Harvesting with Farmer Dave

This past Sunday, Ian's harvest dreams finally came true as he got the opportunity to ride in a working combine! My friend Jan, from the Illinois State Water Survey, has a brother Dave that farms & he was kind enough to let us come & visit (thank you - thank you - thank you!)



Shortly after lunch that day, Hadley, Ian, Grandma Janet & I set out to visit the farm. Dave was working south of Monticello in Piatt County, so it was about a 45 minute drive from home to get there and I think that all 45 minutes involved some sort of "Are we there yet?" comment. Ian was very concerned with what type of crop Farmer Dave might be harvesting because he hoped that he had the "pokies" on his combine (the corn head). He was also very excited because Jan had told me that Farmer Dave had a John Deere combine - his favorite! It was really hard to be patient with so much to look forward to!

When we arrived, Dave was working on corn & Ian was immediately ready to climb aboard. Actually, both kids & I got to ride along while Jan & Grandma Janet got stuck waiting out in the wind (sorry). As we went down every row, Ian kept saying, "I want want to go this many more (hold out all your fingers)." Hadley eventually tired of the excitement and climbed out to play, but Ian wasn't going anywhere!

When we finally did get him out of the combine, it was to climb in the tractor with Farmer George. He had a great time riding along as the combine emptied its corn into the wagon. The hardest part was when it was time to go - it broke his heart to leave. Once we finally did get home, he spent the next few days playing with his combine & tractor (the couch rows are his crop!)

Only in central Illinois...

This past weekend we went to the Philo Fun Fest. Philo, which also calls itself the "Center of the Universe" is a small town about 10 miles south-southeast of Urbana. The initial big draw was the fire department's pancake & sausage breakfast. These are some of Todd's favorite foods & so we have become connoisseurs of these fundraising events. But once we got there, we found that there had been an antique tractor parade & that they were still parked in a nearby field. Ian was in heaven! He and Little Pappa spent forever going from tractor to tractor for him to sit & pretend to drive (all accompanied by the requisite tractor noises...)


Then, at 11:00 they held a kiddie tractor pull. I signed up tractor-man Ian & on a whim asked Hadley if she wanted to participate. She said yes, so I added her to the 4-year old group. The sled they pull with the pedal tractor was pretty deluxe and got heavier the further they drove. Ian was all excited because the pedal tractor was John Deere (his favorite), but unfortunately, he didn't really understand that it was going to be difficult to pedal because of the sled & basically went nowhere. There were 4 boys signed up in his group and they gave trophies to first through third. Poor Ian came in fourth. Luckily he didn't even realize that they were giving out trophies though because he was off to sit on the tractors (again!)

Hadley's 4-year old group was up next & there were about 7 kids in her group. The organizers of the pull added an iron bar of weight to the sled for this age group, which made me nervous for her attempt, but she did really well. Some kids weren't even able to go at all (like had happened to Ian) and one little boy refused to even try. The end result was that Hadley came in 2nd! This was good because after her turn, I asked her if she wanted to go do something else & she told me no because she was waiting for her trophy. It is now sitting in a place of honor in my china cabinet. Ian, meanwhile, is in training for the next kiddie pull we hear of!