On to New Territory.....North Dakota

We finished up combining in South Dakota on July 22nd I believe. Then Jon & Holly took the car up to North Dakota to meet with some farmers and see if we could pin down a job. We didn't want to haul all the machinery up that way unless we had a pretty good chance of getting work up there. The car was acting up while we were up there as well, so almost 1 whole day was spent dinking around with that. We also took a day to drive to Estevan, Canada to meet with a farmer there. It was interesting for us as neither of us had been to Canada even! The fields were huge up there, thousands of acres some of them. I don't think it will work out for us to harvest for that farmer though. Getting everything and everybody into Canada to work is proving to be more of a challenge than we thought. It isn't ruled out for sure yet, as I say; I can tell you the "plan" as of this minute, but it can and probably will change by tonight, then again tomorrow and next week as well. So we continue to live on the edge because there isn't much other way in this job. Getting back into the US was a hassle, the interrogation was intimidating. They could not understand why we would go into Canada through 1 port of entrance and come back out through another port of entrance! (there are ports of entry all along the ND / Canada border) We have never been here, this is partly a road trip for us, we have big machinery that we haul around and if we would come work in Canada we have to find a port we can FIT everything through...... And we were in Canada for all of 5 hours, maybe. Meanwhile, back at base camp (in south dakota)......the guys got the machinery loaded on the trailers, then had a few days to do whatever they wanted.....hunt prairie dogs, go to the pool in the neighboring town every afternoon and meet the local girls, watch movies, sleep.....and their laundry - even if they didn't WANT to!! We did get a job north of Minot, enough to make it worth it to move up there anyways. We hope to pick up more in that area then too. On Saturday, July 28th we packed up camp and everybody and everything headed to North Dakota except Holly, Jake, and the Tauras. It was about a 5 and a half hour drive by car, but with the machinery probably more. But I headed home with the car to get fixed (everyplace in the Minot area is 2-3 weeks booked out!) and Jake was riding along as I would be dropping him off in Flandreau to drive a semi back up to Minot for our friend Chad. That is another story for another time. Speaking of stories, our time in Minot was a story in itself. We couldn't book a hotel ahead of time because we didn't know much ahead of time when we would be finishing up in SD to be able to go to ND. So we drive up there, knowing it is a busy area with all the oil, and find out that the state fair is also going on in Minot. The first hotel we stopped at was full. The next one had 1 regular room and 1 suite left, we took the regular room. But they didn't have any rooms open for the rest of the week. We called around and did find another place for the next couple nights we were there, but it was close! They said during the week most of the hotels are full of oil workers and now with the state fair we were lucky to get anything! The rates were sure high as well. Driving around town I counted at least 5 more hotels being built. That place is booming, every restaurant has help wanted signs. Anyway.....I have been home for a week now, the car is fixed and I am heading back out today. It has been a great week to be home, our church's VBS was going on so I was able to help with that. What a great program it was, I really liked the songs and feel like I got as much out of it as the kids, it was uplifting to me. Jon had called me mid week and asked how much spaghetti he would need for all the guys. I was surprised - he has never made spaghetti before! So we talked about it, that night I asked him how it was. Ok, but not that great he said. Mushy noodles.....never good. I give him a lot of credit for trying at least! Otherwise they have grilled burgers, done sloppy joes, hot dogs, and I suppose gas station and restaurant food. I hear they miss me! Well I am off on the 10 or so hour journey to Mohall. What would be a good 1/2 way resting point? WE-Fest! We got 1 day passes for free so Laura & I will go then I will finish the way to Mohall on Sunday. Should be a fun time, especially since the storm went through last night and not tonight.