Before I begin, I want to add a disclaimer to the pictures I’m using. Although this is about GMO foods, I don’t have many pictures of fall harvest (corn & soybeans) so most involve wheat. There is no GMO wheat in our food system.
The 2014 midterm elections are now history. Thank goodness! I am so glad my landline phone is now quiet again and the signs that cluttered up the landscape have been removed…until next time.
Smokey 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.
Continued from previous post, “that bed has NEVER felt so good“…
We moved to location #4 on Tuesday the 12th – a little further away from Jordan, again. We just keep moving further and further west. The further west we move, the closer to the “Breaks” we get. The “Breaks” would be the Missouri River Breaks. These are pine tree-lined buttes along the Missouri River – the very same buttes Lewis and Clark would have seen so many years ago. The prairie just drops off into something completely different. I’ll get pictures of this when we actually get to location #5.
Jamie sent me a picture of Callie’s first day of school as a Junior. How can this be???
It’s been 11 days since the girls left. Seems like a lot longer than that! And…a lot has happened since that day.
We had rain the day before they left. Not much but enough to stop us. I spent the day on Wednesday (the day they headed south) picking up what they left-towels, bedding, etc.- which all reminded me of them so I could move on and not cry every time I saw it. We were back to the field the next day and haven’t stopped until Friday night. And then it rained. THANK GOODNESS, it rained!
That would explain why I haven’t posted.
So, let’s backtrack a bit and I’ll see if I can get you caught up on our activities without making this too long.
We finished our second location on Friday (August 8) evening. The following pictures were taken before we left.
Seems me and the Beast have been doing quite a bit of this…sitting and waiting on a truck.
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”! Continue reading
This is where the Beast and Frank spent the night – The Miles City sale barn.
For those of you who do not follow the Zeorian Harvesting Facebook page, you haven’t seen a few of the pictures I’ve posted and you don’t know that we made it to our final destination. We got to Jordan about 10:30 a.m.
This is one of those “sames”. This has been in this pasture welcoming us every summer. I look forward to seeing it and I don’t even know what it is.
A good sight to see…Jordan!
There are a few changes but mostly the town looks the same. This is the 34th summer we’ve been to Jordan. Not necessarily Zeorian Harvesting but my family. We (Hancock Custom Combining) stopped in Jordan for the first time the summer of 1981. I was oh so much younger then! 🙂 The very first HUGE change is that we had to relocate our “home” to a different trailer park. We’ve been in the same one every summer since we first stopped here. Fellman’s (a convenient store/cafe) is closed. The swimming pool is open for the first time in a couple of years (updating). We haven’t been to the store or the post office yet. We’re hoping those are a couple of the “sames”.
The first thing we saw when we pulled into the farmyard was this awesome welcome sign. This was so much fun to see, Jennifer, you made our day!
We unloaded the service pickup and headed right back to the Cottage. We needed to get her set up and back to “normal” so we could continue with the day. Once we got everything hooked back up, it felt like we had never traveled the last several days. Jim and Callie jumped back in the dually and made that 85 mile trip back to Miles City to get the header trailer. We had to leave it at the sale barn as we lost it’s driver. Chanse, by the way, is back home tonight in his own bed. Again, thank you Chanse!
It’s very pretty here. There are even trees BUT it’s not the same.
The view from my “desk”(aka the kitchen table).
Love these Big Sky sunsets
Everything is unloaded and ready to begin the task of harvesting wheat in the Jordan area. Our final stop for the summer. This also just feels weird. We just left home.
We’ve been busy! The days have been long. It’s the time when you regret feeling bad for sitting due to rain. I know…this probably doesn’t make any sense to you. Maybe I can explain a bit better. When it’s raining and you know the wheat needs cut, you think about not being in the field. Now, we’ve been busy every day. The day starts at 7:00 a.m. and doesn’t stop until at least 12:30. BIG days! Good, right? Yes, but I’m starting to get tired. I think everyone is. But as soon as the combines fire up and the reels are pushing that wheat into the header, all signs of being tired are gone. It’s like the first day all over again. And…it helps working with good people. Great people! Until I have enough time to get all the pictures I want to share with you (and the stories), I’ll have to leave you with just this video from yesterday. I think we may be finished with this amazing wheat crop tomorrow or Saturday. (I think we’ve been able to get almost 350 acres cut per day.) Then, I’ll catch up. But until then…I’m feelin a bit behind!
The diagonal markings in the wheat are chisel marks. At some point during this wheat’s growing season, the wind blew. It blew so hard it covered the brand new fence that was on the south side of the field. It blew right down the rows and left the wheat plant in place. How the wheat survived and why it didn’t blow out cannot be answered. And even more than that – how did it raise 60 bushel wheat? Apparently, as Jack said, “we don’t need topsoil to grow wheat”. They chiseled this field while the wind was blowing hoping the ridges created would help minimize the blowing.
Yes…we DID get back to work! The sun was shining yesterday (July 19) with all its glory and there was heat. And we cut wheat!
This is the storm that began our four-day raincation. We left this field on Monday evening and haven’t been back since.
There was something foreign in the sky this morning when we got up.
It was the sun.
Monday evening was the last time we were in the field. And, if you remember, we left it just prior to the rain because the moisture went up and the storm moved in all at the same time.
