Tag Archives: harvest

better than expected

by nebraskawheatie

It’s been a few days since I felt like I had time to play catch up with my writing. We’re still in Garden City and still cutting wheat. Considering the summer, I feel we’re fortunate to say this!

And…I’m feeling quite fortunate to tell you the wheat we’re cutting for our farmer is doing much better than expected! The dry land wheat has averaged 30 bushels per acre with a weight of 62 lbs. Gary, the farm manager, told me before we started that the dry land was going to do better than the irrigated due to the late freezes they had in April. He said it would be lucky to make 20 bushels per acre. We’re cutting that irrigated now – it’s averaging 65 bushels per acre! The weight is the same 62-63 lbs. The Yellow Beast doesn’t know what to do with good wheat and moving at a slower pace.

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adios, oklahoma

by nebraskawheatie

Leaving a place that has become “home” tends to make a person think about certain things. The one thing that I’ve thought about a lot this year is the fact that I take for granted way too many things!  I found myself looking at my surroundings a little more intense this year. I sort of figured out that I don’t have a guarantee that I’ll be back next summer.  So, I soaked in the lush green countryside, the smell of the wheat chaff, the beautiful water-colored sunsets (especially after a brief thunderstorm), the intense oven-like temps of the south winds (or Oklahoma gales) and the birds. I tried to take as many pictures of the countryside and the wheat field as I dared. The hot winds and birds are a different story.

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Wordless Wednesday – Hands

by nebraskawheatie

I sat down to write a post about the final acres of wheat being cut today in Oklahoma; however, I decided to wait and will do a lengthy one later. I have a couple of really good pictures I wanted to share and since it’s “Wordless Wednesday”, I thought this was the perfect time.

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Our family’s oldest and youngest hands. Grandma Dickson (age 95) and Eli (2 mos.)

1006106_519687211418710_1880583576_nWorking hands…Jim threshing wheat for a quick quality check. (thanks for sharing, Taylor)

Z Crew is Gonna Hire Out as Rain Makers!

by nebraskawheatie

Last night, the conversation went sort of like this:

“Dad, will you cut wheat tomorrow?” – Taylor

“We should be able to, if it doesn’t rain tonight”. – Jim

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Father’s Day & Rain

by Nebraska Wheatie

Happy Father’s Day!!

What did the Z Crew do to celebrate? NOTHING! This just about drove Taylor and Callie completely bonkers. I, however, LOVED it. I needed this day to get caught up on book work and get a few things better organized.

It rained early this morning. There’s nothing better than rain on the roof of the trailer house. I know it’s early in the season and we’re already behind on acres but I needed a good down day. A day that meant nothing more would get done than what I allowed. It started at 9:30 am. Yep…I slept til then and it felt great! I’m not going to apologize for one second of it.

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Father’s Day & Rain

by nebraskawheatie

Happy Father’s Day!!

What did the Z Crew do to celebrate? NOTHING! This just about drove Taylor and Callie completely bonkers. I, however, LOVED it. I needed this day to get caught up on book work and get a few things better organized.

It rained early this morning. There’s nothing better than rain on the roof of the trailer house. I know it’s early in the season and we’re already behind on acres but I needed a good down day. A day that meant nothing more would get done than what I allowed. It started at 9:30 am. Yep…I slept til then and it felt great! I’m not going to apologize for one second of it.

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On Your Mark, Get Set…GO!

by nebraskawheatie

The transition from “home, home” to the harvest world has always been a hard one for me. It takes everything I have to push through it year after year after year. This time, though, it was the worst!

When we began this way of life as a family in 1990, we had a young family. I was young, Jim was young and we only had two of our four daughters at that time. Jamie would have been 4 and Jenna only 2. Taylor and Callie came along way after this lifelong adventure began for us. Funny how at the time my children were growing up (and I was getting older), I never really thought about them growing up – and not being with us.

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Feeling a Little Blue Tonight (Video)

by nebraskawheatie

I should have more pictures to share but I don’t. But what I do have is a video that Taylor put together for the All Aboard Wheat Harvest. She and Jim had an uneventful trip (a good thing) to Shattuck, OK and back again.

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When Are You Leaving?

by nebraskawheatie

Answer…I don’t know.

That’s the question – and the answer – that seems to be fairly common for us these days. Everyone in our world knows that we should be getting ready to leave – and wondering why we’re still here. We have the “extreme weather” to thank for our sudden stop in action. Remember that “extreme” cold weather we had about three weeks ago? We had snow in May, Texas had a severe freeze.  The freeze put a halt on the pre-harvest work. Jim made the phone call to the fellow harvester we help. When Delaine saw that it was Jim calling, he didn’t even say hello – he answered the phone with, “I don’t know”.  The “I don’t know” was later changed to, “we’re not needed”. The insurance adjuster visited the wheat fields only to find the wheat crop MIGHT yield 4 bushels to the acre.  Not enough to justify the help of a custom harvester. It had to be a disappointment to our farmer but an even greater disappointment for us. No wheat…no income.

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Part 2 – Why I Am the Way I Am

by nebraskawheatie

With Part 1 of this “story”, I left you with “When Grandma asked me if I’d like to join them the summer of 1974, I JUMPED on the idea. I’ll turn that part of my story into Part 2.” I was SO EXCITED when Grandma asked me if I’d want to go – I was 12 years old in 1974. I think I was most excited about the idea of getting to spend time with her and Grandpa. Staying in the trailer house and keeping the floors cleaned came in at a close second. Why? I have absolutely no idea. Maybe it was just the “smallness” of it. I don’t remember much about my first year on the road with Grandpa and Grandma but I’ll try to dig into that cobweb filled memory closet of mine and see what I can pull out. One of my favorite memories riding with Grandma was listening to the radio. She was so good about letting me listen to “my” music for 15 minutes and then it was “her” music for 15 minutes. I can still hear her singing “her” music! And to this day, every time I hear something that she enjoyed singing, it makes me think of her. A couple of her favorite sayings…”stop and smell the roses” and “one day at a time”! Continue reading →