My mother-in-law saved the day this afternoon when she showed up with lunch (which is actually at supper time - the meal at lunch time is called dinner ya know!). That was the first chance I'd had in hours to run over through the brome grass that was taller than me (cautiously looking for snakes), hope that every chigger and tick didn't crawl up my pant legs while I was taking so long to poke through the tall grass, take off my sunglasses so I could see into the grainery in the dark (compared to the bright sun), look for wasps, kick the bucket in case there was critters in there and pop a squat on the makeshift toilet at John's Ranch. No one lives out there, so I should be happy that John went to the trouble of making up a private loo. You know the guys, any soil or straw will do for a pee break, but being the only girl that hangs in the field all day long, I have to get creative with my roadside restrooms.
All bathroom humor aside, today was another good long work day tallied into the Heinze Harvest. We moved out to John's Ranch and I was the only truck driver this afternoon. It's a long haul back to town and I couldn't keep up. Pop used to say "take it easy on the way to town, give 'er hell on the way back." I was doing just that, but it was just too far of a drive for one woman to keep up with the combines. Luckily, about 5 o'clock Matthew got off work and came to the field, Jarrod finished up planting sowed feed and came to the field and Tina showed up with lunch so everyone stopped for a few minutes to eat and break. She brought me some ice for my waterjug that was getting hot and a much welcomed sandwich and gatorade. When I ate leftovers for lunch when I got off work - I thought I'd ate too much then, but by 3 or 4 I was starved again! So tomorrow it's back to work for half a day and then to the field for some more long hauls from Bob's place! There is a nice bathroom there at the house, so I won't have to be too creative if I need to stop along the way!
Monday, June 29, 2009
My fortune cookie says..."many more long hauls in your future"
I didn't get my harvest update written yesterday morning because I was busy making dinner! Somehow the whole morning got away from me, but those enchiladas and chocolate pie were damn good! We were all ready for an afternoon nap after that, but we got up and got back out to the field and got an earlier start cutting yesterday!
We've finished up John's place, and 2 more places in the last 2 days (minus 15 acres here and 15 acres there). Sometimes you have to be creative in how you move the combines down the road, they don't fit easily over every country bridge and every narrow place in the road that you might encounter along the way. So sometimes we'll do half of a place and come back later and get the rest when we are the other side of the bridge for another field, instead of driving all the way around the section just to cross a creek.
I am just glad it worked out yesterday so I didn't have to move the combines up Oppliger hill on the way to the next field. A few years back when I first learing to drive trucks...I tried to move the red truck over that steep curvy hill. Well I got halfway up, had to downshift, didn't get it right and killed it. Then I had no power steering and the brakes become extremely hard to work. I rolled back down the hill backwards and crashed into the ditch and spilled some wheat. I still get a hard time to this day about my wheat crop at the bottom of that hill. And I think now I could probably pull that hill and not have a problem, but I still get a little nervous about it. But as it worked out, I got to take the last load to town and Matthew (bro-in-law) had to lead the combines to the next field - by way of that same hill yesterday! I got lucky this time!
Speaking of getting lucky... (no not that kind of lucky)
Several thunderstorms appeared and dissolved over the weekend, but we were lucky enough to not get any rain out it. I wished I'd had my camera last night as we were winding down, the little storm on the edge of the county line had a sunset behind it and some awesome lightning - and it was close enough I could have shot some cool photos if I'd had the camera and tripod. But I didn't have the camera and it was just as well anyway that that storm fell apart before any rain made it to our fields! So I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for a few more days of good hot summer harvest weather. We aren't done yet!
We've finished up John's place, and 2 more places in the last 2 days (minus 15 acres here and 15 acres there). Sometimes you have to be creative in how you move the combines down the road, they don't fit easily over every country bridge and every narrow place in the road that you might encounter along the way. So sometimes we'll do half of a place and come back later and get the rest when we are the other side of the bridge for another field, instead of driving all the way around the section just to cross a creek.
I am just glad it worked out yesterday so I didn't have to move the combines up Oppliger hill on the way to the next field. A few years back when I first learing to drive trucks...I tried to move the red truck over that steep curvy hill. Well I got halfway up, had to downshift, didn't get it right and killed it. Then I had no power steering and the brakes become extremely hard to work. I rolled back down the hill backwards and crashed into the ditch and spilled some wheat. I still get a hard time to this day about my wheat crop at the bottom of that hill. And I think now I could probably pull that hill and not have a problem, but I still get a little nervous about it. But as it worked out, I got to take the last load to town and Matthew (bro-in-law) had to lead the combines to the next field - by way of that same hill yesterday! I got lucky this time!
Speaking of getting lucky... (no not that kind of lucky)
Several thunderstorms appeared and dissolved over the weekend, but we were lucky enough to not get any rain out it. I wished I'd had my camera last night as we were winding down, the little storm on the edge of the county line had a sunset behind it and some awesome lightning - and it was close enough I could have shot some cool photos if I'd had the camera and tripod. But I didn't have the camera and it was just as well anyway that that storm fell apart before any rain made it to our fields! So I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for a few more days of good hot summer harvest weather. We aren't done yet!
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