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!
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