Megan: “Rain, rain, come again another day”

As I sleepily roll over in bed I hear the gentle pitter patter of rain on the top of the camper roof. I sigh as a wave of calmness overcomes me and I breathe in the fresh smell of earth from an open window nearby. Suddenly as a huge clash of thunder crashes in the distance I quickly snap my eyes open and my dreams about camping in the mountains disappear as I pull myself back into reality. “Dangit.” On harvest you typically look forward to waking up to sunny, blue skies not to gloomy rain.

Being farmers ourselves, we never curse the rain because we know what it’s like to be without. Also, last year we had to witness the utter devastation of countless farmers from the terrible drought on the harvest trail. Somedays, the rain might not always follow our agenda but you just have to be thankful for whenever there is moisture. We have omitted the “rain, rain, go away” phrase and just kept the part about wishing for it to “come again another day.”

Due to this unpredictable rain we have had to rearrange our harvest plans multiple times. We are almost finished in the Helena, Oklahoma area and are currently debating about which way to split the crew for our next couple stops. Both Perryton, Texas and Plainville, Kansas are just a few days off from being ready. With that in mind, it sounds like Brandon and Greg will take a CR and grain trailer down to Perryton. Meanwhile, I think the rest of the crew will team up with the TR ’98, other CR and grain cart at Helena to finish up and head to Plainville, Kansas to begin whittling away up there. However, we will not have any plans “set in stone” until we see what the weather is going to do. As Dad always says, “this is the plan for now…” and we all know that means it’s “subject to change.” Which it always does. I guess that’s just another exciting aspect of harvest.

Yesterday, Mom had to head home to get things caught up at the farm. From paperwork to mowing our huge lawn to going over summer fallow, she will have her hands full when she gets back home. We were all sad to say good bye but hopefully she can join us back on the road in a couple weeks. Since our crew will be split up for a while, we also have a new member, Sean, to help out.

As the sky continues to pour we hope the rest of the weekend has some sunny skies in store for us. However, weather is never in our control so all we can do is stand-by and see what happens.

Grain cart in the rain
A photo of the first drops of the rain from Tuesday evening. We haven’t been able to cut since and we’re very anxious to get back in the field.

Sad Mom
“Here come the rain again,” was the headline in the local paper on Wednesday morning. Mom shows her sadness about the rain and having to leave us to go home and catch up on things.

Crew dinner
A quick photo of the crew from earlier this week as they enjoyed one of our “tailgate dinners.” Left to right: James, Danny, Brandon, Greg

 

Mom and Dad in front of the '98
Mom and Dad proudly stand in front of their ’98 combine they have been using the past week. They have cut alot acres and kept the old machine running smoothly!

All Aboard Harvest is sponsored by High Plains Journal and Syngenta. Megan can be reached at megan@allaboardharvest.com.

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