I can't remember if I mentioned in one of my previous posts that one of the reasons I had our work drone home to practice with is because I had an upcoming work trip to visit one of our grower families for which I would be bringing along the drone, so I wanted to get as much practice in as possible before then.
I thought I'd share a little about my trip here on the blog because I had such an amazing experience. I was also going to take photos of the family and the farming operation, along with the drone footage. So, hopefully it's not 'work' overload when typically this is our family blog.
The farm is near Frederick, SD which was about 2 1/2 hours southwest of Fargo. I went down Wednesday afternoon. The whole original purpose of the trip/visit was to facilitate our customer and the film/production company that they had hired to do a story on our grower. This family is one of our organic black bean growers and this particular customer buys the black beans through HFI (my work) for for their burritos. We had a lot of phone conversations and prep work prior to the actual meeting taking place, so it was nice that it was finally happening! I think our grower family was just as excited to learn about where their beans are going as our customer was to come and see where the beans come from and meet the people growing them.
Anyhow, I had to snap a pic of all their Case equipment lined up here for Dana. They actually do have a John Deere combine too. Otherwise they do have two more older Case tractors and I sent pics while I was there to Dana he said they were loyal customers. Haha.
Two of the brothers of this family live on the family farm with their families as well as the 'grandma.' The customer, the film crew and I had all arrived on Wednesday and were invited for a family meal with them for dinner (aka supper). You can probably spot me sitting at the table, but what about the puppy in this pic? hehe.
They raise quite a few chickens on the farm as well and I came back to the yard after taking some drone footage in the field on Wednesday to find the chickens had all put themselves to bed in the coop and one of the sons just had to shut the door for them! I got such a kick out of that. The dad came up right after the son closed up the door to say he had just spotted a mountain lion in one of their fields. I think he said that was the first he had ever seen one around their farm.
They so graciously let me come take pictures of them at 7:00 AM on Thursday morning. The mom snapped this one of me taking some field pics.
This is actually one of the shots from that field. (And this is the black bean field that they're producing for HFI). The two gentlemen on each end are brothers and the middle kids are the two youngest kids of the guy, Lonny, in the black sweatshirt. And one of their dogs, Wrigley. :-) They all farm together and what was especially neat is how involved the daughter is in the day-to-day operation of the farm as well (as the guys).
Here is another dog, Rocky (below). Going down there and having them open up their farm, home, and family to me was such an emotional experience for me. I know I am such a crybaby anyhow, but you know how certain smells and sounds can evoke memories? Not only did I have such a great time there meeting this family, getting to know them, learning their dogs' names and sharing stories and having that be emotional for me, but just to hear the sound of the gravel as we were walking across the farm yard (which I have always loved for some reason) to the whole family giving me hugs as I was leaving Thursday night and telling me, "drive careful and watch for deer." I couldn't help but feel like they were an extension of my family at that moment because that's exactly what my own family would say whenever I would be leaving and it was dark out. I hadn't always liked growing up on a farm, but I will admit that having that background has certainly helped my in my career now, working in agriculture. And there are many situations in life where I feel like the dumbest one of the group, but at least I knew what a swather was when the customer and the film crew didn't have a clue! Haha! Plus they served rhubarb dessert after dinner and offered me a Diet Dr. Pepper that they had on hand. I was about ready to move in right then!
I had gone early to get my pictures and such that we can use for HFI marketing before the film crew showed up for the day, so I was able to set up my computer and do some work from their kitchen while we waited for filming to start. It was sure weird to technically be working, but not in the Fargo office.
Part of filming. That's the mom on top of the tractor. It was cute that she pretty much was videoing with her cell phone everything that the film crew was doing. ;-) Also, that shot at the end where the son is talking to Lonny (the dad) and then jumps up to get into the combine is my fav. (It's a little far away to see really well, but you can see the silhouette at the end.) This is just with my cell phone so I was just fooling around, taking some video 'behind the scenes,' but I just love seeing farmers jump up into the tractor (or combine). Not really sure why; just another one of those memory things, I guess.
I was hoping for a combine ride while I was down there, but they were in between small grains and bean harvest, and just starting to swath a millet field. At least I could sit up in a tractor anyway though.
I sure had a good time with their pets!
Though this cat was thoroughly unimpressed with me. Haha.
I had a total blast infiltrating our farmer family for a couple of days!
Well, back to reality! I got back late Thursday night. Friday we were able to spend a nice evening outside. Dana and Brynn took the four-wheelers out by the slough or whatever it is just south of our house. Clara and I bummed around outside. Our neighbors have these two really nice apple trees just between our yards. It always seems neither one of the girls can get enough apples in general. So, they really love to see if any apples are lying on the ground that they can snatch up. (I won't let them pick any from the tree, but our neighbor did come out when I was taking these pics last night and offer that we are welcome to pick some). I had been thinking it would be cute to take some pics of the girls by the trees as they are looking so lush right now with the apples turning redder.
Dana and Brynn four-wheeling. They said they met another neighbor back there.
Seems like we have a four-wheeler gang now.
Brynn wanted a pic of her with the apple tree too.
With me being gone in the middle of the week, we didn't get very organized on our plans for the long weekend. Finally last night we decided that Dana was going to Dead Lake with the girls (unless they decided to stay home as that's what my plan was going to be). They ended up wanting to go the lake, so they are coming back tomorrow. I have been getting quite a bit done and hopefully will get a little bit caught up on stuff around the house so we can have fun together when they get back.
They were snuggling so nicely in our bed this morning.
Also, my dream car is for sale near our house! They have it listed for about double what I would be willing to pay for a car that I would just have for fun, so it's not looking like a real possibility for me. I'm sure it actually is worth that much as Dana did drive past it himself to see what they were asking and he said it looks really nice and clean and well taken care of. Oh well, I'll keep dreamin'!
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