13 Jun Steph: It happens

Apache, Oklahoma – Have I mentioned how much I love small town America? Because I really do. For today’s small town love demonstration, I will tell you that the bank had an area setup at the elevator and was cooking burgers for all the harvest crews. As I was un-tarping, one of the ladies asked me how many were in my crew. Upon hearing my response of, “There’s just 3 of us,” she replied, “Okay, we will make you 10 burgers then.” I mean, who I am to turn down free food?

I thought about not posting about this next incident but, it might be exactly what someone out there needs to read to feel better about their own mishap. I’m just gonna go for it. So the other day, I hauled to a new elevator. When you drive truck for a harvest crew, this can be a daily occurrence. Elevators come in all shapes and sizes as well as the scales and pits that go with them. Short, tall, skinny, fat, fast, slow – they make them all sorts of ways. Today’s featured scale is skinny. When the scale workers didn’t recognize my truck with my first load, they automatically came out to spot me.

The second load comes around. I pull on the scale with no problems, go inside the scale house, and do the typical trucker dance. I jumped back in and was pulling off when I heard the ear-piercing sound of truck hitting the scale. Being the eternal optimist I am, I thought to myself, “It was only a few seconds, couldn’t have done much damage, right?” And then that moment passed and I was mad and utterly disappointed in myself knowing I had hit the scale. Upon jumping out and surveying the damage, I came to find I had ripped the bottom passenger step clean off. Well, not quite clean off. It was hanging by a thread of metal.

I can’t lie to you — I was kicking myself. Hard. The voices in my head went around and around, chasing each other with the same phrases; you should have known better, this isn’t your first rodeo, and amateur hour isn’t until later this evening. I called John right away to let him know (you’d be amazed how quickly bad news travels, and I wanted him to hear it from me). At the end of the day, John couldn’t have cared less. His response to me was, “Well, does the truck still run?” All the elevator workers just laughed at me saying how this was the LEAST amount of damage they had seen when it came to truck/scale contact. The conclusion was made that the scale workers should be keeping a running tally of the Skinny Scale Victims. It just goes to show no matter how long you’ve been out here, mistakes happen.

Our time here in Apache has come to a close. We drove through some major shrubbery to get to our last two fields yesterday and plan to blow combines off, load up and take this show up the road to Cherokee, Oklahoma. The wheat averaged around 15-20 bushels with 56-58 pound test weights. Heading to stop number three? Already?!

Quote of the Day – “That thing is handier than a pocket on a shirt.”

Stuff Harvesters Do – Write important numbers down on any available scrap of paper… don’t throw any paper with a number away without asking first.

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