What a crazy season it has been. I won’t rehash all the crazy conditions again, but if I had to sum it up with a phrase, I would say with a chuckle, “What was that?”
Laura Haffner – High Plains Harvesting
For Laura Haffner, there is not a better way to see the Great Plains.She and her husband, Ryan, have High Plains Harvesting based in Park, Kansas. The couple, along with their two young children and a crew of about a dozen, travel from Texas to the Canadian border to harvest wheat, canola and peas.
They return to Kansas at the end of summer to harvest corn, soybeans and grain sorghum. They family runs five late John Deere-model combines, along with their other supporting equipment.
Ryan’s harvesting experience started as a young child with his family. He was hooked and continued harvesting summers throughout his teens and early twenties with a local crew. He later took over that business, which has become High Plains Harvesting. This season will mark their seventh as owners.
This is Laura’s fourth year writing for All Aboard Wheat Harvest.
“I enjoy seeing new places and meeting new people,” Laura said. “I like to see harvest through my children’s eyes. They think it is a grand vacation because we make it that way for them.” Whether it is trips to the field or finding the interesting things that make a harvest stop unique, there is no shortage of things to do.
“As a result of our opportunity to extensively travel the Great Plains, I can tell the children are already expanding their worldview, love for travel, learning and adventure.”
A red flag warning had been issued for later in the week. Gusts were predicted to be up to 38 miles per hour. Fire danger accompanies conditions like these and due to the vastness of the area, including large fields and plenty of tinder, things could get out of hand fast.
I hate to even admit this to those of you experiencing the awful heat wave back home, but it's hoodie weather tonight. A cold front has moved through and it's down right chilly this evening.
Montana—Little Man tore open the envelope with excitement and curiosity, wondering who from Texas would be sending him a letter in the mail. As he read the words printed on a lined piece of notebook paper, he was soon smiling from ear to ear. It was from a boy he had met in north Texas, at our first stop, and they attended the same church and basketball camp together. They had even had a fun play date.
I reminded him that the Lord provides what we need at just the right time. That very morning, the children had been
Montana—It was unusual to see how much crop was still in the fields in Nebraska, Colorado and beyond as we traveled to north. The late maturity and rains didn’t continue into Montana this season. In fact, prolonged high temperatures sped things up. As a result we needed to hit the ground running upon arrival. This all occurred while part of the crew finished Colorado and joined us a few days later.
Since Little Man and I have been on the road together, this is the first year I haven’t stayed at least one night in Colorado. It was a
Our family was sleeping as peacefully as possible, dry camped, in our hot home on wheels, on our way to Montana. We were overnighting in a truck parking lot in South Dakota when the screams started.
The other day, a friend from home, who's family lives in Wallace County, asked if I would there for fair. I laughed and said, “If we’re still there for fair, something went terribly wrong …”
Temperature wise, it really has been a lovely summer. Sure, there have been some hot days, but not like we normally experience.
The crew just finished up in southeast Colorado where a combination of hail and drought stressed the crop and yields reflected that accordingly. The crew fought several days of wet ground and high moisture in the grain, but once they were able to move they ran hard with their stripper headers.
We currently have three crews deployed across western Kansas and southeastern Colorado and they have been parked for days due to wet conditions. The storms keep coming and while we were trying so hard to be thankful for this desperately needed moisture, the harvest clock is also ticking loudly in our heads.
It has continued to rain which has delayed harvest yet again. However, you know what hasn’t been delayed? The growth of weeds in the field.