18 Jul Steph: Harvest in Big Springs

I have said it before but I feel that it will be a good start to this post as well: you think one year is weird until the next year arrives. Every year is just as strange and unpredictable as the next. This year is one where acres are scarce on account of the drought, so if you are able to at least maintain what you have, you are considered very fortunate. At our stop here in Big Springs, we have only a small amount of acres and are going to be finished up within the week, only having arrived here on Tuesday, July 16th. Times like these where we arrive and leave in a flash is where we adapt the whole “circus” theme. A harvest crew arrives, unloads equipment, harvests the crop, loads up again and heads to the next town! No big tents or elephants needed though.

The crops around here are looking about the same as most thus far, yields in the 20-25 range. There are a few fields in the area that are rumored to have done almost 40 bushels per acre but it has yet to be proven.

Quote of the Day: (while traveling through rain) “The combine’s getting washed!  Good, then I don’t have to do it.”

All about American at the Chappell elevator, where we haul to.

Remember back in Lyons, Kan. when we had a flat tire on our grain cart? On the trip to Big Springs, it decided to go flat yet again. We brought the whole shebang (Purple Kenworth with the tractor and grain cart on the trailer) to Sidney, Neb. and got it fixed so we are good to go again, hopefully a little longer this time. Below are a couple photos to show how the trailer leaned while hauling the grain cart, along with how much lower the tire flattened than the time before.

I guess it doesn’t look as bad in the photo as it did in real life but boy, she was leaning.

Tire wanted yet some more TLC.

Nebraska sunset on the Dodge.

Since this wheat hasn’t been that great, we haven’t been unloading our grain cart, so the combine has to stop when he gets to the end of the field to unload on the Pete.

All Aboard Wheat Harvest is sponsored by High Plains Journal and Syngenta. You can contact Stephanie at stephanie@allaboardharvest.com.