Tag Archives: wheat

time for an attitude adjustment

by Nebraska Wheatie

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It’s been a slow start to Harvest 2015.

We sampled on Tuesday afternoon – late Tuesday afternoon – and the sample came back at 14%. The elevator in Shattuck said they would take one truck load. Hardly worth the effort so we just decided to shut ‘er down til the next day. Disappointment.

Wednesday rolled around but began with heavy, heavy dew and clouds. Not a very good drying day. We tried again. This time we cut two truckloads but the elevator closed before we could take them in. Thursday morning – again, heavy dew and not much strength to the sun. Lots of humidity on top of everything else. The trucks were taken to the elevator and the moisture came in at 15.2% – worse than the previous day. But, we kept moving along. I think we actually cut four truckloads that day. Friday – FINALLY a good sunny day! And that’s when I could feel the feeling begin to swell up inside of me.

I need an attitude adjustment!

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taking advantage of another rain day

by Nebraska Wheatie

IMG_8306Our anticipation and excitement of being on the road and FINALLY joining up with the rest of the “wheaties” soon came to an abrupt end. The rains we got the first night after we arrived, continued off and on for the next several days. That was Thursday – today is Wednesday. Almost an entire week has already disappeared.

Before we left, I planted my travelling flower garden. I try to do this every year mostly because it gives me a bit of a normal summer-type activity. Sometimes the busy-ness of the job and the heat of the summer take a toll on my garden. Right now, though, they are thriving.

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the past six weeks in a nutshell

by Nebraska Wheatie

It’s been six weeks.  Did you miss me?

The one true reason I started writing in the first place was to provide my family a written document of what has taken place at this time in history. I print my blogs from year to year so some day they will have something to look back on. I sort of blew it.

It actually feels a lot longer ago than just six weeks, to tell you the truth. We got home from Montana with the final load on September 23. And then it began…as though I had never left. The real world took over and the clock (and calendar) won out! My days have been full – too full! Could we just step back and jump into that harvest world again? No? You mean I really will have to wait for six more months to be back in my Cottage on Wheels?

What I’d really like to do is jump back into blogging beginning with today. Well, maybe a week ago would be better. However, my brain would never allow me to do that. You see, to begin now with the end-of-the-harvest story never really being told, well…that’s just not right. So, I’m going to step back to the point I left off and tell the story. I suppose, because sometimes I get long-winded, I may have to break this up for you. BUT, if I stop writing, I may never finish. So, I’ll keep writing and writing and when it becomes too long for one post, I will just continue it to the next day. Deal? Deal!

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condensing the journey

by Nebraska Wheatie

img_13812As the water swirled down the kitchen sink, I became aware that it was probably the last sink of dishes I will do in the Cottage in 2014. Suddenly everything I do tonight takes on a whole different feel.

Yep, the 2014 harvest journey is officially over. Tomorrow morning will be the first trip headed in the direction of home. The Beast will be waiting for our return in a few days.

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and those montana sunsets!

by Nebraska Wheatie

photo 1 (6)Yesterday was the 12th day since the rains began and we finally got rolling again.

While we were still in our waiting-for-the-ground-to-dry period, Jim surprised me with a trip to the mountains. We left Friday afternoon and got back early evening on Tuesday. I’ll have more to share about that when I can get caught up on the piles sitting all around me. For now, though, the Beast is eating wheat again and that’s a good thing! Most everyone you visit with here will tell you they’ve never experienced anything quite like the rain we had. Jim’s been a bit worried about what the ground was going to be like – rightfully so – but we’re moving along quite well. Just to make sure we didn’t need it, we brought the tow rope to the field with us. And, so far so good!

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the color green

by Nebraska Wheatie

Yesterday, Jim and I spent most of the day inside the Cottage. Well…maybe I should say I did. Jim, on the other hand, started doing some of the going-home chores that he normally does AFTER we finish cutting. Things like change oil in the pickups, grease whatever needs greased and preparing for the 900+ mile trip “home, home”.

It was about 4:30 when he walked through the door and announced he was going to take a trip out to the combine. That trip is about 40 miles. “Give me a second to finish what I’m doing and I’ll ride along”, I said. It didn’t take me long to finish typing what I was typing, shut off the internet, throw on my shoes and walk out the door.

Gosh, it felt good to get out of there and head back down the roads that we had been travelling daily until the rains began just a week ago today (Friday).  The day was beautiful and the sky seemed extra blue and clear. Once we got just west of Jordan, I noticed it…the color green. It was only seven days ago the color was brown. The desert had come to life after that life-giving rain we had. Jordan was blessed with about half her normal year’s rainfall in just two days.

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four hours

by Nebraska Wheatie

IMG_4544Friday morning began just like any other day except we were up against heavy clouds and cool temps. I had left Frank parked near the grain bins for the night so Jim dropped me off and then he headed to where the Beast had spent the night. While I waited for the air to build and the truck to “warm up”, I took a quick walk over to a dugout I had seen. I cautiously walked through the tall grass hoping I wouldn’t be surprised by any sort of critter. As I walked towards the mound, I wondered if it had been someone’s homestead – someone’s home. I couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like to live in something like that.  Had it been warm while the north winds of winter were blocking the door with snow? Did that same door keep critters out? What would it have been like during the hot months of summer?

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more breaks – the missouri kind (video)

by Nebraska Wheatie

Today (August 20) was a much cooler day. We began our day by putting the new part on the Beast and hoping the sprinkles would quit so we could get started again. We had lost nearly a whole day due to that breakdown and the miles we had to cover to get the new part. I believe it was nearly 10:00 by the time we were ready to rock ‘n roll again.

After you make repairs, you just hope there isn’t more damage from the piece that broke…especially when it’s part of the shaking system. We could only cross our fingers and hope nothing more would come from this. As it was, things ran as though the breakdown never happened.

IMG_4507Another harvester’s secret…Jim’s make-shift sink for the field. It works amazingly well! The sun warms it up so he has warm water at all times to wash his hands.

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a break in the action

by Nebraska Wheatie

IMG_4452Smokey Butte and location #3

I think our farmer may have mentioned to Jim that combines tend to get stuck in the field in location #5. So, with the latest rains we had, the Beast and I have been separated for a few days. That’s OK, though, because I was starting to miss Frank anyways.

I have cut mud holes and I know when it’s time to move on but if anyone is going to get a combine stuck, I’d just as soon it was the boss. By the way, we’re down to the last 20 acres in this particular area and I don’t think Jim has seen even a little mud.

After moving the equipment to location #5 late Sunday afternoon, we parked everything for the night and decided to get a good start the following morning.

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kaput!

by Nebraska Wheatie

Continued from “and then it rained“…

We ate our sandwiches for supper and our evening in the Cottage was longer than what we had experienced over the past eleven evenings. It felt good to be home at a more reasonable time.

Another round of storms rolled through Jordan about 10:00 pm. This time it really poured and the wind blew. All at once, chaos began. I realized the skylight in the bathroom had been left open. It had been raining for a while so there was quite a bit of water all over the floor and running into the carpet. I quickly grabbed a couple of towels to soak up what the rug on the floor had not. At the same time this was happening, the fridge started beeping.

“Can you take care of this while I’m cleaning up this mess?”, I questioned Jim. I was probably unnecessarily put-out with him but he had been the last one in the bathroom! This mess wouldn’t have happened if he would have just shut the skylight. (this is what I was thinking)

The beeping doesn’t stop so Jim runs upstairs and grabs the owner’s manual. “The error code has something to do with a high temperature shut off mechanism and it says the owner can’t fix it.” – Jim

Great!

So, what happened next? The fridge is shut down…not working…notta…KAPUT!

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