Busy Bringin in the Wheat Crop

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, though it feels like it sometimes! We have just been so busy and only get internet service through the wi-fi at the cafe in town so its been a long time since the last posting. In Colorado we worked long, long hours getting 1700 acres cut in 5 days. There was a lot of time spent driving the combines from field to field as well, with some easily 15 miles apart. It went really well in that area. The nice lady that owns the RV sites also runs a catering business and she gave us leftovers from an event, it was sure nice of her and we really enjoyed it! Most of the days there I was driving the grain cart since we were short of people, but the last couple days we only had to haul to the farmers bin so the guys could keep up without me in the field. We left Colorado early Monday morning to head for South Dakota. It started out really nice that day, I even had on a long sleeve t-shirt. We left Colorado early Monday morning to head up to South Dakota.

Driving through western Nebraska. At a truck stop in Hyannis, NE a fellow custom harvester warned us about some road work in South Dakota to avoid as he barely got through, so we will have to alter our course a little after Nebraska, but we are glad he told us about it. After leaving Hyannis and really getting into the Nebraska Sandhills and out of cell phone service, we had truck problems. The Volvo semi was losing power on the hills and literally shutting down. After a couple hours of creeping along, stopping to check things, creep along to try it out, then stop again to re-check, the guys found that a patch of very rough road had loosened 1 battery connection enough that it had all but came off. Tightened up, it was good to go the rest of the way. While it turned our 8 hour trip into an 11 plus hours trip, it is good it wasn't anything major or expensive wrong with the truck!

Well I got these few pictures uploaded on here, but that has been painfully slow. I may take the computer along this afternoon when I go to Faith to get groceries and see if the pictures will upload faster there. I can't sit in this cafe all day, and the guys will be wondering where their lunch is in a little while.

I am in Faith now, just picked up some new gaskets for one of the trucks and am trying to finish updating this before I get groceries. So after we moved the 1st round of machinery up to SD we stayed overnight at the campers. The next morning Jon & Holly headed to ND to put business cards out and try to get some work up there. The rest of the guys headed back to CO to get the 2nd load of machinery up to SD. We all headed home after that. The wheat in South Dakota was still quite green at the time, so we had at least a week until we would combine. Everyone got to be home for about a week over the 4th of July. It was a nice break for everyone.

The guys all came back on the Thursday after the 4th. Of course it rained that night so the guys had to wait a couple days to start in combining again. Holly stayed home until Monday morning when she and her grandparents came out so they could visit a couple days. They brought a whole bag of cucumbers from their garden out and we sure enjoyed them! They went home on Thursday and Dave went back with them (he came out after teh 4th with the guys for a few days). Holly washed all the towels that day, then the sheets Friday, and all the clothes on Saturday. We have friends who are harvesters also that stay right next to us in this town. It has been really fun to get to visit with them whenever we have a few minutes. Lisa went home to MN on Saturday for a couple weeks but will be back out wherever Chad is towards the end of the month. We hope to catch up with them again. Marg brought Levi(Caleb's twin who will be working with us also now!) out on Saturday and Kyle's parents stopped by for the day on their way to Sheridan, WY. So it was quite hectic with all the visitors, but it was fun too.

Taking supper out to the field, you never know what will be on the road, no bull about it! To get to the fields we were working at the road goes over cattle grates (so they don't get out) and through several pastures, the cattle may or may not be on the road, gotta watch out!

Kyle's parents had sloppy joes in the field at lunchtime with us and they treated us to a feast at suppertime: pork steak, corn on the cob, salads, and I made apple crisp. It was so good. I think they really enjoyed seeing the wheat harvest, and Kyle of course too!

When the elevator runs out of room they pile it on the ground until they get time to get it all hauled the 100 miles or so it needs to go. We don't have to worry about it, the farmer we cut for had 3 60,000 bushel bins and several smaller bins we haul his grain to.

Jon crawled up the farmers bin to help get the auger set up. They take it down and put it up everyday.

Dan D. is in the tractor and Jake is in the middle directing and communicating between the 2.

Jake's ready to go to the field!

Dan, unloading the truck.

We get to the field after church on Sunday and Jake says, "You are coming on a date with me Marg!" oh? where to? well in the grain cart of course! aren't they cute :)

Jake is giving Levi the grain cart tutorial.

Food is here! Leftover clean up, I love those kind of meals!

There have been some pretty big fields we get to harvest here in SD. There are 800 and 1000 acre fields, to us that is really big. This farmer we work for has 2 combines of his one, 1 new Case and 1 newer JD, plus he has a grain cart and trucks as well so we work with him and his couple hired guys. This year his oldest son is in the field as well driving grain cart. He is ONLY 13! And he is driving the JD 8300 with a 1000 bushel grain cart. He is doing a great job for how young he is.

On Monday night a storm came up fast. Marg & I went to Isabel to get an alternator. It was very dark up that way and lots of lightning starting grass fires, boy were they praying for rain in those clouds and not just lightning. We headed back south to Dupree and worked on getting supper ready. The pork roasts were done in the crock pot so we just had to get potatoes and green beans ready. In a short time it was cooler outside than in the camper. The temp dropped 20-30 degrees and the wind switched from the east to the west and really picked up. It was getting very dark too. Jon said they would be coming in soon that this rain was almost to them in the field. So at least we wouldn't have to take supper to the field, they could eat in the camper. Well a short time later Marg & I couldn't even hear each other in the camper, the hail was so loud. It was marble to nickly size, bigger in the field I guess, and it cracked and came right through 2 of the plastic vents in our camper. Then the wind sucked out the cardboard above our extra air conditioner and that window was banging up and down against the air conditioner. We had our hands full trying to get to everything. Nothing broke in the other camper, but water came in somewhere.

Dan D's artwork.

The guys hoisted Kyle up on our roof to tape up the broken vents until we can get them replaced. About 2 inches of rain had fallen so no combining on Tuesday. A few repairs and then we all went to the community pool in Faith. It was quite a comical sight with these guys going down the slide and off the diving board, but a fun time. :)

I think this is the first time we have had the awning out all summer! Its like cooking for a party every meal around here. The fun just never stops.... Wednesday it was a little too wet in the morning so the guys came back to the camper to eat then were able to combine all afternoon.

Updates from Wheat Country, USA

Here it is, already Friday, over a week from my last post and also since I did laundry last.....both are overdue! It has been just crazy busy. I have taken a ton of pictures in the last week again so I will get right to it. Thankfully I am getting really good internet connection at this laundromat, some places it is s-l-o-w. Andy's birthday cake, it was so good we ate the whole thing that night. Where we were staying there is a decent shop that the guys can work in at night if they have to fix something, it has been so handy. Here they are taking a broken wobble box apart. (this is the part at one end of a combine head that makes the sickle bar go back and forth) Charlie with the torch, can't you just hear him? "Ooooo" These are the 2 projects that the Antique Thresher and Tractor Association have going in the shop right now. I think it is really neat, there are several retired guys who come here almost everyday to work on restoration projects for fun. It keeps them busy and mentally sharp while doing something great at the same time. There are 3 little striped gophers by the side shop and our camper, it is fun watching them. This one likes the grease that has dripped down from the grill. Can you find the camper? It is hiding between the shop and the trucks! There hade been chances of storms the first several nights that we were here. Clouds would build around us but we didn't get any rain till Friday I believe. It was really windy at times. We got up to Bird City on Monday evening. We started combining on Tuesday and it went well through Friday night, that is when this storm was building. There were some fields that were a bit wet, but it dried down quickly. The wheat was really good in this area. Fields we combined were averaging 45-80 bushels per acre. There were a lot in the 50-60 range. The test weights were coming in really good as well, the farmers were very happy to have such a good yielding crop. The shutter gets stuck a lot of times when I turn on my camera, I have to flick it open the rest of the way with my finger, but it makes some neat pictures too if I leave it only half open. Jacob and Caleb trying to get pictures of the lightning, a difficult thing to do! We got back to the camper before it started to rain, the field we had been cutting at was at least 15 miles from the camper on some dirt roads, so we wanted to get out of there....before we couldn't. This was an eerie feeling as this storm hovered over us. The wind got really strong and it rained pretty hard, it ended up being about an inch. The ground really needed the moisture around here too. The next day was too wet to combine but driving around we saw that there was very little damage to the wheat crop, no hail, only minimal downed wheat from the strong winds and rain. So on Saturday I washed all the towels while the guys did some minor things and helped with what they could around the antique thrashing grounds. On Sunday(Father's Day) we went to church then were able to cut wheat in the afternoon. We grilled pork chops for supper, with scalloped potatoes and had a marble cake for dessert. It got very hot that day, over 100 degrees. Monday proved to be even hotter getting to 105 degrees at least. Holly had to drive the grain cart all day on Monday since Kyle wasn't back yet. We had been down to 3 combines for several days until we got a new wobble box for the brokend head, but on Monday we were back up to 4 combines so that's why I had to drive the tractor. We got burger baskets at the cafe in town for lunch that day and had cold meat sandwiches for supper. It was a really late night in the field that Monday, getting in around 11:30 or so that night. All 4 combines up and going, black and white style. Dan snazzed up his truck a little, I like the look of it. Our guys have gotten to go right in and bypass the lines at this elevator since we have dump boxes and not hopper bottom semis. There were 3 pits at this elevator I think and they would wave our guys over to dump in 1 that the semis couldn't. This aggravated some of the semi drivers, enough so that they would swear at our guys. The people that worked at the elevator noticed this (as they were the same people that would swear at the them too) and would tell the farmers where that crew was harvesting at. We have picked up work at times simply because a farmer doesn't want another crew back because they swore too much and were so disrespectful. That is partly why we stress so much that our guys get out of the habit of swearing. We don't want to hear it and we don't want them to be a bad representation of us in the towns. Our guys have been really good and the elevators often say that they like our drivers best. Some beautiful wheat, I love seeing the wind ripple through the fields like waves on water. We have had 2 guys quit and go home in the last few weeks, we started with 1 extra person but with 2 gone I have had to be in the tractor and grain cart now everyday since last Monday. It puts us in more of a pinch, but we understand that not everybody can or wants to handle this type of situation even though its only for the summer, not all year. We work some very long days, but its a lot of sitting. It gets tough when everyone is around each other so much, working AND living together. Personalities clash at times and stressful situations don't always bring out the best in people. Its too bad they left, but we will deal with it, we have just eaten a lot more sandwiches than usual, and the laundry gets to overflowing. We will have someone join us in South Dakota though, so we just have to get through Colorado. Speaking of Colorado....we finished up in Bird City on Tuesday morning. Jon and 2 guys took 2 combines to CO, only 2.5 hours from Bird. They got back in the evening and we grilled 1 pound ribeye steaks for everyone, it was delicious!! Early Wednesday morning of this week we took everything else up to Colorado, it was very cool and felt so nice after several days above 100! We got started in combining right away when we got there. I made sandwiches for lunch. The farmer we cut for has a semi he helps haul with, the drive to the elevator is a 50 mile round trip from some of his fields, some are closer though. The trucks can't keep up with a long haul like that. I drove grain cart all afternoon then went to town to get Subway for supper. Moving machinery to the next field, it sometimes is an hour drive or more (in the combines) to the next field. This just looked like a pretty picture to me. There is a lot of pivot irrigation around here and there was in NW Kansas as well. Even though we didn't get started combining till noon on Wednesday we worked until around midnight since the wind was still going and there was no dew. We got 350 acres combined that day! It was a short night of sleep, then Thursday was about the same, a long but really good day in the field. I got pizzas for a late supper from a town about 20 minutes from the field. If you need someone to find a needle in a haystack ask Caleb, he found this rusty pliers in a mile long field! It was stuck in the tire, but it didn't go far enough in to puncture it. All 4 trucks are full from the night before and ready to go in to the elevator. Fueling up the combines and tractor in the morning. We saw this coyote in the field yesterday afternoon, Kyle and Caleb saw some of her pups coming out of the hole in the ground as well. She was pretty to watch. The car was full of laundry this morning, the trunk had 3 garbage bags full too. I was lucky when I got in here I was the only one here, but shortly after 3 other people came in, its a busy place. Now the laundry is done, I have to get some groceries and get a late lunch out to the field. This morning the guys just had to haul the wheat to the farmers bin which is right next to the field we are working on. But it sounds like this afternoon they will have to haul to the elevator again so I may have to be in the tractor. Then after that the next field's wheat will go to his bin again. So depending on what time we get there will determine what supper is, sandwiches if its late or tater tot hotdish if I can get back to the camper in the afternoon to make it. Gotta be flexible!