Here is a video I made from some clips I took in the field last week. It was very windy and some parts get a little bouncy, I apologize in advance for that. I was hoping to capture the sounds of the combines, but I mostly just captured the sound of the Kansas wind. Then I tried to add a song to the video, but that didn't work either. So it is what it is, but not what I'd hoped it would be. Here is the address, I can't get it link so copy and paste the address in a new web browser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyW_AIun7l8
You can also go to YouTube and search: Melchert Harvesting, Kansas Wheat
Monday, June 27, 2011
Meals on Wheels
Making lunch and making a lot of dirty dishes.
It is nice to get the pre lunch dishes done before I take lunch out if possible because there is a bunch of dishes to do after lunch from all the containers.
The menu for Fridays lunch was: pizza hotdish, garlic bread, and brownies with 1 scoop of ice cream.
Meals on wheels to the field. We learned to buckle up the water cooler so it doesn't spill or tip over.
Me enjoying the really nice day while I waited for the guys to come up and get their lunch. Jon went to check if the next field was ready.
One of the few fields we could unload on the go here, many fields had some terraces which makes it too difficult to unload on the go with trucks anyway. This was some really good wheat!
Some nights there are tons of fireflies out. Jon caught some and put them in a styrafoam cup, their lights shown through really well, though not in the picture at all! It was a beautiful night out.
We finished up combining late on Friday. It was a really good week of harvesting. Saturday I made up the invoices, we settled up with the farmers, the guys started to get the machines blown off good and load them onto the trailers. We were going to grill hot dogs for supper, but Winston was craving steak. So he bought a nearly 1 lb steak for everyone and he & Charlie grilled them up, it was very good and also very generous of him. Around 9pm it really cooled off, there was a good breeze and was nice outside. So Jon & I went for a walk around 9:30. About 5 minutes into the walk we could see an older pickup coming our way and it was smoking like crazy. By the time it was a few yards away we could see it wasn't the pickup itself that was smoking, it was what was in the bed of the truck and by then it was too late. The wind was blowing towards us and the guy didn't stop to let us cross. So we got fumigated. YUCK! He was spraying for mosquitos and it was sure stinky. We couldn't believe it, how disgusting, but we didn't have to worry about any mosquitos bothering us!
Sunday we went to Concordia Lutheran Church, same as we had went to the previous week. It was nice to visit with the people we had met the week before and join in the worship with them. Their organist had been gone the week before and there were just recordings, but he was back this Sunday, what a difference it was. The church was filled with the music, it was almost as good as our church's music back home. It is easy to take the music, organists, and our powerful organ for granted until you visit other churches and can compare, I like it when a church is just bursting with music and praise. And after church it happened again, there was a potluck! Several people invited us to stay and well they didn't have to twist our arms very hard, it was put on by the men of the church - what a great idea! It was 75% meat with a little of everything else and it was great. After that Jon went to meet with the other farmers that he did not get to the day before and the rest of us headed to the sauna, I mean laundromat. It was 102 degrees outside on Sunday and it wasn't much less than that in the laundromat. A few hours in there was long enough. When Jon and all of us got back to the camper we decided to go to the community pool to cool down for a while. Jim didn't have swim trunks along so he stayed back at the camper while the rest of us went for a dip. At 5-6pm everyday all the kids under 18 have to leave and it is only open to adults. The guys were doing flips and goofy things off the diving boards and then we played shark for the rest of the hour, it was fun. That night after supper Andy took us all out to Dairy Queen and bought us all a blizzard or shake, how nice! Our crew is the best!
Friday, June 24, 2011
A BEAUTIFUL week in central Kansas!!!
Sometime over the past weekend Jim managed to get 1 channel to come in clearly on our TV just in time for the Miss USA pagent. It was pretty exciting considering we haven't had any TV in over a month. We get NBC, it is nice to be able to watch the news and Leno. Has anyone seen that show America's Got Talent? We get that show and it is quite entertaining. I had never watched it at home but rather like it now :) As difficult as it was to pull everyone away from the tube, after a week of not combining it is really good to get going again.
Monday started out as a hot, muggy morning. I think it was 90 degrees at 7am. By noon there was a good breeze and it seemed a bit cooler and was really comfortable out. By 7pm I was wearing a light coat, it was in the upper 50's. There were really severe storms to the northwest and southwest of us. It sprinkled on us for a bit but not more than that. The next day we found out that the next farmer we cut for a few hours away had a tornado close by, hail busted his windshield, and broke several windows in his house. He will let us know soon if any of his wheat fields are salvagable or if they are destroyed.
We are SO thankful to have picked up work in this area, what a blessing it has been and a really nice area to work in. When we originally talked to people most farmers in this area have a combine or two and harvest themselves. There is one guy in the area that custom cuts just around here as well, so it wasn't looking good for us, but after that week of storms here farmers are really wanting to get their crops out in a hurry since the wheat is doing better than they thought it would yield. So we have had several farmers contact us to help out. Paul & Norma are a farm couple in their 80's who hired us. They were so happy we could harvest for them so quickly. They had 39-50 bushel / acre averages which is really good. We got almost all 355 of thier wheat acres done in 1 day, if the elevator wouldn't have closed at 11 we would have finished. Norma brought out 1/2 lb burgers and home cut fries to the field from their local cafe in town that night for supper. The food was great, it was very sweet of them to do that for us. When Norma and I were going over the invoice a couple days later she gave me 1 of their church's cookbooks. It was so nice of her and she wrote me the sweetest message in the cover.
"A gift for Holly, my young Minnesota farmer friend. From Norma, a Kansas Veteran farmer for 57 years and friend. May you find a recipe or two that you can use to help make your job of feeding the crew a little easier. What joy to see you work side by side with your husband. We love you all, God Bless."
Sometimes we feel like traveling salespeople trying to get work and it can be frusterating, but it is the people and things like this that make the work personal and more than a job.
Danny's truck is back in action.
Gorgeous day!!
Everyday since Monday has been like this, from the 80-'s to low 90's. I have been driving combine a lot more this week than normal since the wheat is really good and there has been more lines and wait time at the elevator. So last night I ordered supper from the cafe and was going to pick it up when I went to town to fill up the farm fuel tank and pick up a part. I pull up to the Backwoods Cafe, that is actually the name, and there are 4 guys and a dog sitting outside the cafe enjoying some beers. There was an 84 yr old gent that recognized me from the feed store where I was visiting with him the day before and asked how things were going. He had been to MN a lot in his day, he raced stock cars and did very well I guess. So anyway he told the other guys this was why he liked MN so much, it was full of pretty women - such a flirt! I talked with them for a bit about the harvest and another guy asked if I was married! He said if he wasn't 80 yrs old he would ask me out, I said yes I was married and had better get inside to pick up our supper. Ha! It made me and the guys laugh anyways.
On to the next field! It has been really nice that we haven't had to take the heads off of the combines moving around to most of the fields.
I better get lunch off to the field or I may get fired, HA!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Rain, rain go away
Since we got here on Tuesday afternoon, it has rained all but one night since then. The wheat wasn't dry enough to start combining on Tuesday and all this rain hasn't helped. We have been able to round up several hundred acres to cut in this area once it does dry out in a day or possibly a few days. We are happy for that at least. Danny's truck was at the Ford dealer in Great Bend, but they were a month and a half behind before they could get to it. So Andy and the other 3 guys went there to load it onto the trailer again and take it to the Ford dealer in Hays that could get it in right away. Winston and Charlie were riding in the pickup that was on the trailer being pulled by the straight truck. they both had their seat belts on and the windows down and were reclined back in the seats. A trooper pulled them over and told them to get out now and ride in the front of the straight truck. He didn't give them a ticket but all 4 guys had to ride in the front of the day cab for a while. The Hays dealer had the truck done by Friday! I guess it was a high pressure valve that needed replacing.
This storm was coming in early Wednesday evening before it was dark.
The sky was dark in a hurry though! On Friday night sometime after midnight Jon & I both woke up when the wind really picked up and started shaking the camper pretty good. We turned on the weatherband and watched all the lightning everywhere in the sky. Severe Thunderstorm with winds in excess of 60mph and 2 inch hail possible. We all got some clothes and shoes on and took the pickups and parked them under the overhang of the activity center that is right by us. Both pickups fit at least if it were to hail. It was an amazing show of lightning, wind, and downpouring rain; but no hail here thankfully! Jon & I took 1 pickup to drive up the road to see if the combines had hail damage, they did not either. The other 4 guys were all back in their bunks when we got back, but as soon as we stepped into the camper Jon & I knew something was wrong, the camper was majorly downhill! We went back out and realized the camper was off the blocks and some of the jacks were messed up! The wind had blown the jacks right off the blocks, thats some pretty crazy wind. So we spent another 45 minutes getting everything set right again. Back to bed sometime after 3:30 but I couldn't fall asleep. As soon as I did the wind picked up again around 5am, another storm was forming but it wasn't as severe. It is probably like trying to sleep on a small boat on the ocean, I'm not really sure though. But I was thinking this time the camper is going to blow right over. In the end it did not, but it is an unsettling feeling.
Thunderheads building to the southeast of us on Saturday night. Other than storm watching the guys have washed the trucks and fixed some things on the combines. We have played a lot of cards. We are able to use the activity center here which has some really nice basketball courts and a new workout center, so we have enjoyed getting to take advantage of those things.
Happy Fathers Day to the Dads and Grandpas! We love you!
This storm was coming in early Wednesday evening before it was dark.
The sky was dark in a hurry though! On Friday night sometime after midnight Jon & I both woke up when the wind really picked up and started shaking the camper pretty good. We turned on the weatherband and watched all the lightning everywhere in the sky. Severe Thunderstorm with winds in excess of 60mph and 2 inch hail possible. We all got some clothes and shoes on and took the pickups and parked them under the overhang of the activity center that is right by us. Both pickups fit at least if it were to hail. It was an amazing show of lightning, wind, and downpouring rain; but no hail here thankfully! Jon & I took 1 pickup to drive up the road to see if the combines had hail damage, they did not either. The other 4 guys were all back in their bunks when we got back, but as soon as we stepped into the camper Jon & I knew something was wrong, the camper was majorly downhill! We went back out and realized the camper was off the blocks and some of the jacks were messed up! The wind had blown the jacks right off the blocks, thats some pretty crazy wind. So we spent another 45 minutes getting everything set right again. Back to bed sometime after 3:30 but I couldn't fall asleep. As soon as I did the wind picked up again around 5am, another storm was forming but it wasn't as severe. It is probably like trying to sleep on a small boat on the ocean, I'm not really sure though. But I was thinking this time the camper is going to blow right over. In the end it did not, but it is an unsettling feeling.
Thunderheads building to the southeast of us on Saturday night. Other than storm watching the guys have washed the trucks and fixed some things on the combines. We have played a lot of cards. We are able to use the activity center here which has some really nice basketball courts and a new workout center, so we have enjoyed getting to take advantage of those things.
Happy Fathers Day to the Dads and Grandpas! We love you!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Scouting
Jon and I set out Friday afternoon to scout out more work. It was a lot of driving. All day Saturday, Sunday, and Monday driving around N.Western Kansas and Eastern CO. We don't have much work lined up but a few leads that we hope will amount to something. The other guys worked for a guy we know in Kansas for a couple days that was short on help, we are thankful for that and all of the jobs we do have. Right now there are a LOT of crews sitting, waiting for work and out looking.
Every once in a while we see a couple old Gleaners out making rounds.
It is a nice sight.
Looking at the map
Andy and the guys moved some of the machinery a couple hours north while we were gone. They had problems with Danny's F-350 dually, it died and they couldn't figure out why or get it started again. They were at least able to pull it onto 1 of the combine trailers with the straight truck so they could take it to a shop without having to get it towed. Winston and Charlie rode in the box of the straight truck to town though, they must have thought that better than squishing 4 guys like sardines into a day cab with only 2 bucket seats.
sniff sniff, what's that funky smell?
There are lots of feedlots in Kansas.
Beefy.
He really does exist!
A natural gas pipeline company and hydrocarbon processing plant. Hydrocarbons are one of our most important energy resources, gas form we use it as a combustible fuel and solid form is asphalt. It is found naturally in crude oil.
Leaving town we saw this and were surprised there wasn't any damage to the trailer or road, he must have forgot to lock the kingpin, not good.
After we settled up with the farmers, the coop where we bought fuel, and the RV park owners we continued making our way a couple hours farther north. We decided to park our machinery and camper in central Kansas. We do not have work lined up here yet but a possible lead. This is on the way to our next job anyway. But that wheat won't be ready for a couple weeks yet depending on the weather so we stopped here in hopes of finding SOMETHING, ANYTHING - for work to fill the gap. There is this "gap" this year because Oklahoma had such drought that their wheat was ready 2 weeks ahead of normal schedule, and now we are getting up to the point of a more normal maturity date for the wheat, farther north it sounds like the wheat could actually be later than normal this year because of a cool, wet spring. So we are trying to fill the "gap".
Andy's 27th birthday was on Sunday, but we were not with him. So we celebrated on Tuesday night instead. Grilled burgers, homemade birthday cake, a cool evening, sitting around outside shooting the breeze, cocktails, and playing cribbage....a fun and relaxing time had by all!
Every once in a while we see a couple old Gleaners out making rounds.
It is a nice sight.
Looking at the map
Andy and the guys moved some of the machinery a couple hours north while we were gone. They had problems with Danny's F-350 dually, it died and they couldn't figure out why or get it started again. They were at least able to pull it onto 1 of the combine trailers with the straight truck so they could take it to a shop without having to get it towed. Winston and Charlie rode in the box of the straight truck to town though, they must have thought that better than squishing 4 guys like sardines into a day cab with only 2 bucket seats.
sniff sniff, what's that funky smell?
There are lots of feedlots in Kansas.
Beefy.
He really does exist!
A natural gas pipeline company and hydrocarbon processing plant. Hydrocarbons are one of our most important energy resources, gas form we use it as a combustible fuel and solid form is asphalt. It is found naturally in crude oil.
Leaving town we saw this and were surprised there wasn't any damage to the trailer or road, he must have forgot to lock the kingpin, not good.
After we settled up with the farmers, the coop where we bought fuel, and the RV park owners we continued making our way a couple hours farther north. We decided to park our machinery and camper in central Kansas. We do not have work lined up here yet but a possible lead. This is on the way to our next job anyway. But that wheat won't be ready for a couple weeks yet depending on the weather so we stopped here in hopes of finding SOMETHING, ANYTHING - for work to fill the gap. There is this "gap" this year because Oklahoma had such drought that their wheat was ready 2 weeks ahead of normal schedule, and now we are getting up to the point of a more normal maturity date for the wheat, farther north it sounds like the wheat could actually be later than normal this year because of a cool, wet spring. So we are trying to fill the "gap".
Andy's 27th birthday was on Sunday, but we were not with him. So we celebrated on Tuesday night instead. Grilled burgers, homemade birthday cake, a cool evening, sitting around outside shooting the breeze, cocktails, and playing cribbage....a fun and relaxing time had by all!
Friday, June 10, 2011
Happy Birthday Danny!
The happenings in the last few days:
- 11 loads of laundry in a laundromat with the AC that did not cool only blew air around in 105 degree weather. Only 1/2 the dryers worked, the broken ones were not marked and ate several of my quarters. But putting up with these unpleasantries was worth it to meet a couple interesting people, and it made the time go by faster. The 1st was the ex-husband of a lady that runs one of the biggest harvest crews in the U.S. He still works for her though and helps sub-manage some of her 30 combines and 90 employees. What a savvy lady! He talked non-stop and I could hardly take it all in. It was interesting to hear about such a large crew. They hire people from 6 other countries besides the U.S., I bet the language barrier gets interesting. They have to buy and cook whatever food they want and find time to do their laundry. (I wonder if our guys really know how good they have it?? ha-ha) He left and shortly after that an older gent pulled up in his old truck. He took a long time getting out, went to the back of his truck and got his wheelchair out. I noticed he had 1 fake leg. So I opened the door for him so he could get up the step and inside with his laundry and chair. It turns out he used to have 1 Gleaner A combine back in the day that he and a friend took from OK to ND with 1 grain truck that they used to harvest wheat for years. I could tell he liked talking about those days, it looked to me that these days are much harder for him, he didn't look so good and I really felt sorry for him.
- One of the fields that the 3 Red machines were on was quite holey and bumpy. We saw critters running around, woozels they looked like to us. (woodchuck/weasels) darn things are so destructive in the fields. Bryon (1 of the farmers) said that usually the gophers come in and then the badgers come after them, making the holes bigger. I guess Bryon and his brother have an alfalfa field that rodents have really messed up. They busted the front axle on a tractor and also an axle on a rake in the same day, oofta, that's a bad day. They will be plowing up that field soon they said!
- Thursday was the last day of combining for the Red combines in this area. We were doing some fields that the farmer rents from a guy that used to farm it himself but now is in his 90's. Anyway the landowner likes to come out to fields when the harvest is going on to see it yet. His daughter & son-in-law came from Colorado as well as grandson with his wife and 6 kids from San Antonio, TX. They come for harvest time most years and then spend time with their Grandfather. What a nice family, it was great to visit with them! Everyone got a turn to ride in the combines and some of the kids rode in the semi as well. After the last field the combines got blown off with the leaf blower and all the machinery was moved to the farmers yard.
- The Green machine crew up the road 70 miles finished the same afternoon. They then moved those combines and trucks to the next job 10 or so miles away in Kansas. We had started cutting some in that area last Friday and Saturday, but there were several greenish areas and the farmer was ok with us going to that other job for a few days and then coming back to finish. So that was our plan. When Andy, Danny, Charlie, & Winston got back to those fields they had a shock. The rest of the wheat we were supposed to cut was done already. Apparantly the farmer had someone else come in and cut it while we were gone for 4 and a 1/2 days. So we lost the rest of that job which stinks but there isn't anything we could do about that now. Redirect. Change of Plans. Be Flexible. Next option. We learned that well last year and go with the flow now.
Everybody was back at the camper by 11pm since both jobs were finished that afternoon, luckily because it rained quite a bit Thursday night. Charlie, Danny, Winston, Jon, Andy & I shooting the breeze. It was quite windy and there was a lot of lightning to the south of us. We could smell smoke. Then we heard and saw several firetrucks head that way, we were wondering if a field or some straw started on fire.
Jon & Danny chillin
2 men, 2 brothers
Danny keeps us patriotic!
Danny kicked me out of bed so he could snuggle with his brother before going home.
HAPPY 24TH BIRTHDAY to DANNY!!!
French toast and bacon in bed :)
Danny, Dan, Jon
Giving your son a skill is better than giving him all the money in the world. You have done well Dan, these boys have skills!! And love and look up to you more than you know.
Holly, Danny, Jon
To us family is open arms and being there for each other.
Dan & Danny had to retrieve their sunglasses and phone chargers before they head home to MN.
They will head home, Jon & I will settle up with the farmers then go start scouting for some work since the next job we have lined up won't be ready till around the end of June, Jim & Charlie will be cleaning our combines and doing any little fixing, Andy & Winston went to help the guy we leased those JD combines from for the day, maybe more, since he is short on help and is really busy right now.
It has been a blessing to have Dan and Danny here to help us out this week. We have never had this hectic of a week and we could NOT have done it without thier help. Not only are we blessed to have a Dad like Dan and a brother like Danny in our lives but also that they work alongside us. We are thankful for their help but more for the memories made. Jobs and money are fleeting but our memories are treasures cherished forever. Safe travels home and we will see you soon!
- 11 loads of laundry in a laundromat with the AC that did not cool only blew air around in 105 degree weather. Only 1/2 the dryers worked, the broken ones were not marked and ate several of my quarters. But putting up with these unpleasantries was worth it to meet a couple interesting people, and it made the time go by faster. The 1st was the ex-husband of a lady that runs one of the biggest harvest crews in the U.S. He still works for her though and helps sub-manage some of her 30 combines and 90 employees. What a savvy lady! He talked non-stop and I could hardly take it all in. It was interesting to hear about such a large crew. They hire people from 6 other countries besides the U.S., I bet the language barrier gets interesting. They have to buy and cook whatever food they want and find time to do their laundry. (I wonder if our guys really know how good they have it?? ha-ha) He left and shortly after that an older gent pulled up in his old truck. He took a long time getting out, went to the back of his truck and got his wheelchair out. I noticed he had 1 fake leg. So I opened the door for him so he could get up the step and inside with his laundry and chair. It turns out he used to have 1 Gleaner A combine back in the day that he and a friend took from OK to ND with 1 grain truck that they used to harvest wheat for years. I could tell he liked talking about those days, it looked to me that these days are much harder for him, he didn't look so good and I really felt sorry for him.
- One of the fields that the 3 Red machines were on was quite holey and bumpy. We saw critters running around, woozels they looked like to us. (woodchuck/weasels) darn things are so destructive in the fields. Bryon (1 of the farmers) said that usually the gophers come in and then the badgers come after them, making the holes bigger. I guess Bryon and his brother have an alfalfa field that rodents have really messed up. They busted the front axle on a tractor and also an axle on a rake in the same day, oofta, that's a bad day. They will be plowing up that field soon they said!
- Thursday was the last day of combining for the Red combines in this area. We were doing some fields that the farmer rents from a guy that used to farm it himself but now is in his 90's. Anyway the landowner likes to come out to fields when the harvest is going on to see it yet. His daughter & son-in-law came from Colorado as well as grandson with his wife and 6 kids from San Antonio, TX. They come for harvest time most years and then spend time with their Grandfather. What a nice family, it was great to visit with them! Everyone got a turn to ride in the combines and some of the kids rode in the semi as well. After the last field the combines got blown off with the leaf blower and all the machinery was moved to the farmers yard.
- The Green machine crew up the road 70 miles finished the same afternoon. They then moved those combines and trucks to the next job 10 or so miles away in Kansas. We had started cutting some in that area last Friday and Saturday, but there were several greenish areas and the farmer was ok with us going to that other job for a few days and then coming back to finish. So that was our plan. When Andy, Danny, Charlie, & Winston got back to those fields they had a shock. The rest of the wheat we were supposed to cut was done already. Apparantly the farmer had someone else come in and cut it while we were gone for 4 and a 1/2 days. So we lost the rest of that job which stinks but there isn't anything we could do about that now. Redirect. Change of Plans. Be Flexible. Next option. We learned that well last year and go with the flow now.
Everybody was back at the camper by 11pm since both jobs were finished that afternoon, luckily because it rained quite a bit Thursday night. Charlie, Danny, Winston, Jon, Andy & I shooting the breeze. It was quite windy and there was a lot of lightning to the south of us. We could smell smoke. Then we heard and saw several firetrucks head that way, we were wondering if a field or some straw started on fire.
Jon & Danny chillin
2 men, 2 brothers
Danny keeps us patriotic!
Danny kicked me out of bed so he could snuggle with his brother before going home.
HAPPY 24TH BIRTHDAY to DANNY!!!
French toast and bacon in bed :)
Danny, Dan, Jon
Giving your son a skill is better than giving him all the money in the world. You have done well Dan, these boys have skills!! And love and look up to you more than you know.
Holly, Danny, Jon
To us family is open arms and being there for each other.
Dan & Danny had to retrieve their sunglasses and phone chargers before they head home to MN.
They will head home, Jon & I will settle up with the farmers then go start scouting for some work since the next job we have lined up won't be ready till around the end of June, Jim & Charlie will be cleaning our combines and doing any little fixing, Andy & Winston went to help the guy we leased those JD combines from for the day, maybe more, since he is short on help and is really busy right now.
It has been a blessing to have Dan and Danny here to help us out this week. We have never had this hectic of a week and we could NOT have done it without thier help. Not only are we blessed to have a Dad like Dan and a brother like Danny in our lives but also that they work alongside us. We are thankful for their help but more for the memories made. Jobs and money are fleeting but our memories are treasures cherished forever. Safe travels home and we will see you soon!
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Red....Green???
Here are a few pictures from our 1st stop that I hadn't gotten uploaded earlier.
We could see the Red River from 1 of the fields.
The Great Salt Plains!
This round barn is not far from us, pretty neat!
Well it has sure been a non-stop, crazy, hectic week since we got back down here Thursday morning a week ago. We are in N. OK right now cutting for 2 brothers that farm together, they have their own semis so the red machines are just combining for them. They have had some really good wheat considering the year. Some fields have averaged 40-45 bushels / acre. Some fields weren't as good, but overall they have had a good crop. We have 1 good day yet to cut for them, maybe finish up tomorrow if not tonight. It has been going quite well here. First it was Dan, Danny, and Jim running the Reds, now it has been Dan, Jon, & Jim because we have another job 70 miles away that is ready at the same time....I guess other years this area is ready a week or so earlier than our next job but right now they are ready at the same time. So we leased 2 JD 9650's so we can have some people up at the next job. We have to haul for that farmer as well as combine. At first it was Jon, Andy, & I driving to the fields 70 miles away, then it was Andy, Danny, & I. Charlie and Winston (2 boys from MN we hired) got here Monday morning around 4:30am. So since then they have been going with Andy and Danny everyday to work on the farther away fields. The part that stinks the worst about driving so far everyday is that you are tired when you are done combining around midnight and then you still have over an hour drive back to the camper. But tonight should be the last night they will have to do that. We will be moving the camper closer tomorrow when we are done with this job.
You can see in the far background an rig drilling down for oil, there are many new oil wells going up in this area. Apparantly they keep finding more! We have heard there will be thousands more oil wells set up in the next few years in this area, it is really something to see. All night long there are trucks in and out of the holding areas.
The NEW trailer! It is wonderful except for the less than heavy duty hitch mountings for pulling doubles.
John Deere green, yup that's right. We are leasing 2 of them actually, for about a week or a little more. I don't have pictures of both of them since I was driving the 2nd combine when I was there with them. I was a little nervous at first but after a couple rounds I was comfortable and more than kept up with Andy. Driving the JD was fine, but I like the Case better, they don't beep for every little thing and our combines which are a few years older than the JD's we leased seem more updated in some areas. The field we started on that day for the farmer was unbelievable. It was tall and really thick wheat, averaging well over 60 bushels / acre!!! The farmer was thrilled and it was exciting to be there. Danny could hardly keep up jumping from 1 truck to the next back and forth to the elevator in town which was only a couple miles away!
Red? Green? we can all be friends. :)
There are several trains that go through town everyday.
Depending on the fields; whether they are big or small and we are moving the combines a lot and if they are flat or have terraces and washouts, we are usually able to do about 100 acres per day per combine.
It is RED for us in the end.
We could see the Red River from 1 of the fields.
The Great Salt Plains!
This round barn is not far from us, pretty neat!
Well it has sure been a non-stop, crazy, hectic week since we got back down here Thursday morning a week ago. We are in N. OK right now cutting for 2 brothers that farm together, they have their own semis so the red machines are just combining for them. They have had some really good wheat considering the year. Some fields have averaged 40-45 bushels / acre. Some fields weren't as good, but overall they have had a good crop. We have 1 good day yet to cut for them, maybe finish up tomorrow if not tonight. It has been going quite well here. First it was Dan, Danny, and Jim running the Reds, now it has been Dan, Jon, & Jim because we have another job 70 miles away that is ready at the same time....I guess other years this area is ready a week or so earlier than our next job but right now they are ready at the same time. So we leased 2 JD 9650's so we can have some people up at the next job. We have to haul for that farmer as well as combine. At first it was Jon, Andy, & I driving to the fields 70 miles away, then it was Andy, Danny, & I. Charlie and Winston (2 boys from MN we hired) got here Monday morning around 4:30am. So since then they have been going with Andy and Danny everyday to work on the farther away fields. The part that stinks the worst about driving so far everyday is that you are tired when you are done combining around midnight and then you still have over an hour drive back to the camper. But tonight should be the last night they will have to do that. We will be moving the camper closer tomorrow when we are done with this job.
You can see in the far background an rig drilling down for oil, there are many new oil wells going up in this area. Apparantly they keep finding more! We have heard there will be thousands more oil wells set up in the next few years in this area, it is really something to see. All night long there are trucks in and out of the holding areas.
The NEW trailer! It is wonderful except for the less than heavy duty hitch mountings for pulling doubles.
John Deere green, yup that's right. We are leasing 2 of them actually, for about a week or a little more. I don't have pictures of both of them since I was driving the 2nd combine when I was there with them. I was a little nervous at first but after a couple rounds I was comfortable and more than kept up with Andy. Driving the JD was fine, but I like the Case better, they don't beep for every little thing and our combines which are a few years older than the JD's we leased seem more updated in some areas. The field we started on that day for the farmer was unbelievable. It was tall and really thick wheat, averaging well over 60 bushels / acre!!! The farmer was thrilled and it was exciting to be there. Danny could hardly keep up jumping from 1 truck to the next back and forth to the elevator in town which was only a couple miles away!
Red? Green? we can all be friends. :)
There are several trains that go through town everyday.
Depending on the fields; whether they are big or small and we are moving the combines a lot and if they are flat or have terraces and washouts, we are usually able to do about 100 acres per day per combine.
It is RED for us in the end.
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