13 Jun Over a Million Loaves

Jet, Okla. – The bread count has officially hit the million-loaf threshold!! It only took two stops, how cool is that?

Our little “dark cloud” that seems to find us here in Jet is officially back. We aren’t normally superstitious people but this is something that has stood the test of time. We have now been coming to Jet for 28 years. Here are a few things that have broken down:

• Back in our John Deere days, we had two walkers go out in two days.
• The same service truck we have now went for a swim in a ditch that was deeper than it appeared and water went into the intake and locked up the cylinder (basically, the engine drowned).
• A truck slid off into a ditch due to a slimy dirt road.
• One of our hired hands popped a clutch and twisted a driveshaft on a truck.

In my last post, I mentioned that we had a rotor belt go out on one of our combines. The new belt was delivered and replaced, easy peasy. When we got started yesterday morning, Dad wasn’t combining for a half hour when he started hearing ticking from under the cab in the feeder house. He drove the big yellow baby to the end of the field where we flipped up the wings and tried to remain in denial as long as possible when we figured out the source of the ticking.

Denial can only last so long until the truth must be realized; the feeder house bearing had gone out. Now you may be asking, “Steph, what is the big deal with this?” Well, let me tell you. When the feeder house bearing goes out, you not only have to unhook the header from the combine but you also have to remove the entire feeder house from the frame of the combine. Peter and Dad have been busy with that for the last couple days and will be for another day or so until we locate all the parts we need and it finally gets put back together. We also had the steel plates underneath the belt on both sides of one of our MacDon headers break so once the combine is fixed, Peter and Dad will move on to that. Until then, Brandon is driving the other combine and I am solo trucker, switching each load between Purple and Maverick. Test weights are still 61/62 pounds and the moisture has been consistent at 10 percent.

Bottom line to this whole tale is this; no two days are alike. No two days ever will be alike and that’s what makes harvest as addictive as it is and always will be. It’s what keeps us coming back for more year after year. I still get asked all the time if I wish I could stay home for a summer and my answer is still the same – nope! The real question is will I EVER wish to stay home for a summer?

Bread Count – 1,049,401.9 loaves

The feeder house removed from the combine to work on the bearing. If it’s in black and white, it doesn’t look so bad right?

Bird’s eye view.

The windmill photos return and I am quite obsessed with how this turned out.

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All Aboard Wheat Harvest™ is sponsored by High Plains Journal and New Holland Agriculture. You can contact Steph at stephanie@allaboardharvest.com.