Harvest Time with Dad

It's the end of October and we've pretty much wrapped up harvest for the year. The kids and I were able to ride along several times and enjoyed the extra time with Mark. Our family continues to grow, thankful not in numbers just size, :) so Ethan is pretty quick to hop in with Grandpa or an Uncle so he gets a buddy seat.  

Future farmer pictured here! Elijah loves to help out and ride along in the combine! I'm very thankful Mark is willing to take him along and teach him about farming.

My attempt at a group picture didn't really work out today or really any other time this year. :(

We did have a little accident this fall. Anton got his finger smashed in the combine door. It was pretty beat up and we ended up bringing him to a large hospital in Des Moines to have it stitched up. He did great and it's healing very well. His fingernail is growing back healthy and his finger tip is normal looking, just slightly different shaped than his other fingers. He was given this little deer stuffed animal at the hospital and has slept with it ever since. :)

Ameila and Anton waiting for a ride one night after we brought out supper.

Soybean harvest near New Sharon, Iowa.

We had a storm which blew over the 90 ft auger earlier this fall. The poor thing just looks tough. 

Anton is checking to see if the beans are ready. This is done by  taking a bean out of the pod and biting it. If  it pops in half it's ready, if it smashes flat in one piece, it's not.

Happy, Happy, Happy

Sunsets are beautiful this time of year.

We brought Mark a cupcake for his birthday. He turned 35 this year!

Harvest Time with Mom

We attempted another garden this year, despite the lack of rain/TLC on my part it actually didn't do to bad. We're to a point in life were we can have fun with gardening as a family and enjoy the reward of some homegrown veggies. Here's a few pictures of what we enjoyed with our harvest.

I let the kids pick out a few things to plant and I handle the rest. This year everyone wanted carrots so we planted a couple rows. They ended up picking most of the carrots before they were fully grown. I guess the suspense of seeing how big a carrot you can pull was just to much for them. :)

I always like to plant a row of sweet potatoes. This year I had a mole or something nibble on almost every sweet potato! 

I new item we tried this year was brussel sprouts. My mother-in-law got plants for me from the Amish and they did very well! They were close to three feet tall! 

A close-up of our brussel sprouts. 

We have a couple apple trees which did amazing this year! We had more apples on our yellow delicious tree this year than the past 10 years combined! 

 My little crew of apple pie makers.

We also tried making apple sauce for the first time this year. One batch turned out great the other failed. Canning more applesauce and making cider is on this weekends agenda! If you would like some fresh apple cider or red or yellow delicious apples let me know, no charge, just come help press or pick. :)