See Steve Shannon Cross Lifelong Item Off His Farming Bucket List

The city-born Steve has an inner farm kid and on this wonderful Fall day he fulfilled a dream he's had most of his life.

First I would like to thank Brian Weavel, owner of Anna's Pizza in Winnebago, my morning show co-host, Mandy James, and the man that owns the farm, Tim Mitchell for helping make this dream come true. I'm sure the origin of this Bucket List item was me with my Tonka trucks in the my backyard sandbox. I'm also probably the only person on the road that doesn't mind following slowly behind farm equipment. But there's always been one piece of farm equipment I've always wanted to ride in, and that's a combine. They're massive and incredibly expensive and my eyes light up any time I'm close to one.

This John Deere combine you see in the picture has a price tag in $500,000 range and it's huge. I've also always wondered how it rips down the stalk of corn and just shoots the kernels into the hopper in back and none of the rest of the stalk. There's a pretty high tech system at work here but simply put, the combine shakes the kernels loose and drops them through a strainer-type mechanism and shoots into the back of the combine.

The combine is equipped with sensors that not only keeps the front part from running into the ground when the contour of mother earth changes but also keeps the combine moving straight forward automatically. There are devices inside the vehicle that even know exactly how much corn must be taken down, how much has been taken down, how much cork the field will yield by weight, the moisture level of the corn and more. There's so much more going on with that piece of machinery that I never knew about. The drivers cab also has a great stereo and it's air conditioned.

I hope to soon cross another item off my 'farming' bucket list,

Cow milking.

And what good is being out in the country if you can't get yourself a 'country kiss' in a cornfield.

"... she thinks my combine is sexy."