September 2020

May30 by Nebraska Wheatie

Life happens and updating this blog gets pushed aside. So very close and yet still far enough away from the end of the year (2020). I am determined, though, to get this caught up before we head south again.

Yes, that time is rolling around way too fast. It appears the cool and wet weather has set the date back. The harvesters in Texas as STILL waiting to get rolling. Once the sun pops out and the wet stuff stops falling from the sky, I’m certain the combines will, once again, be going round and round – if they still do that. Thanks to GPS, it seems the round and round has been turned into back and forth, back and forth.

When September rolled around, we were done with cutting wheat. Remember…the last day of wheat harvest for us was on August 26th. Our typical routine after we finish in Montana is to take our time in cleaning everything up really well. The push to get to the next job is over and a better, more thorough job is possible and usually needed.

The trip back home is nearly 1,000 miles. And the Pete makes the trip four times. So, truck maintenance is also a must. By the time we finish what we do, it’s usually 10 days to two weeks past the final day of cutting before we make our way home with the first load.

Jamie and Curt are still here. They won’t actually leave until September 9. So, between doing what we have to do, we also tried to do some fun things with them while we were all together. Video, “Day 96”, gives a highlight of our time with the kids while they were in Jordan with us.

September 2 was one of the craziest days of the summer – and maybe one of the craziest of our lives.

The Jordan area was dry…very dry. And the winds were supposed to be extremely bad on this particular day. The morning of September 2, however, was fairly quiet. A fire was started by a rancher’s hired man north of town. And then the winds picked up. And then a spark led to what became a huge wildfire threatening the town of Jordan. The Huff Fire video is still the #1 viewed video of the 2020 wheat harvest with nearly 52,000 views.

We left Jordan with the first load headed home, home on September 10. (Video, “Day 99”)

In the following days, we arrived home (on September 12) and turned right around and headed back north again. We arrived back to Jordan on September 14. We spent the next day loading the combine and tying up some loose ends. On September 16, we left Jordan for the final time for the 2020 wheat harvest. This is NEVER easy to do. Never.

We arrived back home on September 18 and decided to park the trailer house at the Fairgrounds just until we could get back to “normal” again.

The videos to watch for the roadtrip home and final days of harvest are: Day 100, Day 101, Day 102, Day 103, Day 104, Day 105, Day 106, Day 107/Final Day of our Journey End of Journey Narrative, Trying to Find the Normal and It’s Empty!

What’s next? Fall harvest!

*Colten & Taylor left Montana and headed for Yellowstone National Park.*

Jamie and Angie used to play together on this very same playground when the girls used to attend school here. The girls were lucky to get to attend school here while we were cutting wheat. They would usually go to school here for a couple of weeks to a month before we would head home.

Now their kids play together on the same playground. 🙂

*Who could have ever guessed later this afternoon, we would be leaving our trailer houses not knowing if we’d be back again or not.*

*I remember stepping out of the trailer and seeing the smoke thinking, “Boy, I sure hope that stays east of town!”*

*This is beginning to look a little more intense.*

*The fire was close enough to the equipment, we decided to move the combine further west of town.*

*Jamie and I walked over to the Catholic Church and volunteered to make sandwiches for the firefighters.*

*Jim drove The Beast in the Trump parade on September 4th.*

*Gathering with friends after the parade for supper.*

*Answer to prayers! We received over an inch of rain today (September* 7th).

Gathering at Ryan and Randi’s house for a final night together before Jamie and Curt headed for Cody, Wyoming.

*Getting Frank and Pete ready to make the first load home.*

*I was attempting to get a picture of the Broadus sign. Ha!*

*We spent the first night on the road at the Belle Fourche Sale Barn.*

*Before leaving Miles City and making our way back to Jordan, we stopped at the **Airport In**n* for lunch. All these years and I had never been here before. What a view from on top of this hill!

Henry. Henry was purchased brand new by my grandpa. We purchased it from him when we were beginning this adventure. And, now, Henry is retiring in Montana.

*Taking the time for a visit just one more time.*

The Belle Fourche Sales Barn. The smoke from the wildfires blocked the sun and created a big red ball in the sky.

*Still seeing the wildfire smoke in Nebraska.*

*Second – and final night on the road for the 2020 harvest – was spent in O’Neill, Nebraska.*

*The elevator on the horizon is home, home – Manley. We parked temporarily parked everything at the fairgrounds until we figured out what the heck we were doing first.*

*Callie came to the trailer house one day and hung out with me and Layne.*

August 2020

May11 by Nebraska Wheatie

August 1st has us still in Hardin, Montana…but not for long.

We finished the job on the 3rd. Started the cleanup process the very next day and headed to Jordan with the first load on the 5th. Although the jaunt to Jordan isn’t nearly as long as some of the others, it still takes us time to complete.

The first move included the Pete and the “job” trailer and Frank and the header trailer. Once we arrived in Jordan, we parked Frank and unhooked the “job” trailer from Pete. I jumped in the passenger seat of Pete and we headed back towards Hardin.

Once we arrived back in Hardin, the combine was loaded. Ready to head back to Jordan the very next morning. The next morning, the “cottage on wheels” was made road-ready and we, once again, hit the road.

Refer to our YouTube channel to actually watch these days – Days 58 through 64 will show you our progress of finishing Hardin and making the move to Jordan.

Days 65 (August 8) through 88 finish out the month of August. And our days in the wheat field. The weather cooperated this year. What can sometimes take an entire month to finish (due to weather) was done in 19 days.

We were able to attend a wedding in Miles City on the 29th of August with Taylor’s family and also Jamie’s family. When the festivities were over, Taylor and Colten headed for Yellowstone and Jamie and Curt headed to Jordan.

Celebrating our final night in Hardin with good friends!

Spent the night in Miles City at the parking lot of the Sale Barn. Made it to Jordan easily and headed back to Hardin again.

Job #1 began right away the very next day after arriving in Jordan. YouTube videos – Days 65 through Day 71

We moved from job #1 to job #2 on day 71. We finished this job four days later (day 75).

The final job we had lined up for Jordan began on day 76 and finished one week later (day 83).

When ya just need to have a chat with the one you meet on the road.

The final clean up of the 2020 wheat harvest.

August 27 – Taylor and Colten surprised us with their presence in Jordan. We knew they were coming for the wedding but had no idea they would make the additional 85 mile jaunt north to Jordan. Fun evening!!

The traditional picture taken in Broadus, Montana.

After the wedding, Taylor and Colten took off one way and Jamie and Curt headed for Jordan. They stayed with us until September 9. I know they were hoping we would still be in the field when they made their plans. But that wasn’t how the plan ended up playing out.

Pictures from home:

July 2020

Apr8 by Nebraska Wheatie

The month of July was not the typical harvest month for Zeorian Harvesting.

The first day of July was also the last day we cut wheat for our farmer north of Chase, Kansas. This left us with a HUGE hole in what was next.

Our next job should have been Garden City. However, the crops in Chase and Garden basically ripened at the same time. The farmer we help in Garden has his own combine and had less acres this year than in past years. Tim was cutting wheat while we were cutting wheat. By the time we finished in Chase, he was nearly done with his crop and wouldn’t need the help of a second combine.

We had no direction to head except home, home.

Frank (our Freightliner truck) needed some work done on it. This was realized after we left home, of course. So, Jim decided this was the time we would take it and the trailer house back home and hang out until it was time to head for Jordan (Montana).

It was 103 degrees on the 2nd of July. This, of course, was clean-up day. Always.

On July 4th, we left The Beast sitting in the farmer’s yard and we headed home, home with the trailer house and Frank. We wanted to surprise the kids as they were gathering together at Jamie and Curt’s house to celebrate the holiday. When we pulled into the driveway later that day, they were surprised. But, not really. They sort of had an idea that maybe this is what we were going to do.

We haven’t celebrated the 4thof July with ALL of the girls since the summer of 2004.

We hung out at home until July 14.

The night before we left, Jim decided tomorrow was the day to head back to Kansas and catch-up with the rest of harvest again.

The morning we were preparing to leave, we received a telephone call from a fellow harvester wondering if we would want to help his crew near Hardin, Montana.

Absolutely!

Yay! We had a plan. Having a plan feels way better than not having a plan.

We made it back to Lyons the evening of the 14th and on the morning of the 15th, we headed north with our first trip. We returned to Lyons on the 18th and left again on the 19th with load #2. It was exactly one week from the point we left home that we arrived at our destination with all of our equipment. A very long week, indeed.

I have never seen so much wheat in one place! The farm was well over 10,000 acres – but not all wheat. You really should check out the YouTube channel just to see the sites on this farm!

We were still cutting wheat in Hardin on July 31.

Click here to view the YouTube daily videos. For July, you’ll want to watch Day 27 through Day 57.

To view the June videos, click here.