Wheat update—It’s the wheat harvest run, not a one-way ticket to Mars

All Aboard Wheat Harvest Laura HaffnerThere hasn’t been too much new to report until now. As you may have heard on the news, things have continued to stay wet (understatement) in northern Texas and southern Oklahoma until just recently. It looks like we’ll have a break in the rain for the next several days and temperatures are expected to be in the 80s and low 90s. The majority of the crew is here now and the rest will join us with the last of the equipment in the next couple of days. The crew is going to try to cut some today (June 1) but we’re not sure how we’ll make out with moisture levels and dry ground. I hope to have more details soon if I’m not eaten alive by the vicious mosquito population in the mean time.

Off ramp to nowhere.  Laura took this photo of the flood waters near Lawton, Oklahoma, on May 23.

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Laura snapped this photo of Little Man harvesting cookies; it’s a great way to pass the time when waiting for the wheat to be ready! 

Since that’s all I have on the actual harvest side of our adventure, I’ll fill you in on how this newbie to full-time harvest travel finally got on the road. To be able to let go and get out the door, I finally convinced myself that we’re just going on harvest, not to Mars to stay. If I forget a small ticket item, I could probably pick it up on the way. If it’s a big ticket item, I’ll have to get a little creative and wait until we get home. After all, we do get the luxury of going home partway through the season since we have stops in that area, so I guess I get to cheat a little.

This past fall and winter, I got into reading a few blogs, books, and articles on the minimalist and tiny house movements. I think my family and friends got sick of hearing about all my epiphanies of downsizing stuff, but I must say it really paid off when preparing for this journey. So what are some of the items this newbie took on the trail? I packed the kiddo and I in one large and one small duffle bag (which really is a feat when packing work, regular, warm, and cool season clothes)! Really, please, feel free to applaud at any time. OK, I’d settle for a polite smile and nod. Oh, and to be honest that excludes one set of hanging dress clothes and boots—boots need their own ZIP code when packing. (Ryan likes to pack his own clothes and stuff for which I’m very thankful; hence why he’s not mentioned!) Little Man’s indoor toys made it into several neat plastic tubs and his books into a small bag, because no, harvest is not an excuse in my book to take a break from literacy and he is enrolled in our home library’s summer reading program for accountability! I decided to work with a skeleton kitchen and kept my cooking supplies to what I felt was minimum as I see lots of slow cooker meals in our future! Cleaning supplies, paper goods, and linens were all on the list as well as a few outside toys like the stroller, bike, and tricycle.

When I wrote the majority of the paragraph above, it had yet to be put into practice. But, after completing two nights in our “new to us” abode, I already have a mental list of things I would do a little differently, downsize, or change for efficiency. Maybe I can implement those changes when we’re harvesting back around home. So far, the family has taken well to our new dwelling, especially once we solved the suprise Niagara Falls toilet gremlin issue that reared its ugly head the first night after 10 p.m. I’ll let you use your imagination on what that was like, but on the bright side, it was clean water, and taken care of easily and quickly.

I hope I will be able to share more actual harvest news with you soon! Until then…happy trails!

Loading the last combine from the dealership in preparation to head south. Photo by Ryan.

The crew preparing to leave from Grainfield, Kansas, on May 29. Photo by Ryan.

A beautiful sunrise photo contributed by Pieter Taljaard, crew member.

All Aboard Wheat Harvest™ is sponsored by High Plains Journal and New HollandAgriculture. You can contact Laura at laura@allaboardharvest.com.

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