Southeast Colorado: Its hard to believe that a week has passed since I was sitting on a driveway in southeast Colorado celebrating the Fourth of July on a beautiful summer evening. My children, especially Little Man who is old enough to really get the festivities, had been looking forward to the holiday since the last shell exploded in the city show last year. The evening was made of everything that little firecrackers could hope for like new friends, ice cream, catching toads, sparklers, smoke bombs, fountains, adventures and a misadventure we’re all still laughing about. The community show was a
Blog
Southwest Kansas/southeast Colorado: The weather has finally cleared and the wheat is dry. Combines are going like a house on fire. Trucks and the grain cart are too, for that matter, because the dryland yields are outstanding. This section of the High Plains received just the right temperatures and rainfall and we’ve seen them in the 70s on up to the 90s. This is especially encouraging in a tough environment where drought, hail and heat never seem that far away.
Yes, these are the days that harvest stories are made. Crews have been cutting into the dark under the
Garden City, Kansas–Crazy how fast the past two weeks have gone! We left home, arrived in Chase, cut every day and have moved to Garden City. If it wasn’t for my calendar, I’m certain recalling dates of when things occurred just wouldn’t or couldn’t happen.
We began our 2019 harvest adventure on June 24. By the time we said our goodbyes to the kids, threw our last-minute stuff in the trailer house and locked the door on our home in Manley, it was 4:30. Yes, we were setting up the "cottage on wheels" in the dark. Way to
Western Kansas—In the harvesting business there are no two years just alike. Last year when we were harvesting in Kansas we were short on work. This year we are overloaded and trying to keep so many customers happy. It is so nice to see Kansas having a very nice wheat crop this year as was expected with all the moisture they had. However, I didn't know it was going to be as good as it is and it doesn’t take long to get a hopper full with the outstanding yields.
We were recently cutting east of
Sublette, Kansas—Wow! What a difference just a few days can make ... After the heartache Oklahoma dealt us with the rains, mud and challenging fields conditions, Kansas welcomes us with sunny skies, triple-digit temperatures and flat fields. The weather has turned completely around, and harvesters couldn't be more happy.
Ideal harvesting conditions make for a fast-paced harvest here in Sublette. With the header loaded on the trailer, we are off to the next field. What a change from Oklahoma.
We started our two stops in Kansas in reverse order from normal, meaning we are currently in the
“Remember? Remember, Mom, when our farmer saved us?” This was Lady A recently looking for reinforcement as she was telling our newest crew member about some storm excitement we experienced recently in Oklahoma. She accompanied this with motions of her tiny hands of how the windows of the farmer’s basement were moving in the wind.
Oh, Lady A, Mom remembers well. I remember seeing the storm as I came up over the hill out of the bottom ground and thinking it looked strange. I remember checking my radar on my phone—seriously, how did we live before mobile radar—and not