Montana – BIG country! Do you see the Beast?

We got back in the field on Thursday afternoon.

While Jim and I were servicing the combine on Wednesday evening, he realized a bracket which is part of the spreader had broken. So, on Thursday morning, he took it to his favorite local welder and got it temporarily fixed until a new one can be shipped to him. He had also taken the time to drain the oil from the Beast on Wednesday evening  so he needed to finish that job on Thursday morning too. All this takes time. So, it was very close to noon before the Beast headed into the wheat to see what we had. Result? Moisture was 10% – plenty dry! So, the plans changed from “unsure of what we were doing” to “let’s cut wheat”!

Once we knew we were headed right back to the field, the semi’s were called and I went back to the Cottage to get Jim’s lunch. While we cut in Montana, the wheat is either hauled to a grain bin for storage or semi’s are hired to haul the grain to the nearest elevator. The nearest elevator is in Moccasin, MT which is only 156 miles away.  We had two semi’s sitting in the field right away. This gave me the entire afternoon to do whatever. Guess what I did…nothing (well, sort of nothing).  I went to the grocery store and got caught up on the Jordan news since we left a year ago, washed some clothes, cleaned the trailer and then just laid on the floor of the Cottage and relaxed. Then I got the call. I needed to head out to the field and relieve Jim. He had filled the two semi’s and I would need to run the machine while he got the Pete and Frank moved out to the field. Our day ended at 10:30 p.m. after the third hired semi was filled. Our short day yielded 140 acres of wheat being cut. Gosh, cutting 140 acres certainly takes a whole lot longer now than it did when there were two more machines in the field with me! It looks like the average for this field will be close to 35. This may not sound like a lot to some but for this country – it’s a bumper crop! We’ve cut a lot of 15 – 20 bushel wheat here so 35 – 40 is outstanding! Not sure what the quality is since it’s going to Moccasin or in the bin. I’m certain we’ll hear what it’s like, eventually, and I’ll share.

Towards evening, it looked like it might rain. It was a good trick – no rain.

Utilizing all the trucks we can. 🙂 Hard to remember when these trucks were all we used. And…just think how much smaller our combines were then, too!

So today (Friday) was our first full day back in the field.  I don’t know how many acres I cut today. It felt like 1,000.

All by myself in this great big field.

There’s a lot going on in this picture. Frank is full on the other side of this semi and is unloading into the yellow auger which is filling the semi. The Beast was full, so I unloaded into the semi, as well. Once the semi was full, it hit the road headed towards Moccasin. 

Trees are VERY scarce in this part of Montana. This grove of trees would be a perfect location for a home. If I were to live here, this is where I would want to have my house! 

Last but not least…I’m going to share a harvest lunchbox tip. Use an instant tea jar for a cold beverage. I like to put brewed tea in mine to have with my lunch. This was something I learned from my grandma and have carried with me all these years. It beats buying tea every day!