Things I will never own...

1. Boat - I don't fish. I would consider a pontoon however, but it's far down the list of wants.
2. Snowmobile - I tried it, didn't like it. Besides, it's cold out.
3. Motorcycle - No thanks. I did own a moped once though.

4. Sportscar - I haven't hit my mid-life crisis yet.
5. Hand gun  - Unless I time travel to the old west, I don't think it's necessary.

6. ATV - I have no where to ride one and no need to own one.

7. Golf cart - Mark Twain said "golf is a good walk wasted", but I like golf, so I may as well walk.

8. Plane - Cost alone is a no brainer, but I'm not a big flyer.

9. Fish house - Sitting on a frozen lake staring at a hole in the ice is not appealing. See #2 too.

10. Tractor - No plans on farming in the immediate future, but I will drive one if needed.

* I reserve the right to change my mind on any of the above items without reason or rational explanation as I'm sure there was a day in my life I said I would never wear running tights or bike shorts in public.

* I think I may have eliminated any sort of inheritance from my Father-in-law and/or Stepfather with the above list.

I am however the proud new owner of the bike pictured below. I bought it a few weeks ago and posted a pic on DailyMile. I stated on DailyMile that I have yet to name my bike, but would do so soon. Fellow blogger and all around awesome dude Bryan said that I'd get to know my bike very well over the next year due to the massive amount of training needed for Ironman. With that said, I thought I better name my bike based on two maing criteria;
1. Female - I couldn't see myself describing bike rides on my blog by saying "I took Steve out for a long hard ride today" or "I did intervals on James this morning and boy was it hard!".
2. Familiar - In the off chance a family member stumbles across this blog, I needed it to be a name others already  knew.
The name I chose met both criteria and honors a special woman in my life...my wife, Sarah. But in order to eliminate any confusion, I named her Sara (no "h").




Sara! She's fast and sexy!

 

Gettin' my Farm on!

For the last few years the family and I have gone back to East Dakota to the Grandparents house during harvest time. I've slowly been let into the process of harvest, first learning how to help dry the corn and put it into the bins. The next year, I helped by "chopping stalks" in some of the corn fields. This year, I was allowed to drive the grain cart. Now this is quite a step up and I must say I really felt like I was doing some real farming.

Moving my way up the tractor ladder

I followed the combine and when I got the "sign", I pulled up along side and the combine and it would empty its corn into the cart I was pulling. I would do this 2 times then I would empty my cart into the semi trailer.  When the semi was full, it would take the load back to the farm to be emptied (via the auger) into the holding bin, wait for its turn in the dryer, and then into the bins.

$200K and only driven 4 weeks a year...sweet.

That's it. Farming is easy as hell and the equipment is cool to drive.

Tomorrow we go back to the Twin Cities, much to the delight of my Father in Law I'm sure.

Later