For the kids fall break, we drove up to Montana to see potato harvest. The first two years Chad and I were married, he worked harvest for his dad. It is long, hard hours for 3-6 weeks with a pretty good paycheck at the end. The first year I was amazed by it all, the combine, tractors, trucks, smell of dirt (EVERYWHERE), and the huge, ginormous piles of potatoes! But the kids haven't ever been up there for harvest.

 

Chad and his father

 

So here's my perspective of the process, it may or may not be totally off. Chad might have to rewrite this section. A tractor pulls a crossover across the field. It digs up 4 rows of potatoes and dumps it all in the next row. Then a combine comes and picks up those potatoes plus another 4 rows (they actually had 2 crossovers working so the combine got 12 rows). The combine is an amazing machine that I can't even begin to describe. It gets the bulk of the dirt and roots separated from the potatoes and dumps them in the bed of the truck that drives next to the combine. After it is filled up, another truck pulls up and gets filled. Once the truck is topped off, it drives back to the farm to unload. The potatoes are loaded up onto a conveyor belts which leads to another and another and another and another...well, there's quite a few. Workers stand beside the conveyor belts picking out anything that isn't a potato. Then it leads to the cellar where the potatoes are left in a perfect potato heaven. Huge fans and ventilation things (I really don't understand it all but it's really expensive) keep the spuds good until spring when my in-laws sell them.

Chad drives one of the trucks that gets loaded up. I love a man who can drive a semi-truck and program*! My nerdy truck driver! Ok, back on track, the kids loved it! Each got a ride with dad out to the field where they got to ride with Grandpa in the tractor pulling the combine. It was great fun! I just think it's so amazing that their grandparents own a farm! Plus the benefit of hanging out with family we love and adore. It was a really good trip. I just wish it would have worked out to stop in Rexburg and see Harris's family.   *not at the same time