We Just Keep Movin On Up!

Well we had 4 really good days of combining in CO. Tuesday through Friday were all long, busy, good days. We got over 1100 acres combined.


We found a quite a few we spots in the fields we were combining in CO. There were a few times we had to get the chains out to pull somebody out. You can see an area where the wheat looks different and there is probably some mud, and you are going fine with dry ground until all of a sudden it is quickly deep mud!




Good going once again.


Friday night the guys got the machines blown off so Saturday morning all that had to be done was load everything up, get the camper ready to go, and settle up to the farmers. We were up before 5 and leaving town by 8:30 I think it was.


This bridge was 14'1", we had to crawl up to it....


because we didn't know if the combines would fit under it. Jon had to push the bin extensions in farther so it would fit under.


We all made it under but it was too close for comfort.

We all got up to our stop in NW South Dakota around 4:30 I think it was on Saturday afternoon. Andy unhooked the trailer and headed for home, MN! He will be bringing the tractor, grain cart, and our trusty grain cart driver Chris along back with him Monday morning. Winston will bring along Danny's semi and grain trailer as well. We unloaded what machinery we had to, got the camper to our hookups, then went to the wonderful cafe in town for supper. Everyone was super hungry. Then Jon, Dan, & I took off around 8:30 that night for round 2. We had to drive the yellow straight truck and combine trailer as well as the pickup and header trailer back to CO to get the 3rd combine and head. We took turns driving and got to CO around 4 Sunday morning. We slept in the pickup till 6am then loaded up the last combine and head and set off back to SD. No problems with any of the trips, it went well. But when we got back to the camper we found out a big problem. The RV hookup owner asked Jim and Charlie to move the camper to another spot which was fine. They did so and then the owner was plugging in our camper for us, but he did not use the adaptor for 220 or 50 amp or whatever it was and blew a lot of stuff out in the camper.....So when us 3 got back feeling rather exhausted to find that the only electrical component in the camper that worked was the fridge, it did not go over well. The microwave is fried. The air and lights only work if we constantly have a battery charger hooked up. We have to get someone out to fix a bunch of stuff now. Not sure when that will be and I don't think it will be pretty.


Here comes Ozzie! The 3lb Chihuahua/Doxen mix neighbors dog. He is 10 yrs old! Hard to believe, he seems like a puppy. He is a sweet dog until he sees another dog then he growls and barks to let them know how ferocious he is.


Ozzie comes over to say hi and see if he can get any attention. Sometimes he brings his chew toy, this kitten! It is a funny sight.

Monday morning Jon was checking fields with farmers, the guys were getting the combines ready to go, and Andy, Chris and Winston pulled in sometime after 4. We were able to start combining shortly after that. But by 8 or 9 that night it was pouring. After the worst of the storm was over I grilled burgers and then we watched a movie. So now we are up to 8 people living in this camper, it is going well so far, lets hope it continues....

We have NO internet connection in the town we stay in and very slim cell service. So I will catch up and update when I can on here but I have to take the computer to another town. I had to go to the hardware store and get groceries in a town 25 miles away and I get interenet connection here, yeay!! So if we don't respond to emails or calls quickly this is why, leave a message - sometimes that goes through even if that call doesn't. It is clouding up to the west again so I better get those groceries and get back.

HAPPY 25th ANNIVERSARY to my Mom & Dad today!!!!! Love you both so much!!!!

So Long Kansas, Hello Colorado!

On Tuesday we left Kansas early in the morning and got to our North Eastern Colorado destination by 9:30am I think it was. We are in the Mountain Time zone now, which is 1 hour behind home time. We have much better internet connection here so I should be able to upload some more pictures and recap last week. We'll go back to KS pictures first:


A beautiful sunset with a storm coming up behind us from the East.


Intimidating looking clouds...it missed us just barely.




What a beautiful and scary cloud all in one. I could see lightning inside this big puffy cloud, it didn't come down to the ground, just stayed within the cloud, it was really neat.


One of the entrances to the Threshing Grounds, it is like a small fairgrounds. It was neat to "live" here for a week.


A country church, sod house, and country school on the grounds.


I thought the sod house was pretty neat, though they said that ground squirrels were starting to get in...




These 2 old Minneapolis Moline tractors were literally right outside the door of the camper, they are next winters project I guess, the local guys are going to make 1 restored tractor out of these 2. They made me think of my Uncle Dave all the time as he collects M.Molines. He would LOVE the Threshing Days they have here in a couple weeks, big machine sheds FULL of antique tractors....


A nice old pickup in the grounds where we parked the camper.


Ready to work.


Riding with Jon for a bit before I go start supper. Right now the guys were split up working for 2 different farmers. They were about 15 minutes apart, which isn't a lot but it always takes considerably more time when you have to take food to more than 1 group of people, unload food, wait for them to eat, load up....next stop.


There was some fantastic wheat in this area. Several of the fields we combined averaged 74-79 bushels/acre! It was so thick. In some areas the wheat was laying down though which slowed us up a bit.






This is a 2000 head dairy cow operation a few miles from where we were in KS. I guess they are in the process of upgrading to 3000 dairy cows. They had a setup somewhere else in KS and basically got chased out as people were complaining too much. This area welcomed them as it brought more business and jobs to this area.



We finished up combining Sunday night. So the machines got cleaned up on Monday, then loaded up onto the trailers. Everything was ready for take-off Tuesday morning. We could easily have made it to our next stop on Monday but the trucks overheat so easily when it is 100+ degrees so our plan was to drive in the morning when it is a little cooler. We went to the cafe in town for supper that night. There was a growing cloud of smoke to the west of us so we drove that way to see what it was. A farmer's combine had started on fire, and from there the fields lit up. No one was hurt but the combine is done for. The wind was pushing it towards a field that we had just cut 2 days before and the straw and stubble was ablaze and moving fast towards a neighbors house just across the road. There was 1 farmer pulling a disc in the straw just on the other side of the house and that was what saved it from starting on fire, the disced ground slows up the fire. The fire dept. was there but they couldn't do anything for the combine or field fire, they were just there in case the house started on fire, 80 or so acres burned. It was quite a sight to see. I didn't have my camera, but Andy got some great pictures. Hopefully I can get some of those on here sometime.


This is what most of the area looks like where we are in CO right now. A lot of hilly pasture. Once you get up out of the hills there are pockets of cropland. A surprising amount of corn is grown in this area as well, irrigated and dry-land.


As soon as we got here on Tuesday morning we unloaded everything and got to combining right away. I got fuel 4 times in the tank in the back of the pickup. It was a crazy busy day but we got a lot done. Laundry was getting overdue, so last night at 8:00 I load it all up and head to the laundromat in town. I was hoping it would be cooler in there in the evening, well it wasn't. It was a furnace in there, so I propped both doors open, well then the skeeters came in. It turns out the evening is a busy time in the laundromat. There were a couple local people and 3 other harvesters that stopped in. Well I had the entire row of 10 washers full and still had 2 more loads to go. So they went to the bar which is across the driveway to wait until some were open. I got back to the camper around 10:30 that night with the laundry. There were dishes waiting for me too.


Jon fell asleep waiting for his turn in the shower, some nights we aren't done until midnight or later and then everyone has to get through the shower so you have to sleep when you can!

Today, Wednesday, we have had a few breakdowns already. A bearing on Dan's combine and a shaft on Jon's combine. Both are up and running again. But Jon just called and said there is a line at the elevator that he'll have to drive truck and I need to get out there and drive combine, gotta go!

Are we in MN or KS?

Well it sure has rained a lot in NW Kansas lately, and the mosquitos are THICK. I thought those buggers would stay in MN, but unfortunately they are here as well....

Thursday for lunch I made 1 package of bacon and 4 batches of pancakes, thinking there would be a lot of leftover pancakes for breakfast the next day. They must have tasted good because there was only 7 or 8 pancakes left!

We have really slow internet here and sometimes it won't even connect for us. But it seemed ok now so I thought I would try to get an update on here.

Yesterday afternoon was the first day since I've been back that some combining was done. The ground was pretty muddy in some areas yet though. On Monday of this week the guys had taken 2 combines and heads to where our next stop will be 100 miles away in NE Colorado since we only had about 20 acres to finish up here when the ground dried out. They kept the combine with rear-wheel assist here as it has been muddy. We only have 2 combine trailers so we always have to back-track anyways when we move. Since it has been rainy they thought they'd move them up there ahead of time. Well in the past few days we have had a few more local farmers stop in or call us to see if we could help finish cut their wheat. It has been great to pick up a few hundred more acres to cut here, so this morning Andy, Jim, & Winston went to bring back 1 combine and head to help finish up here. It rained a little last night again but now just finishing up lunch they are going to go try combining again. Hopefully it will go good all afternoon.

We try to keep an eye on the weather everywhere we have jobs and stay in contact with the farmers when we can. Southern Oklahoma is still in a severe drought. That was our 1st stop of the season and it rained some while we were there but hasn't rained at all since around the 20th of May. We wish we could send some rain down to them. They need moisture desperately or they may not even be able to plant winter wheat. In town they will have to water their grass and that is what most people complain and think about, but for farmers and ranchers it is very serious as their livlihood is dependent on the weather. I know you do not know them, but you would like them if you met them, they are kind people trying to make a living in simillar ways many of you are back home. So please think of that area and those people in your prayers, that they be blessed with some timely rains.

Slow Going

Long overdue updates are finally here!!
The hydro was going out in the newer combine that Jon had bought this spring. He bought the parts and the local Case dealer let him use part of their shop space so Jon, Winston, & Charlie could replace it themselves and save big $$ in labor costs. It was super nice of them. There were a few other repairs on trucks and machines all in short order as well. We finished up in central KS and moved to NW Kansas where we had a few hundred acres to cut in 2 towns about 3 hours apart. It wasn't quite ready so we didn't have to rush. The 1st farmers fields had hail damage and didn't do that well, but he had something at least, averaging around 17 bu/acre. It has been raining in NW Kansas every few days, the ground is saturated, and there is water standing in many areas. When they moved to the next town 3 hours away the wheat was excellent, averaging 55-65 bu/acre. But with all the rain they have had a lot more down time than combine time. There was a pretty severe storm one night that blew rain right in the edges of the door on the camper. Hopefully tomorrow the combining will resume.

I was hoping to make it home for the 4th of July as I missed it last year. The plan was that when Dan came out with the car I could take it and go home. But Dan ended up having to replant some soybeans and didn't make it out as early as he had planned. My Grandma & Grandpa offered to take a road trip to come visit and bring me home for the 4th, aren't they the best?! They are very interested in the wheat harvest and like to visit anyways. We got home on the Wednesday before the 4th. It did feel good to get home for a few days, though it was very hot & humid!


Laura, her boyfriend Felipe, and I re-painted the church sign by Hwy 60. We wanted it to look nice for the 4th of July Celebration that our church hosts every year. I took a before picture but it is on our computer at home unfortunatly. It was looking pretty tough though! It took WAY longer than I expected, re-doing all of those letters by hand. We are glad its done and hope it lasts a good LONG time! The 4th of July Celebration this year was one of the best turnouts we have had, it was great weather that day which helped. It was such a fun, busy day I didn't take any pictures and now I wish I had. The pie stand sold around 1000 pieces of pie - all homemade and donated by church members! I had a great time visiting with so many people.


I was home for a week and a half and really got a lot done. Aside from the busy-ness of prep and take-down for the 4th of July celebration, and our re-painting the sign, I cleaned up my flower beds (I was home to see the lillies bloom this year! Last year they were mostly done when I was home), helped with hay and chores at my parents farm, weeded the big vegetable gardens at my moms house really well (it was getting so you could almost not tell the garden from the lawn, not good!) caught up with some of my bookkeeping clients, picked 7 cake pans of strawberries from the garden (that I made some pies and jam with and froze the rest) which Laura had already picked a lot in the week before I got home, plus I got to spend some time with friends and family which was overdue and wonderful.

Jon's Dad, Dan, & I left home on Sunday after church to meet up with the rest of the crew. Dan was very anxious to get out there as he had missed most of the wheat harvest this year already (except for 1 week with us) due to late planting at home and then some replanting from flooded areas. He really enjoys the combining and traveling so he was happy to finally be heading out to join the crew for the rest of summer. Instead of driving straight to the camper, we went to South Dakota first to meet with the farmers we work for there, see how the wheat looks, and get a feeling of when it will be ready. The winter and spring wheat look great as of now, with the winter wheat just starting to turn yellow on top in the area we have work. So we are thinking about 2 weeks until that will be ready and a few weeks after that for the spring wheat. They will have some great crops if no bad weather destroys it, we hope and pray that doesn't happen.


Some pictures a little north of where we work in western South Dakota. It is beautiful in this valley. They have been having similar weather as us this spring, with a lot more rain than they normally have. They are having bumper hay crops and may get a second cutting this year, that's right, second cutting. They normally only have 1 cutting of hay a year in this area. And we easily get 3 or 4 cuttings of hay back home.




Dan & I narrowly missed 3 good storms on the way out but got stuck in 1 bad storm late Monday night. They were popping up all around us. We drove through pouring rain for over 30 miles and at times were going less than 40 mph because the rain was so heavy we could hardly see. The lightning was constant and so bright it was like strobe lights every few seconds, our eyes were hurting. But the hail and 70 mph winds were just north of us thankfully.


Jon's "New Look"
It makes him look older anyways! While I was at home Jon told me that there was a surprise at the camper but I might not like it when I got back....hmmm....I asked - another tattoo?? no he said. the camper is a mess? yes it is right now but it will be clean when you get here he said and it was which was great.
So when Dan & I rolled in close to midnight on Monday and Jon met us at the door I screamed and said his "surprise" scared me! I wasn't expecting that at all and it took some getting used to. He said he will probably shave it off soon as it was kind of bugging him but we will see. We hadn't seen each other in almost 2 weeks and had really missed each other. Love you Jon!! The guys survived while I was gone (I had no doubt) but apparantly they are very sick of eating burgers, brats, hot dogs, sandwiches, mac 'n' cheese, and ramen noodles. Both of my WONDERFUL Grandmas sent along dozens of cookies and treats with Dan & I for the crew. They are probably already 1/3 gone....


One of the farmers we work for thought Jon & Andy were brothers with their matching looks!


Jim, Jon, Andy, Dan, Winston, & Charlie enjoying the day with temps only in the mid-eighties. The RV park in town was totally full of harvesters so the farmer we are harvesting for let us hook up the camper here at the Threshing Association grounds that he is a member of. He gave the guys a tour through the many buildings of over 200 antique tractors and combines, many of them restored. Their big annual Threshing event is coming up at the end of the month. They do threshing demonstrations with steam and gas engines. I'm not sure if we will get to see it but it would sure be neat. I remember my Grandma & Grandpa Wagner talking fondly of the Threshing days in our area from many years ago and think how much it has changed in just their lifetime.