Russ

We received some horrible news here at the farm this week. Chris's uncle (my friend Bob's brother) passed away last weekend at the age of 59. Russ is the youngest of the 4 Sobieck brothers that I used to hang around with in my high school days.  In fact, I would venture to say that I spent more time at their house then mine back then. My heart goes out to all the Sobieck family. I am still in denial/shock/disbelief. I cannot imagine what Russ's wife, kids, mother and brothers are going through. One of the hardest things to wrap my head around is how life goes on after such a tragic event. The birds still sing, and millions of people go on about their daily business without a care in the world. While for others, the world has stopped completely.

Bob was slated to come up here on Sunday until he received that news. Obviously, that has been delayed.

Workwise, the first few days of my week consisted of finishing the forms for that bin site. We got all the rebar set and tied. 

Setting all that rebar did not help my back at all. Not necessarily hard work, but repetitive and exhausting. Each stick of rebar weighs a little over 20 pounds and I would pick them up from a stack, carry them two at a time from there to where they were to be placed, bend over set one in place, move 18" and set the other one down. Back and forth for hours. Considering there were over 200 sticks of rebar, that is a lot of bending over and picking up.

Ty Cutting rebar                                           All set and ready for concrete!

We finally got in the field this week! Chris started with peas as they can stand the cold and moisture of this time of year better than other crops. By then end of Day 1 he got 280 acres in the ground on Monday and another 115 on Saturday.  Less than 10% of the total, but it is a start!

Tuesday (and Wednesday) was a rain day. I actually got up into Minot to do some shopping. Besides food, I picked up some clothing to wear to Russ's funeral. That was one set of clothes that I did not expect to need up here. 

What a muddy mess. Especially when the frost is coming out of the ground at the same time. More than once we had to pull trucks here for seed orders out of the mud. 

Here are the cast for characters that will get used this spring. First is the 620. It will do the bulk of the planting with a huge Bourgault seeder. 

Next up is the 550. It is the workhorse of the farm and the one I use most often. This spring it too will be planting, and I will use it to roll the peas. It is in the field right now, so I did not get a good picture of it. It is the tractor in the middle of this picture. 

Then there is the 440, the oldest tractor on the farm. A once proud and powerful tractor, it hardly leaves the yard and is relegated to grain cart, spending its day loading and unloading grain from bin to truck and truck to bin. 

440 and cart

Throughout the day the 440 gets called into duty when Chris or Dylan will say something like "Pull 750 bushel of oats from bin 10 and load it in the cart." I will then say; "How many pounds is that?". I can never keep track of how many pounds are in a bushel are in each variety of grain. Oats for example 32lbs/bushel, flax is 56lbs, most everything else is 60lbs.  

Loading oats from the bin to the cart

Dumping oats from cart into a customer's truck

Unloading fertilizer from elevator truck into one of our trucks

Putting wheat seed into one of the seeder hoppers

Loading inoculant into the Bourgault

Chris, Holly and I left the farm late in the afternoon on Thursday making the 7-hour trek to Rogers Minnesota, arriving about midnight, where we spent the night at his parents' house. The next morning, I was able to have breakfast with a good friend of mine. Tom and I met while working together in 1981 and have been good friends ever since. Although we only talk to each other every other month or so, and see each other even less, he is a great friend and always will be. We spent a little over an hour catching up on each other's lives before I had to head back to meet Bob, Chris and family and head over to Woodbury for Russ's celebration of life. 

Talk about an emotional event. I saw friends and family I have not seen in years. My brother Bob and his wife Greta are also part of the Sobieck extended family. We reminisced about some great Russ stories, lots of laughs, tears and hugs. What is it about emotional events, I can work all day and not get tired, but spend one afternoon laughing and crying and I am totally wiped. After the event, we drove back up to the farm arrive about 1:00am. 

Barb would have like to have come as well, but she stayed in South Dakota, still recovering from the crud. She is better, maybe 85%, but still not ready to get back out in public.

Saturday we were back at it hard. Multiple seed orders had to be filled. Getting the seeders ready for the field and picking up chemical, dropping semis off in various fields and fixing things that are constantly breaking. 

Late in the day I had to go pick up Ty and Farmer Bob in two different fields. I brought my camera and was able to capture a few shots just as the sun was hitting the horizon. My favorite time of day to get out with the camera. Each of these were taken just driving down the road, out the window of the truck. Of the couple of dozen I took, these handful I deemed as blogworthy.....

A roller coaster of a week, experiencing both the highs and lows of what life has to offer. Here's to Russ, gone, but never forgotten.