Remember when you were back in middle school? Class seemed to drag on forever, and you struggled to maintain your attention because all you could think about was one thing.....recess. You spent hours sitting in anticipation, counting down the minutes to play time. Recess finally came, but you struggled to enjoy it because you dreaded knowing it was going to end soon.

Greenfield, Iowa—Someone once told me that the best things in life are free, but whoever said that clearly has never prepared a harvest crew to leave for a summer abroad in the Midwest. Don’t get me wrong, it’s super exciting to know in a few weeks I’ll be far from home, sitting high up in my combine cab and looking out across golden wheat fields. 

As Jones Harvesting celebrates our 40th anniversary of harvest, it's been hard to not be sentimental.

I woke up at 10 a.m. in my own bed this morning, one large enough to lay sideways on with a stack of pillows. That's weird.

Onida, South Dakota—Where do mushrooms go to get a drink? To the salad bar of course! Did you find that joke a little dull? Don't worry ... it will grow on you (like a fungus). Maybe I'm not the best comedian, but I promise you I'm still a fungi. Okay, enough with the fungus jokes or there won't be mushroom left in this week's update to tell you about the actual "fungus among us" here in South Dakota.

 

There's been a little hiccup in our spring wheat harvesting, all caused by a fungus you

Agar, South Dakota—When people ask me what I do for a living, sometimes it's hard to explain. It's almost like having a bunch of part-time jobs all at once. Some days I play a mechanic, fixing broken widgets with duct tape and tarp straps. Occasionally I'm an accountant calculating profit margins and running the numbers. And every so often I'm a logistics manager making sure everyone gets to the right place at the right time. But this week I find myself working in a more unusual role, one that not every harvester has much experience

Onida, South Dakota—Everyone can use some good advice from time to time. After 40 years of harvesting, we probably qualify to offer some helpful harvesting pointers. But there is always something more to learn in life, and I recently stumbled across an old saying that seemed worth sharing with you. Benjamin Franklin is well known for saying, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." The crew maybe has not been following the "early to bed" part, but the rest of this age-old proverb rings true this week.

 

The crew's health

Onida, South Dakota—No matter where I go or what state I am in, I've been noticing a trend while traveling the harvest trail. Maybe everyone's schedule is so busy there's simply no time to take decorations down. Perhaps people are just so enthusiastic they can't help but celebrate all year long. Or maybe it’s just pure laziness. Whatever the reason, everywhere I go this summer I still find Christmas trees wrapped in garland, glinting in the summer sun. Storefronts display fake frosted windowpanes despite the excessive heat advisory just issued, and icicle lights hung from the

Onida, South Dakota—The crew always looks forward to moving to South Dakota, but getting there is always the hard part. It's the longest move of the summer, and our route takes us through the desolate Sandhills of Nebraska. The beautiful scenery is filled with wild flowers, rolling hills and grasslands that seem to stretch on forever in every directions. The famous (or infamous) Oregon Trail cuts across our path as we travel north. If you know where to squint you can still see parallel ruts that scar the hillside.


Those ruts, created by hundreds of thousands of wooden wagon

Big Springs, Nebraska—It's a pretty long pull from southwest Kansas up to Nebraska. With nearly 400 miles to cover, the crew has to be on the ball if we want to make it in one day. Last night we worked late loading machines in the dark, and everyone is exhausted from the heat. We finally get to bed after midnight, but it seems like the alarm clock goes off just minutes after our heads hit the pillows. Reluctantly we roll out of bed extra early, roll up the water hoses along with the electrical cords and roll down the