The Biggest Vacuum You’ve Ever Seen

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We had some really nice weather a couple weekends ago – that mild, spring weather that reminds you winter can’t have a grip on you forever! 🙂 Bjorn wanted to get a good amount of our stored soybeans (from last fall’s harvest) shipped out to a soybean oil plant, so he and his dad worked hard on getting those beans loaded and driven up to another town.

I went with Bjorn after school one Friday to pick up a Vac-U-Vator we were renting for the weekend’s work. Before then, I had had no idea what a Vac-U-Vator even was!

If you’re wondering yourself, you’re probably thinking it sounds like a vacuum…and that’s exactly what it is! We essentially rented a giant, strong vacuum that could suck the soybeans into a grain cart, instead of using an auger to move our soybeans from one place to another.

Here’s what our beans looked like in the quonset (grain storage shed) by the time I “visited” most recently. The beans used to be sky high in here! (You can get a feel for how large this building is by looking at the big shovel on the left!)

Bjorn knows I totally love vacuuming at least at home, so he was excited to show me the Vac-U-Vator at work! And I did love it!

Below is a video clip of the vacuum at work — but please note, it is a LOUD machine!! 🙂

VACUVATOR

It was quite heavy for me to move around, but it was still fun to sweep the end of the vacuum back and forth and watch our soybeans quickly move up the chute and into the grain cart!

Aren’t these the coolest little beans? It’s remarkable how they go from little green plants, barely perceptible as we drive by on the highway, to gorgeous sun-soaked dried stalks in the fall, to an entire quonset full of shelled goodness!

I always pick up a few beans to roll around in my hand when I’m over there; I find them so cool! And it still blows my mind to think about the whole growing process and how my husband is involved from start to finish. (And the extra paycheck from farming isn’t bad, either!)

I’m so proud of Bjorn and all that he works hard at! It is so fun to support him and come alongside (or vacuum alongside!) him. 🙂

Do you have farms near where you live? What crops do they grow where you are?