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.
cdsjerry
Posted at 08:52h, 19 JulyIt doesn’t look like it’s leaning because the camera is leaning. Look at the background. The ground, the trees, the world, is all leaning the other way. Rotate the picture to level then look at the grain cart again. It’s leaning! I could do it for you but how would I upload it to you?
Sharon and Harry Drake
Posted at 17:13h, 19 JulyMy Great Grandparents came from Pennsylvania in the 1870’s and ended up in Edgar, Nebraska. Then later to Arapahoe, Neb. then to Kansas. But they really loved Nebraska and not sure why they came to Kansas,but Nebraska was because of the available land there. There was coal mines where they came from and decided to get out of there and have a life above ground. We came through Edgar few years ago, I see why they loved that area. Beautiful farm country.You can see the farmers and ranchers really love the land and take care of it.
Yes, farming is always a new experience and rapid changing of machinery. You folks take care. Corn looks good here just north of the Oklahoma border at Arkansas City and Winfield. Maizes, is coming on also. Does not look like there is as much as usual. A lot of the farmers went to wheat this year.Sharon and Harry Drake July 19, 2013.