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!
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