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!

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