Minnesota Farm Visit

We think that the largest "source" state of folks visiting Venture Out (the resort where we own a lot and where we stayed last winter) is Minnesota. We have met lots of folks there in Arizona who call Minnesota home in the summertime. One couple that we met, Randy and Laureen, have a farm near Balaton, Minnesota, and they had invited us to come with our RV and visit them -- so we put that into our plan for traveling from Illinois to Idaho.

Gracie parked next to one of their outbuildings (man-cave/she-shed).

Garage next to the man-cave shows that Randy likes John Deere Green!

Randy took us over to explain the grain handling facilities that he has...

Two of the storage units (in the middle -- another one can be seen to the left) and two drying units with the "grain leg" that is used to distribute the grain to the appropriate location.

Where the harvest grain would be dumped into the system.

The process is all automated to move the grain...

The controls also allow him to pull grain out of the storage bins into a semi truck to deliver to market.

Inside a dryer

Control panel for the dryer...

He can set where the grain should go from the dryer. The dryer sends the grain when it is at the desired dryness.

The "insides" of the dryer controller.

A video of the auger in motion: https://youtu.be/VTSUAqEbwtQ

Dryer mechanism

Generator (actually for house power)

Randy continued to show Carl his new combine...

He said that this is the smallest combine that John Deere makes and that the company is probably going to discontinue it.

Inside the combine -- filters out the debris from the grain.

Control panel

Laureen showed me her she-shed (that had originally been planned as a man-cave)...

...*and* she introduced me to their kittens!!

So cute!

Three mama cats have given birth.

I think there are about a dozen kittens.

This particular box had holes cut into the sides which were great for the kittens to push their paws through!

After a delicious dinner,

Laureen showed us her beautiful quilts!

Each so unique!

Such a beautiful farm, and such sweet friends!