Hey guys, I'm Whitney. And I'm Kylie. Welcome to the Midwest Farm wives podcast. We are to Millennial Farm wives raising lots of Littles figuring out how to run a good business as with our husbands learning loving and living life day by day and America's Heartland. If you landed here, you can expect uplifting positive real talk about being a farm wife mom and being a woman in agriculture conquering all God gives us we are so excited you're traveling on this.a crowd with us Hello and welcome back to the Midwest Farm wives episode 6 the one where we prepare for extra Grace little recap last episode. We did the 10 bag challenge with our declutter your life episode. And so Kylie, how's your decluttering going? May veeam is so freeing to get rid of stuff. I have I'm proud to say that I donated 6 bags and I've thrown away three and packed away a couple of extra stuff. So I just went through rats room finally and got rid of 3T stuff that hasn't fit for weeks. So I'm excited. Yeah, it's good. We'll still keep doing it because I think I've only made it through half my house, right? I did the upstairs and I'm on bag 9 I'm going to finished in today because I was my goal before we did our next episode but I'm the same way like I had a bunch of stuff like the kids toys how many broken toys can one have in a playroom or just pieces pieces that you don't know. Know where the other half of the toy is. Yeah, so I chucked all that stuff. I donated a couple bags from our closet. I donated a bunch from my kitchen, which I can't believe I had to do that again. I just did that last year. But yeah, I'm kind of a hoarder so same don't feel bad. Yeah. So me since last episode I went to my little brother's K-State game. He got to play so that was super exciting, but he's not little no Huge he's like way taller than me, which is weird which is weird because my parents I mean like you saw the picture we're all like the same height except for him. He's a giant Your whole family's kind at all really. But yeah, when you said little brother, I'm like we should probably say younger because he is a tall kid. Yeah, my younger giant brother. Yeah. But yeah, other than that, we started silage Harvest so I'm back to seasonal single mom life, which is we talk. Yeah, we haven't done a whole lot. I enjoyed watching your footage of your brother like like nothing is more exciting than like a proud family member. We I was trying to think before we got on here what we did. The last two weeks and I'm sure oh we went to the farm progress show. That was a big deal. Oh, yeah. I saw you met some of our friends. Yeah studies. Yes our podcast friends. It was it was really fun. I've never been to a farming trade show. I've been to a lot of hog trade shows. And so this was kind of an eye-opener the guys, you know, oohed and ahhed over the tractors and I'm looking at all kinds of like cool like hats and shirts and all things girly and I was like the pack mule. I carried everybody's stuff will only because they let me come along this year. So that was really exciting. I enjoyed that a lot. You just had a bag full of goodies had like three bags and I had to make a trip back to the truck. So We're going to talk about all things Harvest on this episode because Whitney's already started Harvest and were over here really going like all you know gears on to get the combines ready and go and so Whitney and I have been visiting on the side about all the things that we're doing and prepare for Harvest. So we thought what better way to share that then on episode six truth. So this is just silage Harvest for us, which is all custom and Chop, so I'm not involved in any of that Barton has brother have the salad Chopper and then we have three trucks around her under it. So I'm not involved in any of that unless they need rides or something. That's pretty small. But we will start actual Corn Harvest with our combines in probably three weeks on dry land. So we're close. Yeah. We're in the same boat were real close. Yeah, so then we'll do we'll do corn and that takes us my Lord it takes us forever. Like we'll start and three weeks and we'll probably end close to Thanksgiving is usually how long it goes the goal in a normal year is to get it done for us by Halloween, but we have a grain dryer which we're going to kind of dive into that here pretty quick, but that's are always our goal and this year. It's I mean our beans are all still so green and you just can't cut those until they're completely dried. So yeah, we're going to have an interesting it's going to be really Inviting it's going to be a lot of start and stop and go and stop it. I just think it's going to be it's the pain of plant 19 is going to show it's nasty face and harvest and we're lucky we have a grain dryer. And so that's going to really help us out on the corn side just hand over fist, but it's just going to be a year could be a lot of wait wait and try to find some dry enough which like you said. You have a grain dryer, but still beans keep can you dry beans? I cannot answer that I want to off the top of my head say no. We haven't ever dried beans. I don't think you can I think you can put are on them. Once they get in the bin. So maybe you can that's a question for Jordan. I'll ask and I'll relay the message. Yeah, you'll have to because I don't know anything about beans. So then you do corn and then beans yes will swell. It just depends always it just depends on how we get stuff planted. Well cut corn until it's ready time for beans and then we will stop on corn go cut all our beans because That's more of a crop that you guys have soybeans. No hardly. Anyone around here does I wonder why maybe just the weather? I don't really know that it's one of those crops that like when it's ready to come out it needs to come out because if it gets a lot of extra weather on it, it just gets that you just drop pods and you really lose your yield and so on a normal year we would cut then we'd go cut beans and then we come back to harvest the rest of our corn like maybe It's maybe we get all our corn done before beans but beans always get harvested when they're ready. You take a break if you need to. Yep. Yeah, so so yeah, we Milo really is last there's usually no rush on Milo like the last few years we've had issues with ears dropping off our corn just after the wind and stuff. So then we try to get obviously all that out first because that's like our main crop. So hmm. Yeah as far as how many people helped us with Harvest its Bart. E we have two hired men and then we actually have a third now that Harvest has started and then we actually hire out trucks to haul our stuff because we did penciled it in and it was cheaper like the rights that we're getting for them to Halt and honestly, it's going to take what we have to combines into grain carts. It's going to take four of us to just you know, like keep the fieldwork going. So our one guy will drive one truck and then we just hire the rest done. So that's how that's a good idea. We haven't ever looked. Get into that because we do have quite a few semis in a I think we have three grain trailers, but that is definitely the bottleneck when you have a bumper crop you can get it off the field, you know, you keep improving your combine and your grain car and you may make those bigger capacity at a faster running speed to get all that grain through but then if you can't get it away from the field, there's no use in having all of that power and speed we do the same thing. So we have one combine for corn and then we usually rent a second combine for It's because we like to get it done quick and the lessons that we have learned in this past 365 days is that when you have an opportunity to run you just run like you don't you don't stop for anything really unless it's an emergency or you break down right? No matter what you have to do. You get it done. That's how we were for plant 19. We had like 300 acres left and it was a long ways from our house and we had a friend up there already and Bart's like just do it. I'll hire you get that stuff in the ground before it rains again. Yeah. Yeah, I understand that. Yep, and we so we have seven employees total but a couple of those are primarily for the pigs, but we run we run at least five guys in the field all the time. Yeah, I swear man power is like really hard to stay on top up especially around here. There's not a lot of people that really want to work or people do look for day work, but don't want to work as long as we are now the hours are crazy during Harvest. So for any of you listening Are that know what Harvest is but you may not have a full grasp on it. The guys will start especially when you're cutting corn beans. You have to wait till they're dry. Like so you can't start cutting beans until like maybe 10 in the morning when the sun's out and really drying off that do but corn, you know, you could start you could really run all night. If you wanted to we usually start seven eight nine o'clock in the morning and then they run until they get tired. Yeah, that's how we are to and we actually we as the same way you can't start Harvest until Snot humid. It's really dry. So yeah corn were the same way and where I help bark gives me a break that I can get Bodie on the bus at 7:10. And then I usually want to show up till eight because the guys are really helpful and have me fueled and stuff. So that's a huge help because honestly getting kids to the field as like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos it definitely hard. I know how it is. Just taking food to the field. I could not imagine if they were like holding me accountable to run a piece of equipment. Right, and so I admire you so much for all of this and I can't wait to talk about our responsibilities because we're so different and I think my life is hectic and I'm like the home my gosh Whitney your you're just killing it. I know but but don't compare girl. I know I know because there's other people doing crazy things to there are so many different versions of harvest for sure. We one last thing on storage. Do you guys have any grain storage? So we do have bins in our house, but we don't have dryers and when we start Harvest we want to get it out ASAP. So we we do just use the elevators near here because we contract corn and so we just take it and they give us our payment which is legit. Yeah. Yeah. See you just pay them to store it basically for you. And then maybe maybe that's a certain fee a month or something like that until your contract comes. Yeah and So we can just sell it immediately. It's up to us what we do. So yeah, where we have it we have some contracts at like I think the best ones like 395 which isn't really that great in the scheme of things. But so we'll just take it there and they sell immediately to a feedlot. And so yeah, it just it's easier we tried to do our bins one year and it was such a pain in the butt where we didn't have dryers. We had to babysit it to make sure it didn't mold or start on fire or any of that stuff. So it was less. Yeah, just go to town. Down sometimes they are more work than what they're worth. We actually have a lot of grain storage. That's one thing that my in-laws have put in over the years just slow improvements. And so we can we always plan out we go start yield checking and seeing what we're going to be able to hold on farm and then whatever we don't can't hold on Farm. We actually bought a grain bagger. Do you guys have grain bags out there? So there is a bunch of people that have grain bags, but we do not yeah, we bought the bagger and one of our neighbor Farmers has the unloader because you of course you have to have to His of equipment for this one thing but we have on like bumper years use the grain bagger. We don't sell a whole lot right out of the field just because of the efficiency of our guys running our own trucks and then they sit in line and that doesn't make sense for us, but I can see where Contracting and out. It wouldn't be quite as much of a planning issue for you guys. Right and actually where our fields are we are super lucky that we like at ourself fields. We have an elevator. Five miles away and then our next set of fields. We have an elevator to miles away. And so like everywhere fields are there's just elevator super close and we're really lucky that even if there is a line like we have trucks coming back and forth really quickly. Yeah, that's such an interesting thing. Like I love finding out about other people's operations because we don't contract haul anything like if anything we help others and that's so interesting. Yeah. The difference. Yeah, we're so we're so the same but so different let's chat about our responsibilities during Harvest. We've touched on them, but I will go ahead and start and I am a hodgepodge just I do all kinds of anything and everything during Harvest except for really running equipment. I can run the green card. I can you know run a tillage equipment, but Jordans not going to throw me on the grain cart only because my schedule is so unpredictable. Well, as far as the kids go and I don't take them necessarily with me all the time. And so he can't count on me from like eight to he can he can count on me from 8 to 5, but not much after that. So we give those good fun jobs to the guys that do such a good job for us. But I do everything else, you know, as mom's we are doing everything. We normally do so cook clean tend to the house, you know, all summer Whitney and I talked about mowing and you know, waiting our yards and stuff. So we still To do all of that because it's still warm enough to have green grass and it's still warm enough and you always have Dirty Toilets and dirty dishes and all that stuff. So we do all that stuff like normal, but then on top of that my responsibility is Spill bookkeeping billing we have to keep all of our grain tickets separate. We have a set of skills that are Granary and so one advantage and I guess disadvantage is extra record-keeping for having all of those grain bins because so we have to know who's grain goes in what and this year. We have a lot of 50/50 ground. So we're going to be putting 50% of our grain and 50% of their grain in the same bin and then when it gets sold and there's just a lot of record-keeping so I'll be helping with that. But then we also one of my job's is to basically take Jordan supper every night and that's kind of a job in itself. Yeah for sure. So do you guys have your this is a little off subject there. Do you guys have your own scale house? We do that makes it handy. Yeah, we do. We put it in primarily put in like four years ago and it was for our hog truck and it's a certified set of scales so that when we came back by to take our Hogs up to Iowa, we weren't it just made sense. The way the route was plus then we get the added benefit of doing running fertilizer and corn and beans all over it. And so it's really been a huge benefit to our farm. Yeah. My in-laws added one at their place to just for the cattle stuff and it really I think it changes our operation to be Because they do have bends and they utilize at their place. So that's good. Yep. Livestock kind of makes you get those skills and then you just use it for everything else. Yeah. Yeah, one of those things that you get to write off that really everyone uses it. Yep. So I'm the same way. I still have to do all the house chores The Domestic Goddess stuff that we just all love so much but I am in the grain cart. So I let Bodie get on the bus at 7:10 and then Will most likely head to the field by 8 and then we pick until we can't pick any more. I mean nine is usually a pretty common but where we will have a truck driver borrow is has the last truck driver whatever take over for me. And so then I can leave like an hour or so earlier to get the kids to bed. And so that's that's really handy. The biggest adjustment for us is going to be this year. I have to get off to come get Bodie from the house because the The bus will bring him here. And so I'll have to like find a stopping point to come and get him and rushed back. He has had to learn that when it hits eight o'clock in the combine with his dad like no matter what he has to lay down and try to go to sleep because otherwise we had I mean when he started preschool was really hard for him because we would like pick till 9:30 or 10 and he'd be so tired the next day and I'd feel terrible. And so we finally we made the rule that no matter where we are at eight o'clock. You have got to lay down whether it's in the pickup the And whatever and so we really had to implement that to make it to where he could still go to school and be worth a dang. Yes, which is our lifestyle. So and I will say that I run the grain cart mainly because I want to I really want to Bart does not make me in any way for those of you that think that this is crazy I do with kids but it saves us so much money. Like I think I figured one time that between all three harvests it prices us like 18 to 20 grand to have me run it. And then I mean, that's a big deal. Oh, yeah, and it's that's if you can find someone to just work part-time. So we struggle with that around here is to find a reliable part-time person who knows your operation who understands Harvest who understands the equipment so we actually only ever use full-time employees. And so if you think of it that way if we were to use someone just for Harvest and hire them we have to find things for them to do throughout the year now Granite were always busy there's always stuff to do but for us financially we use our When we just use full-time employees because difficult process and honestly sometimes in the winter or at least here anyway, there's not much for for guys to be doing. So, we're lucky that a couple of those guys are just mainly Harvest help and they have day jobs like their own day job so they can leave to come and do Harvest with us and then it still works out. So that's good that they can do that. And as far as meals we don't and and wheat Harvest we do because it's so light out you go longer. And so we do have someone bring us meals. I obviously can't do it cause I'm in the field with them. Yeah, but I for sure hit up a crock pot every morning before I leave. There's a roaster steaks or something in a Crock-Pot. So when we get home, it's not hectic to find something to eat. Yeah, so you just eat when you guys all get home. Yeah, but I do keep a ton of snacks in my pickup like crackers granola bars all that stuff just in case the kids get hungry before we make it home for supper. Yeah. I will say the snacks are not always the healthiest but who gives a dang right I have in my notes like have snacks, but they don't always have to be healthy. I was just going to add that because sometimes a sucker will just save your whole day. Yeah, and honestly some the days that I don't have time to get a Crockpot meal. It's like hot dogs and chicken nuggets for life at home. No shame. No, it's something quick and easy and then we go to bed. We make a Sam's run before we start fall work or like a Costco or any of your big stores and we will get you know, travel size chip bags will get a bunch of deli meat. And so Jordan always gets deli meat sandwiches during Harvest because going bringing lunch unless maybe I'm at work and I have the ability to run in food. Otherwise, we don't we don't make it out of the house twice with kids. So it's either I'm going to bring you a good lunch and not suffer and your have to the deli sandwich for supper or we're going to take supper and we're lucky we Farm in about a 30-mile radius of the house. So Nothing like the you know three hours away or anything like that, but it's always cold sandwiches for lunch make it easy. I like to eat cold-cut sandwich has myself. So don't be hard on yourself. If you're a wife and you're like I have to fix my husband something wonderful for lunch supper and breakfast and you know, give yourself a little Grace. Let's be real give him a cold-cut sandwich and some chips and some carrots and ranch and he'll be fine. Yeah for sure and if you women make your husband's breakfast girl, go girl go because I don't no me either like Jordan gets up. He's am not a morning person, but he gets up just in time to leave for work. So I'm definitely not going to fix go out of my way to fix him him breakfast. He'll be fine. One other thing that we do I do try to make Jordan as many meals in the evening as I can and as I'm able to but I do use I really like it when it starts to get cold because we do things like we use a Crock-Pot like a thousand times and it's chicken and noodles and roast. Doesn't carrots or chili spaghetti and those things are kind of hard to eat on the go because we don't stop for meals in the field. Like we don't expect we don't stop because we don't expect our guys to stop they don't want to stop. I mean they'd rather spend that 30 minutes working and getting off 30 minutes maybe earlier rather than like eating and eating so when progress stops, I mean, that's a big deal. We don't stop either it just stops. Yeah, you don't once you stop one machine year everything else flows down to So we use lots of those like semi cut to-go containers, which I'm buy new ones this year because I kept buying the cheap ones the like take out that has the sectioned off where you can put like your spaghetti and your green beans in it. Right are they like throw away? They are not throw away like you would wash them but they get nasty and I've got to stop start making Jordan throw out his extras in the field because there's nothing worse than getting the next day getting a bag of food. That's got like leftover. And it oh the smell is so sour and like I have to clean it out. No, thank you. Clean your own food out of your own pan and then bring it to me like at least empty if it's dirty, that's fine. But empty right one time actually a couple times like I've gotten Bart sprayer to take his trash out and stuff and I found my like Tupperware and I'm like, nope. I don't even remember the last time you took this so it's going in the trash. I don't I don't do smells. So I'm also the mom that if I find a sippy cup with milk, and I don't know how long ago was it goes in the trash as well? Absolutely. I'm so ashamed to say that I'm the same way because I feel like why can I not just bleach that and make it better but it's like disgustingly nasty and I used to be a waitress and I had no problem taking a stranger's Fork off of their plate by what they ate it with like a busser. I had no problem just like pick go pick go pick go and move on and maybe that's because someone was paying me but my own food my husband's my kids. Gross. Yeah, and the lids are like what gets me like hoof. Those hurdles clean your food out. Yeah, for sure. We have I know there's a lot of harvest moms and wives out there. I actually have a ton of farm friends like even outside of Instagram. I have like real life friends that I visit with and they take Harvest meals for their whole crew. And I think that is like insane the impressive we do not put that pressure on ourselves. Here are guys bring their own food from home or we even like their wives might come out and bring them out them a hot meal. In the evening, but we do try to take myself. I've kind of started working on this and maybe it's just a few pizzas. I try to take out like on a Thursday or Friday toward the end of the week when I know we're going to go into the weekend, maybe takeout pizza or chicken and noodles or Dairy Queen cause we have like a really bomb Dairy Queen in our town, right? Yeah. And so heart we Harvest we do do that. That's just I don't know why but when I started dating Bart, that's what his family did and so then we've just carried that tradition on but Corn Harvest weed. Do not provide any meals. Well, let's chat back to some more like nitty-gritty stuff. How do we keep our sanity during Harvest because physically mentally the strain of harvest it's it's a lot. It's a lot for the farmer. It's a lot for us as Farm wives and also as farmers and then it's also a lot as a family Dynamic it puts a lot of like heavy. I love Harvest because you're you're harvesting. You know, what you worked for. Year, but in the same breath. I'm always so happy when it's over. Yeah, for sure. It's it's hard on kids to I mean my kids are in the field and they still miss their dad and stuff. Yeah, but but I will say as far as being on a schedule try to be flexible during Harvest because you'll go insane if you're trying to be super strict and I don't I try to I was trying to be a yes Mom during Harvest because I don't argue with me. My kids any more than I have to and I don't wanna lose my cool. So I just try not to sweat the small stuff. Yeah, I like that a lot because you do there's going to be a lot of things in your normal day-to-day, even if you're not in the field working like me not working in the field. There's still a lot of stuff that we don't do normally during Harvest that we have to do during Harvest because that's just how we have to get by so I agree flexible schedule 100% I like to plan you guys know me. This is episode 6 Guys know that I like to have a plan so it may not go right. It may not work. But I like to plan the next day at least the night before and really if I'm lucky I like to plan like five days out. So okay. We're going to be doing Corn Harvest this whole week but we have to stop because we have a meeting here here and here and that means I'm going to try to take meals out early this night and this night, you know, there's just got to be a schedule or a plan of some sort for my personal sanity and it may all go Go horribly wrong. I have to ask how does Jordan feel about your planning OCD he thinks I'm like want to control his whole life, which is not true. I just want to know so often get Jordan on the podcast some time. He loved to be like Kylie is such a crazy psycho woman because honestly, I don't even know what I'm going to do this afternoon. We're just Whitney boys, aren't we we are and that's okay it is. Okay provide watched. Other yeah, for sure because if it's going to rain, you know that you get time at home. Yeah, you know, you're going to be home, or maybe if it if it doesn't rain, you know, you're going to work longer you can make other plans for your kids or something or you can all go ride of an evening. I actually like Harvest sometimes I liked taking meals to the field because it carves out some of that time that I was going to have to spend alone with the kids and you know that gets that's fine. People are like, oh you're spending time with your kids look. Do you do da well, that's fine. Okay, but when you're doing that and it's like week for and it's been you've seen your significant other like for all of 24 hours that whole time besides sleeping, right? You know that gets a lot that gets to be a lot. So taking that hour and a half to make that round trip of delivering food. The kids. Don't mind it. I don't mind it and then by the time we get back home, it's like bath time bedtime and then you can sit down and relax. He's to yourself. Ha so from my standpoint. I will say don't ever expect anything to be perfect for me and Bart. I'm going to say this because I know there's other women out there in the field. It gets very stressful in the tensions can get really high because you're with each other all day and like anyone that runs a grain cart will agree that sometimes you get looks and you're supposed to know what they're telling you by like how their hand signals signaling or Like giving you this face and it's like I have no idea what you want. I have no idea what you're saying to me. And so like Bart can be really short-tempered and impatient and like can get upset easily and I almost have to like be the mediator to our own fight because I need to make sure we don't get a huge argument like in the first day of harvest. So we Harvest we had like a giant fight one day and then the next day I'm like look we can't do this. We have to get along use your radio next time like Have them for a reason. I don't know what all these hand signals mean. So just tell me please. I like that's all he needed was like me to tell him please just tell me what you want instead of expecting stuff be clearer. Yeah, I only know one hand signal and it involves your third finger on your hand. So if it's not that one, I'm not going to understand. Yeah and Trust I've given those a few times so and then another thing is the stress from breakdowns and like when your crops aren't doing As well as you expected or you know anything that can go wrong. It makes the stress and levels of worry and emotions like Skyrocket. So you're just going to have to always like woosah. Take some deep breaths and try to be a patient optimistic person as much as you can. Yeah, just remember what's going on in your life because it's so is sometimes it feels like you're in this cycle and you don't get out of it. Like there's never a down time. I feel that way this summer we've plant was He had a very short summer. And here we are getting gearing up to go again. And I just have to remind myself always. Okay, like it's harvest it will not always be like this like it's just a season. It's not the rest of your life just a season and it actually is rest of our life because we married into it but we do get a lot not a whole year I should say it's a season not the rest of the year. Yeah. Yeah have to you have to involve Harvest for how long and then you could have winter yet, which that's kind of more the plan. I'm talking about like I just To know like give me just a heads up like do we got 20 days left or because I'm a certain Market on my calendar Jordan X the next day next day. I survived another day of harvest true the let's chat hacks on harvest with young kids because that's a tough one. Once your kids can wipe your their own butts and can like entertain themselves and their rooms. I think things might change a little bit or maybe stay home by themselves, but when you got kids six and under at least six and under A life can get really really crazy. Yeah it can for sure. So for me in the grain cart huge hacks for me. Are we take a Doodle Pad? It's called like a doodle board and you can get that on Amazon. That's super handy. We take Alpha Bots. Where's Waldo books? Small Ziplocs have Legos. I do take oils with me. I take some peace and calming lavender all that good stuff for like different things to settle us down or whatever a high chair. Are obviously because Rowdy can't really set up in the bouncing pillows and blankets and snacks are obviously a must for every single kid so they can get comfy. Just wait. Yeah Rowdy will be moving around before you know it I know he's crawling now, so it's going to be for real when heartless starts are I'm off to strap him in the high chair. A schedule is huge for me. When I am in Harvest because I am the type of person that wants not Perfection but I want tidy and I want my yard to be mowed and we'll all the things so I can get like a huge anxiety attack if I don't have a schedule and make myself just do a few things a day to keep on top but not lose complete control of our home in our yard. So yeah, those are big things for me what you got I only could come up with Three, but I know in like six weeks I'll be making a list of like this is all the stuff that I'm currently doing that I could share with everyone lots of crafts. Even when I'm home with the kids by myself. We do crafty things because you can only you could only play outside for so long for so you can only do some of the things that you do normally and so we like those like colorless markers that are white like they don't mark on anything. We like books like that both of my kids love that right now dry erase markers and a board colored pencils. And we're not really ever use markers yet. We're not to that stage yet. But anything crafty that my kids like to use glitter glue and that's only on rare occasions that we allow them to do that but you can take some of that stuff to the field with you in the car or you know, those are ideas for even when you're just trying to pass time until you know bedtime for sure if you don't have well you could have TV because we do have TV, but I would advise if you have the extra money to spend subscribe to like a movie streaming Network or something that you can put on something that you choose for your kids to watch. So I would much rather have my kids watch Frozen or maybe an educational TV. I we like I mean, we love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I'm not sure how educational that is, but it's very PG and like uplifting happy. And of course, I can't think of any other cartoons Bubble Guppies T-Mobile to me. Yes, all that. Okay, so we would rather I would rather have the kids watch, you know, half an hour or an hour of that. A movie then watch PJ masks. And if you have young kids you get it like PJ masks is like the end all I'm like thinking of the theme song in my brain right now and they're like Peppa Pig. No. Yeah, we like pigs but we don't like Peppa Pig. No. No, I'm the same way educational is like I don't want my kids to be zombies as my issue. I don't want their brains to be like mush from watching stupid stuff. Yeah. My last tip is stuck your pantry which we chatted about that. During mealtime like get good bad all the snacks but like snacks my kids like to use the word snack a ton. So whatever you think you need by it fruit snacks graham crackers bananas, like just make sure you're fully stacked on snacks that well-stocked on snacks. It's a lot of s. Yeah. Yeah, you'll be fine because it don't just make sure it's not just in your pantry like take a bag for the car. Yes for sure. Always a bag of snacks. So just know the timeline of harvest we have hopped around all over this podcast, but I think we're going to be able to offer you guys just some preparation and maybe in a couple of episodes will do another like heat of the podcast, you know, he'd of harvest podcast because we're just four for seeing some of the things that we've done in the past of what's going to happen this year because we're just not there yet, but maybe by listening to this you'll be able to take a few tips and tricks and make your life just a little bit easier. During this crazy hectic time. Yeah, and for sure like every year as your kids grow or as things change on the farm. I feel like every season you almost have to relearn what works for you because the I mean just from last year things are going to be so different for me and the tractor you just have to work do what works for you best because everything is going to change every year. Yeah last year. You were pregnant. Yeah. Oh my God. I'm so glad I'm not pregnant this year. I'd wear like a belly band to keep my stomach from bouncing so hard Oh, it was miserable but got to do what you got to do. Absolutely pray to God for patience and Grace be the supporter that you're tired husband needs just you know understand the time that you have until Harvest ins like enjoy it while it's there. But, you know just know exactly, you know know how long it's going to be. Yeah and be grateful that you have a crop to harvest and that you're able to do what you are doing. Yeah, think of those I had a girl message me and I said, oh I'm so jealous. You're in Corn Harvest. Like I can't wait till we get in Corn Harvest even though you know, I'm sitting here saying it's crazy. But I do enjoy Harvest time. It's my favorite time of the year. And she said yeah, we're racing to get crops out before Dorian the hurricane hits and I'm like my heart hurt for her because I could not imagine, you know, they're not going to get it all out. No or like I've heard of people having freeze warnings already like Bueller still trying to cut we I can't imagine that either. Oh, yeah. We don't need a frost down here either because our soybeans are still maturing. And like when that comes it shuts it down. Yeah for sure. So just gratitude attitude per usual absolutely and you know drink an extra glass of wine like give yourself like it's okay at the end of the day you get your kids to bed grab wine or if you're like Whitney and I grab a cold beer. Yeah, and and just remember that you're not alone. No matter how overwhelmed crazy lonely sad or frustrated you may feel because I'm telling you Kylie and I feel it. I know millions of other Our wives and ladies that are at home, even if they're not a farmer that are at home doing the single season on Mom stuff alone, like everyone feels it don't feel alone for sure. Greed. Do not let the comparison game during Harvest get in your brain. No, like look how different Kylie and I are and it's okay to be that way. Uh-huh. Yep mad respect for you. Yep, I agree. So we end every podcast with a quote. So Kyle, he's got it when life. Gets hectic and you feel overwhelmed take a moment to focus on the people and the things you are most grateful for when you have an attitude of gratitude frustrating troubles will fall Wayside and remember things could always be worse Whitney. I'm going to send it back over to you and your interview with our guests Leslie Kelly also known as high heels and canola fields on her take on Harvest Life. Okay, great. Okay, so we are here with Leslie. Kelly also known as high heels on canola Fields. She is a mom Farm wife Farm her she is a co-host of what the farm podcast with Rob Sharkey. She's a blogger and the co-founder of do Morag. Welcome Leslie. Hi. Thank you for having me. Yes. Thank you so much for talking with us. So Leslie is in the thick of harvest right now with her family. Sharon and so we thought she would be perfect for this podcast today. Yeah, we started what slate for us. We started about a couple weeks ago and we've only gotten two quarters done two quarters of lentils. It has been slow but hopefully the Sun comes out the rain states away, right? So as is that all you have left to harvest now as lentils know we put two quarters of lentils in so we still have Peas canola wheat Durham flax oats and barley left. You guys have a lot of different stuff. We do. We are very diverse defied it fits well with our Agronomy or crop rotation or marketing plan and it works really well for us. You have to have what you know space to hold all of that and we do have lots of Bags to but ya know it works for us. That's awesome. So we're going to ask you or I'm going to ask you Kyle. He's not with us, but I'm going to ask you a few questions and hopefully you can just give us some advice as Farm wife to farm wife and other Farm wives. Sure the first one I have is how do you cope with the Harvest stress? Oh, I would say probably one one day at a time. Take it one day at a time my expectations change during Harvest where even a five minute shower and clean clothes is amazing. Right sure my family and I deal with you know, the essentially like everything farm stress-related when it comes to harvest is we actually sit down prior to harvest. We have a family meeting and Talk about each other's lives and each others worlds so he can better understand, you know, it might be a stressful time for my brother or for Matt and I and then it's a way for us to just to see how we can help each other and then it's also the notion that we're in this together and then we celebrate you all the small the small wins. We made game plans, you know for meals or when things need to be swamped and it just it helps us. Focus and focus on family. Yeah, that's that's really good advice the communication see Bart and I it's just us so it's obviously just him and I that need to talk but for a family farm that is a very very good idea. That's a great piece almost to ensure that we're all on the same page because that's where they're you know, the breakdowns happen but communication breakdowns and also literally couldn't break. But yeah just helps to reinforce that no one is alone in this. We're all in it together, right? Gives you a chance to respect each other and what you have going on in your own families. Okay. So the next question is what is the toughest thing you face during Harvest? Oh, I would say just the lawn like it is a long season. It's long days even longer nights and it gets lonely. I would say almost for everyone whether it's me with the kids running around with them or it's my husband and my Dad and my brother sitting by themselves in a tractor cab. So I think that is probably one of the hardest things is it's long and it's lonely right and it's that way for everyone. I like how you said that hmm because yesterday I mean it's hard on them to not see the kids or their wives as well exactly. Like they miss sports activities and birthdays and homework and just the everyday aspects of life and that in itself is really hard. Then for us for me I missed the extra ham they extra support even someone just to talk to about you know the day because sometimes it's not conducive to phone maths on the phone like on the phone and talk about, you know the day for 30 minutes. It's and then when he comes home, I'm usually in bed. So yeah, it's we try to have those small wins during during those lonely times, right and Kylie Kylie and I have talked about this before. I just told her once that even for like BART to be her around bedtime to get the milk for the kids. Like that's such a big deal on such a big help but I don't think the guys realize how much we appreciate that when they are here, but I feel the same way like with what you were saying about the small wins. Yeah Matt he is so amazing to help around the house and when he's not around I definitely feel the the lack of extra hands around just to do even the smallest things. Right right, and you're always Bed when they get home and let's be real who wants to get up and talk. We're the same thing. He usually comes home and I have ai have fallen asleep like trying to stay up and wait for him. I've usually fall asleep with a book on my chest leaning back at all. Right or I'm sitting on the couch and then he's like Whitney. Let's go to bed and I'm like, wait. How long have you been here? Our next question is what is some advice? Ice you can offer other moms wives or any women in ag during their harvest season. Oh advice, I would say first you're not alone. It is a hard and grueling time and it can be lonely. So reach out you have to make the effort to reach out whether that is, you know girls nights and get a sitter ask for help. That's the other notion of the other piece of advice is don't be afraid to ask for help whether it's meals a sitter just for you to have Malone time or a long time to go out in the field and have a date night on the combine or on the tractor that can be essentially like one of the best things that we look forward to in Harvest is spending time with each other on the tractor with without children, but also the children to at times because they like that. Yeah reach out. Don't forget about you. I know with Harvest we push everything else to the side we say we try to do as much for everyone else. But you were just as important and your health your physical health your mental health all that stuff. So make sure you take time for yourself, right? I'm sure that's really good advice. I like that a lot and we're the same way like my niece is oh, she's 12 now and she's really good. She's like, I trust her more than most adults and she'll just text me. Do you want to go ride with Uncle bar? And I'll keep the kids and I'm like, you're such a blessing. It's so good. Yeah. Yeah mini date nights on the town. Tractor on the combine as possible because it is such a it is a really nice time to be together. Right and we all experienced that before were married when you're dating and there's no kids in the picture and then it kind of goes away when you have kids. Yeah, man. I always say you never stop dating. Yep, for sure. That's a really good tip to what is your best life hack or tip for any busy season? Your sitters your best friend out that my best life hack is it it's so cute. But my husband before Harvest he gets me a box of wine all the drinks all the wine and you can easily transport if you have to take meals out to the field, but I would say the best life hack. I don't have something that would make your life easier or you know, a recipe or anything like that. I would say try to have as much fun as possible, you know, those smiles take those moments for yourself and try to have fun dream during the hard season right? Try to be The Optimist. Hmm. Okay, and last question is if you could describe your role during Harvest or on your form and on your farm in one word, what would it be? Who in one word? Yes only one only one. Oh I what comes to mind is the Gopher that is my role. You know you go for parts you go for meals you go for kids you go you go ahead and have to step in and be at the green cart operator a combine driver. I am the Gopher on the farm you do it all do it. All right, right. I might not be the best at it. But I try where I always say, I'm the filling gal. Yes. Yeah. Okay. So for our guests Leslie if they were to find you on social media, where could they look for you? They can find me on high heels and canola Fields.com under high heels and canola fields on Facebook and Instagram and Leslie Ray Kelly are on Twitter. Okay. And as far as your do Morag, you're the co-founder for that. What exactly is that? Can you tell our listeners that yeah do more are culture. It is a foundation. Ian up here in Canada that focuses on supporting and encouraging our farmers in their mental health and mental well-being. So we've found it or we started about a year and a half ago and we're really working towards bringing more resources and more awareness about mental health and agriculture. That is really awesome. That is something that is very under talked and very over. I mean, it's a huge issue that people don't realize yeah, there's not a lot of awareness when it comes to mental health and agriculture. There's Stigma and it's also just you know part of the things that we do everyday on whether it's a ranch or a farm. So trying to get as much support and resources to our Farmers to help help them during those hard times, right? So where can people find that on social media? Yeah, you can find or look for more information at do more Egg and I was mad as walking by you can find more information at do more dot egg and we have a list of Places that you can call or text or email for more support. That's great. And you guys do you have an Instagram page to yes, you can find us on Instagram Facebook and Twitter. Okay. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for interviewing with us today. Yeah, thank you for having me. Yes. We're really happy to have you and we think you're a great inspiration for women and egg. Oh, thank you you guys are too and I love I love the podcast. I listened to the cleaning one. Yes. Day, and you need to up my game while you're in the thick of harvest. We understand we are doing this pre-harvest great while you guys have a wonderful and happy harvest and safe you guys to thank you. Thank you. We sure appreciate all of you listening today. We would love to reach more women in ag. If you would like. Please share our podcast with your friends and let us know what you think. You can also find us on Instagram at Farm wife Guru and at the Grateful Farm wife, be sure to follow or subscribe to the Midwest Farm wives podcast on your favorite podcast streaming app will see you next time and remember every day may not be good. But there is some good in every day. Stay grateful friends.
Hey y'all! Back to single seasonal mom life! In this episode we chat about preparing for harvest. We explain what our roles are during harvest and then we offer some life hacks and tell you a little about our operations during the harvest season. The one thing we want to emphasize is whatever you feel during the harvest season, you are for sure not alone. And please please, don't fall into the comparison game of another farm wife doing something more of less than you. "Its OK for someone to else to do more than you or even less than you and its especially OK for them to do things differently" -farmwifeguru Listener review from apple podcasts- 5 stars! If you are looking for a bright and uplifting podcast to listen to look no further. Whitney and Kylie are two farm wives who keep it real and always look for a silver lining in life. The lessons they have learned from farming are so valuable, that can and should be applied to everyone's life, farmer or not. I love that they don't pretend to be perfect and end each podcast with a positive quote. If you are feeling down, turn on their podcast for a dose of positive energy and encouragement. You wont be disappointed. -Jackie O. As always thanks for listening friends! 