Jada: Altus Lake and the move to Kiowa

Dumping

One of the last fields we cut in Olney. Roly dumps on a semi as Euan goes to switch with him so he can eat.

When we finished harvesting in Olney, Texas, we were out of work and waiting on our next stop in Kiowa, Kan., to get ready to harvest. We decided to head up the road slowly and see if we could find any work, but there just wasn’t any work to be found. If you are not from the Oklahoma area and happen to drive by some of the wheat, you may ask “Why?” because some of the wheat actually looks good; however, looks can be deceiving…  Oklahoma received severe frost damage which took away any possibility of finding work- unless you already had it. Since it rained in Kiowa and our farmer told us his wheat was not quite ready, we didn’t think it made sense to rush up to our next stop. We decided to stick around and see if any possibility of cutting transpired. It is not fun to sit and wait, so to waste some time we hung out by Altus Lake. . . WHAT A VIEW!

Lake Altus

While it was fun to act like weekend campers, it was back to reality yesterday when we moved to Kiowa, Kan. Unfortunately, the rain struck us again while we were on the move. We still have not been able to cut! According to weather reports, it is to be very HOT tomorrow which will hopefully dry out the wheat and make this barely ripened crop ready to harvest. All the sitting harvesters in Kiowa are hoping some wind comes with the heat to make the drying time faster. We are all impatient to cut.

Lake Altus

Tomorrow there is a possibility we will be able to do just that. We are also looking forward to tomorrow for other reasons. Our entire crew will reunite as Leon, my husband, Candice, my mother, and Mark, Jozua, and Robert have finally left the cooler South Dakota weather and unending farm chores to join the harvest. On Tuesday, it will be three weeks since our entire group has been together. We are looking forward to them getting here!

Jada Bulgin can be reached at jada@allaboardharvest.com. All Aboard 2009 Wheat Harvest is sponsored by High Plains Journal and DuPont Crop Protection

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