Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Thursday July 10th - Got some wifi in the morning and then started cutting after lunch. Cut till 8 when we ran out of wheat again. Got to cut more acres then I thought we would.

Friday July 11th - Started cutting at about 1 pm. Was very hot, over 100, and windy. The wheat tested 15.5 at 11 am and by 1 pm it was down to 11 percent and by the end of the day it was under ten by a good bit. Cut till 11 pm in very good wheat. 50-60 bu. That was running 62 to 65 test weight.

Saturday July 12th - Started cutting right away in the morning and cut till early evening. At about 3 pm I got sent to haul for Eyster Harvesting. They had one of there four machines working by its self and only one truck so the combine would have to wait. So we were loading on the go since there was no grain cart. And our radio channels didn’t match up so I was on my own as to were to drive. Worked till ten for them.

Sunday July 13th - Went to a Methodist Church in morning. Did whatever in the afternoon and then in the evening we hung out with another harvest crew. The local movie theater let us rent the theater out for twenty bucks as long as we provided the movie. So us and several other crews watched a movie in style till about midnight. Much better then having 9 guys inside the crew trailer using a 13 inch tv.

Monday July 14th - Up a 5 to start loading for the move to Kimball Nebraska. Left at about 8:30. It was over 100 miles into the dry and empty Nebraska. I turned right around and went back to Holyoke to get the grain cart. Got back and they were already cutting so started haulin wheat. It is 20-25 miles to the elevator. Put over 500 miles on the truck today. Worked till midnight.

Tuesday July 15th - Up and at it at 7. Finished a 640 acre field that we started last night and roaded the combines several miles to the next field. We are out in the middle of nothing, just fields and more fields in between the big humps of rock. The combine guys were complaining cause they had to cut on hillsides and around rocks. Kansas spoiled everybody. It is nice for a change of scenery though and it makes driving truck fun on the dirt roads. We just have to make sure we don’t fall off the edge of the roads. They are all built up and if a truck got off the edge it would roll and make a royal mess, so passing on some of the smaller roads is a little tricky. The general rule of thumb is that the loaded truck has the right of way, so if your empty you make way for the loaded guy because some of the shoulders can be soft.
We cut till midnight.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

You were lucky you did not have to drive on those roads when they are wet!

MarieM said...

It's true. The roads are all the more dangerous when wet.

And I do seem to remember that there was a year when a not very careful truck driver (not on Eric's team) did in fact hit a ditch and knock the entire truck over. I never did hear how they got the truck upright again, but I haven't seen it slowing rusting away, so I assume they did get the thing on the road. Fortunately no one was hurt, though I think that harvesting crew repeatedly had problems with machinery. This is one reason why we are very happy to work with Eric, as he is extremely careful.