21 Aug Christy: Uncommon Events

Ray, North Dakota — Rain has fallen. It’s very unusual for us to see rain while we’re combining in Fort Benton, especially enough that we can’t turn a wheel. The rain is great as it is incredibly dry right now. It halted operations for a couple of days, and we needed the break. It also gave us a good opportunity to celebrate Paul’s birthday. We treated our crew to a great supper and then got back to work.

Spring wheat isn’t quite ready, and with most peas and lentils covered for our farmers by Fort Benton, we needed to move more machines east to North Dakota. Paul and our crew brought a few machines over to Ray this weekend and started on lentils right away. It’s uncommon for us to move east this early, but when the crops are ready, we have to get there.

Moving to Ray, we had a great trip. Anna led the way, and through easy rain showers and only one blown camper tire, we made it safe and sound.

This season has been very different than most with crops ripening sooner than expected. That’s been a constant theme all year. Patrick is back in Fort Benton, keeping up with barley and hopefully moving to spring wheat soon. He’ll keep at it until we have work there wrapped up and then move east to Ray when it’s done.

As soon as we can finish lentils here by Ray, Paul will take a crew farther north, up to Fortuna, North Dakota, while Gary continues working by Ray.

School bells will be ringing soon, and Zoey and I have about a week and a half before we’ll need to head south to Iowa for her to start fourth grade. This summer has gone by so fast, and it’s hard to believe we’ll need to work our way home. But I will say, I’m very happy that I’ve been able to help move east before we head home. It’ll be a shorter trip home, and one less trip Paul has to worry about moving our camper.

There’s a lot of moving around at this point in time, and hopefully we’ll get all the wheat done here soon. Getting organized for fall harvest will be upon us soon, and I’m anxious to see how fall crops are coming along.