this summer. In July we had a grand total of 4/10 inch of rain. This is a picture of one of the many cracks that cover the fields. If you look carefully, you can see China. Anyway, it is big enough, that we have to be careful where we walk, and quite deep. It will take quite a bit of rain to make them disappear.