TR | Happy Campers (December 2017)

ilovedisneymm

DIS Veteran
Joined
Nov 6, 2014
Well I just can't wait to get my report started any longer!!!!

Maybe it's because I'm just feeling pretty good about things....I'm not pregnant with 24 hour nausea, I'm not nursing an infant every two hours, and I'm not coming down in two tents.......ITS GOING TO BE EPIC FOLKS! I'm so so excited about this trip! Oh yeah, we are coming down in DECEMBER and not January like that past five before hand. A twist! Oh how exciting! How fun this will be to loop around the loops in the gold cart and see all the Christmas decor. Yes, you heard right. I call my golf cart a gold cart because it helps put the icing on the cake or the gold dust/pixie dust on our trips. I love looping!!! Love it!

We are booked Dec 3 - 18 in a full hook up site (clover loops). I originally had us booked Dec 3 - Dec 17 and it totally did not occur to me that hubby's bday was the 17....until he asked what our dates were and I told him and he said, "so we are leaving on my bday...ok" oh NO! How could I do that to him? Who wants to leave the Fort on their BIRTHDAY?!?! What kind of wife am I? Lord. I have been working diligently over the past two weeks stalking the site like 10 times a day trying to add on an extra day. I like to call it "ADD A DAY" and I sing that by the way "ADD A DAY" when ever it rained on our past trips or something to where I could justify it, I would add a day onto the end of our trip if possible. It's our little inside joke. So yes, I was able to finally add that extra day "ADD A DAY" and we no longer have to pack up and pull out on his bday. I'm going to order him a special cake for his special day. Not sure yet on where. Suggestions?

Most in here reading this is a small-tight-knit-fort-lover-group and you all know me (us)....but for those that don't know us we are a farm family from central Illinois. Hubby farms corn/beans/wheat and we have a small cattle farm too. I homeschool and our kids are typically done by 12 or 1 and then off to help on the farm most days. I once was an established photographer, but life turned me down the road to homeschool our children once they became of age and well my camera collects dust these days. What is that Toby Keith song....."I'm not as young as I once was, but I was young once as I ever was". Pretty much sums up my photography career in a nutshell.

Me | Hubby | Grace 8 | Daniel 7 | and Charlotte 15 months now.

We finally have a camper (YES). I posted pictures of this over the summer in a previous post, but I like things nice and orderly so for the sake of this trip report, I'm going to post the new to us camper pictures here too! We bought this camper from our friends that were upgrading. I reupholstered the dinette and made curtains to compliment. It's not new or perfect, but I didn't have to borrow a dime and for that I am thankful and love it. I plan to use it till the wheels fall off. We have only used it once over the summer as we have been extremely busy on trying to finishing building our home before hubby got crazy busy in the field. I am really really really excited to use it for our Disney trip.

I really don't have much planned for this trip. We have seven day tickets with park hopper. We like to get in at rope drop and leave early from the park days. Food wise, we want to have a sit down TE dinner and a sit down TE breakfast (which we have not done for four years on the breakfast side). The only things new will be a dinner reservation at Whispering Canyon and a day or two at the water parks. We have never done the water parks cause they are always closed in January by the time we get there. I think the kids are going to love it. I think hubby is going to love it just as much as the kids. He works so damn hard during the year, I just love to see him relax our our trips and play with the kids as much as possible. Winter is our down time. On the water parks days (one or two), Charlotte and I will stay behind and nap. NAP! OH NAPS HOW I LOVE YOU! We're going to nap and I'm going to love it! After naps, I plan to make a nice feast for them on their return.

50 days till arrival........50 days!

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Melissa,

I can't wait to read more. The camper remodel looks great. It reminds me so much of our old bunk house. Lots of fond memories. It may still be on the dealer's lot in Decatur. It was this spring.

Take lots of pics. I've never been down around Christmas. The pics from prior years look so amazing.

Hopefully the house is coming along and our mid summer heat and drought didn't effect the crops too bad. Corn down here did ok. It was mostly ready to pick by the time it got real dry. Late season crops seemed to suffer some. At least the way they looked from the road when we drive past.

And 49 Days!

j
 


Jim my friend, we did go to Jerry Presley's RV a few times this summer. I am not sure if that is who you are referring to or Trade Winds in Maroa. I thought you went with Pontiac RV??? There was a camper very similar to ours and I peeked in the window to see more (cause the lot was technically closed but open to drive thru). I can't give you any details other than it was laid out just like ours and had an extra slide (back or front I'm not sure). I do remember it was priced at 9,000.

House is coming along. For the most part, the exterior is finished. Still things to finish on the interior side. The main reason for us to go in December is so that right after Christmas we can focus on finishing up the inside in January & February.

Daniel has been on corn for the most part so far this harvest. Yield wise, things have been surprisingly very well. 251 was the best field and 209 the low on the good ground. He starts on beans tomorrow.

Here is a recent lunch to the field picture. Grace and I like to make big lunch feasts a few times a week. Her speciality is double fudge brownies & mini pumpkin pies.

Hubby Daniel in the middle with little Daniel, Grace, and Charlotte. His father is on the right and his uncle on the left and then our seed man standing and our hired man in front. It was a good field day.

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Jim my friend, we did go to Jerry Presley's RV a few times this summer. I am not sure if that is who you are referring to.

Here is a recent lunch to the field picture. Grace and I like to make big lunch feasts a few times a week. Her specialty is double fudge brownies & mini pumpkin pies.
We did buy from Jerry Presley. We drove up to Pontiac the weekend prior to look at a Keystone that was "perfect"... on paper. Unfortunately it wasn't "the one" when we had a chance to see it.

It's funny about my old camper. We bought it in January 2016, almost 2 years ago. This Spring, over a year after trading it in, we got a call from Presley's asking for the title. I didn't realize we didn't send it to them, but wondered what took so long. I assumed they wholesaled it given the age. If they were asking $9,000, they didn't make anything on it. They gave me more than that for it and I picked up my current trailer for less than $2,000 over cost.

Lunch sounds great. How much would it be for Grace to bring some double fudge brownies and pumpkin pies to St. Louis? My team would love it.

Good news on the yields. That's better than down here. Did you plant beans after wheat? Most of the bean fields around here have been cut for quite a while. About the only thing left are feed corn fields and hay. And the late horseradish. That's big business around here.

j
 


Tomorrow's field lunch will be double pot of chili, cheese biscuits, individual pumpkin pies, and tea. Grace said you will just have to come to her dad's field. Too much for deliveries!

We started on beans here as most famers did. Very unusual to start on beans first (at least for us) but things were so dry, the beans were starting to pop in some areas. We had no choice. We finally got some rain and then able to switch back to corn which he has been on for the past few weeks. I think corn is done now.

Hubby does plant some winter wheat each year. This is the main field of wheat (well the wheat has been combined). This was done sometime in early July. This 40 acre field yield 7,500 square bales of straw in addition to the wheat. Two hard weeks! These two weeks each year almost kill my husband, his father, and our hired man. They just didn't have it in them to finish the last few rows, so they just round baled the rest. Speaking of round bales...

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We also did a small patch of oats by the house for the cattle that we did in round bales. For some odd reason one was left. I think cause it didn't end up fitting on the trailer and hubby just didn't come back over for it yet.

Hubby said, "Give the boy a lighter."

Hubby said, "He can burn the trash."

Hubby said, "It will be a good thing................"

Hubby said, "Don't you dare post that to Facebook."

As for me? I saw this coming a mile away! Guess who couldn't fly out of the house fast enough to get this pic? Guess who posted it to Facebook? Guess who doesn't have a lighter anymore? Guess which Daniel got in trouble here? I'll give you a hint, it's not the little one!

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Tomorrow's field lunch will be double pot of chili, cheese biscuits, individual pumpkin pies, and tea. Grace said you will just have to come to her dad's field. Too much for deliveries!

We started on beans here as most famers did. Very unusual to start on beans first (at least for us) but things were so dry, the beans were starting to pop in some areas. We had no choice. We finally got some rain and then able to switch back to corn which he has been on for the past few weeks. I think corn is done now.

Hubby does plant some winter wheat each year. This is the main field of wheat (well the wheat has been combined). This was done sometime in early July. This 40 acre field yield 7,500 square bales of straw in addition to the wheat. Two hard weeks! These two weeks each year almost kill my husband, his father, and our hired man. They just didn't have it in them to finish the last few rows, so they just round baled the rest. Speaking of round bales...

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We also did a small patch of oats by the house for the cattle that we did in round bales. For some odd reason one was left. I think cause it didn't end up fitting on the trailer and hubby just didn't come back over for it yet.

Hubby said, "Give the boy a lighter."

Hubby said, "He can burn the trash."

Hubby said, "It will be a good thing................"

Hubby said, "Don't you dare post that to Facebook."

As for me? I saw this coming a mile away! Guess who couldn't fly out of the house fast enough to get this pic? Guess who posted it to Facebook? Guess who doesn't have a lighter anymore? Guess which Daniel got in trouble here? I'll give you a hint, it's not the little one!

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Those bales go up quick and hot...glad no one was hurt and well, sure it was a good lesson learned. Everything else sounds awesome, as I grew up in Indiana in farm country. Most of my friends had farms, or horses. We hope to get a "Christmas " trip in next....see how things go.
 
I don't see anything wrong in that picture. :D You should have seen the fun we started with a magnifying glass. My brother got in trouble when he did it about a foot from the garage. Other than that, no harm in a few burn piles. At least you have evidence and posted it for the world to see.

Grace said you will just have to come to her dad's field. Too much for deliveries!

We started on beans here as most farmers did. Very unusual to start on beans first (at least for us) but things were so dry,
Too much for deliveries? You know I work for the largest non-government employer in Missouri. We get things delivered from all over the world. How much could some fudge be? :-) And now we are going to have chili? I am always looking for a fun little road trip to take the baby beast out. If you see this coming up your drive, I'll be there for lunch.

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I'll even help load up bails. Just don't ask me to de-tassle corn next spring. :worship:

Now that we have completely derailed your Pre-TR. Tell us some more about what you have planned at WDW.

j
 
Well we have about ten days left before harvest is over. Or I should say another ten days of trying to get the crops out. A few weeks after that on field work. Rain came in last night and it has not stopped! Here we sit and 8 am with non stop rain. More rain coming this week too.

A little camp excitement before the big D trip. Hubby has to take some track for the CAT over to Iowa to get repaired. Guess who all gets to go and take the camper too? Yep! Road trip for a night in the camper ;) Yes, yes I am excited about this. What a weirdo right?!

So with the rain here hubby can do a few things towards the trip.

(1) Paint gold cart white! It is cream now, but I would like it white to match the house/outbuildings/camper. They want $550 for a new body. Hubby thinks he can do a good job with a few cans of paint and a wet sander.

(2) New axle on the trailer. Aparently the original axle was slightly bent or curved or something so that it wore two of the tires out very quickly. The original owner told us about this. Since he never went any distance outside 30 miles from home it wasn't a concern, but would be for us and hauling to FL. The new axle is in and ready to be put on.

(3) New set of tires on the trailer.

After our morning lessons, I plan to revisit our itinerary. I'm thinking hit it hard park day and then relax at the fort the next day....repeat this seven times.
 
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Rain came in last night and it has not stopped!

A little camp excitement before the big D trip. Hubby has to take some track for the CAT over to Iowa to get repaired. Guess who all gets to go and take the camper too? Yep! Road trip for a night in the camper ;) Yes, yes I am excited about this. What a weirdo right?!

New axle on the trailer. Apparently the original axle was slightly bent or curved or something so that it wore two of the tires out very quickly.
Rain finally moved out of here mid morning and the sun came out, although Ian was just trying to have a fire in the pit and said it started raining again. Good luck getting the crops out. I saw one bean field on the drive home tonight that hasn't been cut. One corn field already had rows of something green popping up between the old corn stubble. I would think winter wheat, but it seems way early for that.

Not weird at all. Any chance to try out the new camper is a good chance.

And my Cruiser had a bent axle from the factory too. CrossRoads had a batch of a 1000 or so from Dexter that didn't have the correct "bow" in them. They were recalled at the time. I had mine replaced and 2 new tires under warranty when I went up for one of the rallies when I was rally master for them.

j
 
Well the magic bands have been ordered. I have a good collection building and honestly, I like the older thicker bands better. Funny how they make things cheaper each year (hahahaha). You know its true! I'm thinking of activating an older set instead. Will see.

I saw this on a Facebook group, a fire pit on sale at True Value. I have always wanted one, but we have always been limited on space while traveling.

NOT THIS YEAR!!!!

I ordered this morning with free shipping and pick-up at my local hardware store. Should fit nicely in the back of the truck with the gold cart.

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driving home last night, seeing the farmers out cutting corn in the fields at 11pm made me think of you folks. Hope you have gotten all the fields done and are ready for the big trip.
 
Going on almost two months now. Longest harvest EVER. I'm limping at this point. I'm sure hubby more than I, but still. Yes, out the door by 4 or 5 at the latest and home around 10 at night. I can't do this harvest widow thing no more. Today was suppose to be the last day, but it's not looking so good $&&@&@&@$$!

Let me say last day on corn. Still have all the ground to work.
 
New set of tires all around and the trailer axle is on. Up next, building a box for generator and finish up the golf cart.

Magic bands have shipped (still thinking about using an original set instead) good to add to the band collection anyway.

And......I'm going with countdown till we leave for Disney not arrival date.

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Melissa, So happy you have a camper. It almost looks like our 1st (Rockwood). Loved to see the pictures of how big the kids have grown. Glad your crops did well this year. I know you will be like to have your home finished. We built ours & you get to a point where you are tired on working on it, but at the end it is all paid for. Our Lower had great Disney stuff! Wanted to buy it all. Can't wait to read all about your trip!
 

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