Christy: Down time

Finishing up the last few fields by Brewster, Kansas. It’s good to be done in Kansas and moving on.

Paxton, Nebraska — We finally finished up in Brewster and met all our crew in Paxton, Nebraska. It’s been a great run so far, and now we are gathering all our equipment and getting ready for the thousand-mile move to Montana. It may not quite be 1,000 miles, but I think it’s close by the time we work around construction restrictions and all other obstacles for oversized loads.

After loading all the equipment and running a couple of machines up the road to make the move a little easier, we decided it’s a good time to take a break and have some fun. Our farmer here in Paxton hooked us up with canoes, tubes and some stock tanks. We hit the North Platte River and tried to stay as upright as we could through about 2 1/2 miles of river. It was the most fun I’ve had in some time, and it was a great time for our crew. Many memories were made, and fun was had by all.

We had a good-sized crew going down, and everyone kept his or her own pace.

Before we hit the river, we enjoyed breakfast at a staple stop in Paxton. If you’ve ever been through this town, you’ll know Ole’s Big Game Steakhouse & Lounge. This establishment has been here at least eight decades, and it has the best food. We have had many meals here over the years, and the atmosphere is always as exciting as the first time you see it. Elephants, giraffes, polar bears and every wild game you could imagine greet you at every turn. We have made many memories here, and hope we’ll make many more.

Zoey’s been coming to Ole’s her whole life. She isn’t as enthused about getting her picture taken with the polar bear as she used to be.
We took up about four tables for breakfast, but it was really good.

While enjoying breakfast there, I met Ralph Holzfaster. He is 94 years young, and he told me stories about his experience custom harvesting in the early ’50s. Equipment was a little different, but one thing that remains the same is the excitement seeing country unlike yours and the never-ending obstacle of what Mother Nature dishes out. Ralph’s wife, Beverly, said she had never cooked a meal before she came out on her first run. She, much like myself, had never imagined being married to a farmer, but wouldn’t have had it any other way. Spending time with them makes me realize what we do is so very special, and really amazing when we can see that there is an end to the harvest madness at some point!

Ralph’s son, Tim, owns Ole’s these days. It will always be a very special and incredible spot in Nebraska worth seeing if you’re out that way.

It’s unreal that our southern run is complete, and we are ready to move on. We saw yields all over the board, but all on the better side of what we’ve seen these last few years. I’m excited to hit the road in the morning to Montana for a new adventure.

Thank you to our 2024 All Aboard Wheat Harvest sponsors: High Plains Journal, Lumivia by Corteva Agriscience, Unverferth Manufacturing Co., Inc., Merit Auctions, Kramer Seed Farms,Shelbourne Reynolds, and U.S. Custom Harvesters, Inc.

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