ND Updates, part 2

Before I get to the rest of the pictures I have for ND I realized I had some pictures left from SD that weren't on here yet!

A bull snake in the middle of the road....

Then Dan caught the snake.

Done harvesting in South Dakota and lined up for a picture.

Wheat piled up, the elevator bins ran out of room.

Steaks on the grill for supper to celebrate finishing up in SD!

Gigantic drag lines in a coal mining area in North Dakota. It is hard to grasp how big these are.

The guys having a last minute pow wow before hitting the road to ND.

Laura and I at WE-Fest!! Awesome afternoon :)

Little Big Town

Eric Church

Alabama!

Levi has been taking a lot of pictures lately, we downloaded them on our computer so I can post several of them on the blog. So the next bunch are his!

Some of the farmer's hopper bins.

Levi is driving the tractor and grain cart within inches of his brother Caleb who is driving the combine, and on top of all that he is taking a picture....

All 4 combines, moving and in 1 picture! Not always an easy thing to get as Levi knows!

We have been able to eat an earlier lunch at the camper and then the guys go out to the field. With a heavy dew that doesn't dry off quickly, combining usually starts after lunch in this area. I like it that I only have to take one meal out to the field per day though.

Prairie chicken by the tractor. Thanks for all of the great pictures Levi!

Here's a picture of me - just for Jodi! Well my favorite thing to do is washing several guys stinky clothes. Favorite place is in the camper doing dishes and favorite food is when we go out to eat. I may have been a bit sarcastic there. There are lots of good memories from this summer as well as the past 2 and I try to document most all of them. I have really enjoyed getting to see so much more of the country than most people will ever get to. I like that we have gotten to know people from all over. My brain is on overload with memories. But I always look forward to going home.

North Dakota Updates

I'm gonna start with some questions I had asked all the guys a couple days ago.

Dan Dyvig just turned 21 at the end of July. He is from Humboldt, IA but his family moved to Albert Lea when he was quite young. He farms with his Dad and is going to school to be a police officer as well. This is his first year on a wheat harvesting crew. Dan has mostly driven a straight truck for us, he drove combine or grain cart a little here and there to fill in when needed as well. Dan's favorite place we have been this summer was Ryan, OK because of how friendly the people were, he really enjoyed talking with the farmers there. Some of Dan's favorite memories so far have been early in the summer on a day things were going well and Jon was sitting in the blue truck drinking a pop with his foot out the window, so carefree. He also said he really enjoyed when little Owen got to ride in the truck with him to the elevator by Pond Creek. Dan's favorite foods this summer were Holly's homemade pancakes and scotcheroo bars. I asked the guys if this summer was different than what they had expected. Dan said he thought all the fields we would be doing would have been bigger but also that there would be more jerks to deal with, so it was overall better than he expected, the food was also better than what he thought it would be like.

Dan Melchert is Jon's Dad and a farmer from Morristown, MN. He has been along on all 3 summers of our wheat harvesting driving his combine. His favorite place we have been to is Julesburg, CO because its beautiful country out there, Lucy's Diner was good, and there was a nice welcome center across from the RV park that we frequented. Dan's favorite memory this summer is that he made it to Oklahoma; last year he was stuck at home trying to get the crops planted because of the wet spring and didn't join us until later. His favorite food is a cold meat sandwich with peanut butter on it and Holly's Grandma's famous monster cookies that she brought us.

Kyle Benson is 19 and from West Concord, MN. Driving combine where its 60 degrees and sunny in his cab is usually where you will find Kyle, but recently he has been driving the straight trucks more so he can get practice with that and let Andy drive combine. His favorite place this summer has been both of our stops in Oklahoma; he really enjoyed seeing the big cattle ranches. Oh and also the swimming pool in Faith was another of his favorite spots. Kyle said it has been all good memories for him, but he thought it was cool in Ryan when he was combining and he could see coyote pups popping their heads out of their holes after the header went by. Kyle's favorite foods have been the peach cobbler I make and peach iced tea. Sometimes I mix up 2 pitchers a day of it! This has been about what Kyle had expected, it was longer hours than he thought it would be when we first started out, but now we have more down time than he (and the rest of us) would like. Kyle said, "You'll never see the country as you do through the eyes of a harvester." Well said.

Andy Wagner turned 28 this summer and is Holly's cousin. They grew up by each other farming by Morristown, MN. Andy has done all 3 summers of wheat harvesting with us and is a trusted truck driver and heavy equipment hauler. He likes to drive the combine or cart when he gets a chance to as well. His favorite place this summer was the swimming pool in Faith. And a favorite memory of his is that Dan Melchert has grown a goatee like him. He said that he doesn't have a favorite food, it's all been good! (very good answer)

Levi Traxler is a 21 year old from by Kenyon. He studied diesel mechanics at SCC and works with his Dad. The first 2 pictures I took of him his eyes were half closed, you will have to ask him how I got him to keep his eyes open so good for this picture! He joined us half way through July in South Dakota. He said being on the wheat harvest is what he expected it would be like, driving machinery or fixing it, and thinks it is good. He has been doing well driving the tractor chasing the combines around the field with the grain cart, and also with fixing things indeed. His favorite place so far was the pool in Faith (are we seeing a pattern here???) since this town's pool is under construction. He doesn't like that the cell phone service isn't very good. Levi's favorite memory was when he was riding in one of the straight trucks with Kyle on their way to get more machinery moved and one of the stacks fell off, he said they aren't even sure how it happened. His favorite food has been tater tot hotdish.

Caleb Traxler and Jacob Velzke, they wanted to be in the picture together. Caleb is also 21 and from Kenyon (he and Levi are twins). He went to SCC for carpentry. Caleb came as an expert grain cart driver and quickly turned into a pro combine driver, he did drive the cart some too this summer. His favorite place we have been is Colorado because we got done there quickly, it didn't drag out and there wasn't any downtime. But whenever we did have downtime we have had hundreds of movies to watch thanks to Caleb for bringing big binders of movies along! A good memory of Caleb's was the days they got to go swimming at the Faith pool (see - the pattern continues...) He seems to like all foods, but said his favorite was the meatloaf. The summer hasn't really been any different than he expected, he just wished there was a better TV in their camper.

The twins: Levi and Caleb and their long lost triplet: Jacob. It turns out that Jake shares a birthday with the twins!! I thought that was pretty neat. He is 2 years younger than them though, at 19 years old. Jake is from the Waterville area and a distant cousin of Jon's. Last year Jake was studying to be a truck mechanic in Albert Lea, and this summer (his 1st year on a wheat harvest) he says he is training to be a Case IH mechanic as well. Jake mostly drives grain truck for us but has driven the tractor and grain cart some too. His favorite place was our 1st stop in Ryan, OK. He really liked one of the farmers there and thought everybody was nicer down there. It was just neat to him to spend time in Oklahoma overall he said because it is so different from back home. A good memory of Jake's from the summer was spending time at the swimming pool in Faith......imagine that. Jake was always happy to see me coming with meals but he especially liked the pizza hotdish and peach cobbler.

Jon Melchert is 27 and from the Morristown area, a hard-working and ambitious farm boy. This is his third summer leading our crew from MN to OK and back home again. Jon drives combine and manages the PR when he isn't in the middle of repairs. He just loves farming and driving machinery. This year his favorite places were: Colorado because it was fast work with no downtime and Bird City, KS because it was good wheat and good combining. Some of Jon's favorite foods are grilled burgers, spaghetti, and cucumber salad. His favorite thing is getting to go on dates with Holly when it works out. The most frustrating part of the summer for Jon is the bad cell phone reception at most places we are at. The past 3 summers have been a lot more challenging than what Jon expected it to be. Being in unfamiliar areas trying to order parts or get help with repairs and then the unavailability of a lot of parts in a lot of places. He said this is the hardest thing he has ever done but it has also brought him the greatest sense of accomplishment by far he said. Jon hopes that the guys working for us will take skills learned and experiences had throughout the summer that will benefit them the rest of their lives.

Last Friday after lunch we changed out the sections on all 4 combine heads, it went pretty fast with so many people working on them.

A canola field.

A brown canola seed pod. The seeds are tiny, much smaller than wheat kernels.

Most of the canola up here in ND is swathed so that is dries down quicker. About a week after it is swathed it can be combined. We won't be combining any canola this year, though we had some possibilities. In OK and KS they typically don't have to swath the canola, it dries down so much earlier in the season and its much hotter there. Earlier in the season canola plants have yellow flowers all over, the fields are very pretty in the flowering stage. You can smell a canola field if you are close to it, it reminds me of what the canning factory smells like.

There are some missile sites in and around the fields we have harvested.

A barley field. It looks almost identical to wheat, just that the beards are longer. I don't think we will be combining any barley. It is very slow uploading pictures here. I will try to get more posted in the next couple days.

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.

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.