The Short Version

I could possibly write about this year's harvest for hours.  The chaos started nearly two weeks ago when people started talking about the wheat being ready very early this year.  When we saw the first combine out on June 7, we couldn't believe it.  That is EARLY. 

We started a few days later, and things went relatively well until Wednesday.  My husband was driving the combine, heard a bad  noise (I'm sure a male would have described it in better terms), and saw smoke.  Apparently smoke and steam look quite similar upon first glance.  The good news was, it wasn't smoke.  The bad news was, it was a very expensive blown radiator, which I learned takes many hours to replace. 

Enter the hero of the week - Neighbor Neal - who was done with harvest and graciously loaned my FIL his combine.  Fast forward through using his combine, fixing ours, cutting 20 minutes with ours and realizing the new radiator leaks badly, and borrowing Neal's again.  The results of all that?  Very grumpy men.

Move on to last night.  Last field.  Last day of harvest.  Still using someone else's very nice combine.  We began to hear thunder and see lightening to the north, so I hauled the kids home.  The clouds got darker, I turned on the TV, and saw a newly issued tornado warning.  We were in the direct path of the storm. 

At that moment my MIL called to tell me that she called my FIL to tell him about the weather.  I said, "Are they getting out of the field?"  She responded with, "They better be!"

Knowing these two guys, I did not trust that answer, so I called my husband.  When I asked him what he was doing, he said, "Cutting wheat!" 

A myriad of possible answers ran through my mind.  My panicked 8 year old was listening to my every word, so I chose the very emphatic, "LISTEN TO ME.  YOU CANNOT STAY THERE.  YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF THE FIELD RIGHT NOW."  Shockingly enough, I still heard him ask his dad if he should stay or go.

Later, my husband told me he could feel me strangling him through the phone. 

He was right. 

They played the amazing race to get all the trucks to the shed and the combine to the neighbors and everyone to a house with a basement. 

In the end, it was a nasty storm, but there were no official tornadoes and everything turned out ok.

The best part, however....the men still admitted that the women were RIGHT.