The Struggle is Real

 I am losing my faith in humanity. I had an experience this week that left me depressed and frustrated. It was at all places.....McDonalds. When was the last time you went to McDonalds? I used to love McDonalds, I prefer their fries over their competitors, their coke seems better than other places and it was one of my first jobs. I think I was 16, I was a cook. I have not been inside a McDonalds in a long time and was shocked when I walked into the Minot McDonalds the other day. 

No "Welcome to McDonald's how can I help you?". I was greeted with silence. There were plenty of customers in there all silently standing there with tickets in their hands. No employees to be seen, just 4 kiosks where customers were expected to place their orders. I turned to where the counter used to be. It was blocked off with a plywood wall and a sign asking the customers to use the kiosks. 

I hate these kiosks. I start punching buttons. I have in mind what I want, but do you think I can find it on that damn thing? Nope. I just want to double hamburger meal; one burger, two patties, fries and a drink. Should not be that hard, but I cannot find it. I ended up with a cheeseburger, small fry, small drink and 4 chicken nuggets. The machine pops out my ticket and I stand there like all the other zombie customers holding my ticket. I can see employees moving around back there, but still no customer interaction. 

Then it happens, one of the employees comes out and speaks "159" she says, plops a bag on a rolling rack, turns around and walks away. Zombie 159 walks up to the rolling rack, grabs the bag and walks out. Eventually my number was called, and I too did the zombie walk and left never having any interaction with an employee or customer. I seriously felt like I was in the Twilight Zone! 

But that is not what this post is about. Just a random observation from the week. What this post is about is some of the trials and tribulations we encountered while harvesting this fall. I already talked about a couple of them like the combine tire falling off and the combine fire. Talking to a Case service employee recently, we learned that Bob's was the 3rd combine wheel to fall off this fall and the 11th combine fire in this area. 3 of those combines were total losses. 

But wait, there's more! Remember that day when it was so dusty and windy that you could barely see this cart and combine through the dust? As hard as it was to see during the daylight, think about how hard it was to see after dark in the wind and dust? Well, Chris found out that you cannot see at all. You certainly cannot see that big hay bale on the edge of the field that Chris ran into bending a couple parts of his header. 

No parts needed to be replaced, but a couple had to be straightened. Then there was the gear box that went out. Sounds easy? 1 day and $8,500 (parts only) later, we had it replaced with us doing the work. A week or so later, in a totally unrelated event, Chris noticed a vibration in his combine. It was diagnosed to a cracked pulley and bent shaft. $2,000 in parts have been ordered, we have yet to fix that one. 

There were several tire incidents while harrowing. One by me, one by someone who is not me but will remain nameless. I will only tell you this much about the nameless person, the first letter in his name is T and the last letter Y. I will leave it up to you to figure it out. 

 So here I am harrowing away with a 70' harrow going across the field. You generally do not look behind you too often as you are going across the field, just a glance as you turn corners and a glance or two over your shoulder as you go straight across the field. A glance over each shoulder lets you see the edges of the harrow, you really have to turn around to see the center of it. So, you can imagine my shock when I turned totally around to see the center and saw a totally shredded tire flopping around behind me!

I honestly cannot tell you if that happened one minute earlier or 10 minutes earlier. I am thinking the latter based on the condition of the tire. 

The nameless person was harrowing the edge of the field when all of a sudden, the tire broke right off. Not fell right off, broke right off as in metal broke away from the frame. He says he didn't hit anything, but color me skeptical as that tire "happened" to break off in very close proximity of a power pole! In all fairness, it is hard to tell how close you are to an object with something that wide and I may have hit objects in my previous years as well. 

Then there is the spilled grain. So frustrating, so avoidable. As a truck driver, you drive from field to farm unload and drive back to the field to do it all over again. And again, and again, and again. 10-14 hours a day. It is easy to become lax and forget a step. For me, that included not fully closing the bottom trap on the truck, not only once, but twice on two different days resulting in grain going right through the truck onto the ground. So avoidable, so frustrating. 

To clean this up, you need to go back to the farm, get a conveyor, bring it out to the field and shovel it by hand back into the truck.

There were a couple of getting stuck incidents, one with me in the skidsteer where I had to be pulled out and another by that same nameless person with the hay wagon. 

These are a few of things that are all part of what happens on any farm U.S.A. If anyone tells you different, they are lying. 

What else did we do this week? Took down fences, cleaned some outbuildings, cleaned some peas getting them ready to sell for other farmers in the spring. Cleaning takes out all of the bugs, split peas and other debris, leaving only (well, pretty much only) plantable seeds. Cleaning and filling a bin like the one in the background takes about 6 hours. 

DeAnne and I spent a day in town at their rental which is where Ty and Stephanie are living right now. We sided the front of their porch and covered a couple of windows. It looks much better if I do have to say so myself! 

Two weeks left up here, one week of work and one week of fun. I am kinda hoping they both go quick; I am ready to get home!

Slowing Down a Bit

The big news at the end of last week's post was the impending arrival of Her Majesty and The Girls.  When she arrived Saturday and walked into the camper, sniffed, looked around and said, "Not as bad as I thought it would be". She still spent an hour or so cleaning it more, but I will take that as a win! 

The next few days went way too quickly. I still helped out around the farm, but not nearly as much, so I could spend some time with Barb. The first night we went out to supper with Bob and DeAnne as it was to be the only day Bob was going to be on the farm while Barb was here. The next day he was flying to D.C. for part of his legislative duties with National Farmers Union to lobby congress to pass the farm bill that expired in 2023. 

We also made it to Minot twice, once by ourselves when we went to N.D. Asia for some sushi and Chinese food. The epicenter of sushi in North America. I mean when one thinks sushi, isn't North Dakota the first place that comes to mind? Not the best we had, but not bad. 

Then we went out to lunch with Chris, Holly and Tessa to Wings and Rings. That was very good! Speaking of Tessa, Barb spent a lot of time down at Holly's holding Tessa and talking to Holly. 

Chris and Holly also had some professional pictures taken of Ms. Tessa this week.....

I even built up the courage to hold her, which is a big moment for me. Little babies scare the bejeezus out of me. I just sat on the couch and had Holly lay her in my arms. Then I did not move. She basically just slept and after a few minutes my arm started to cramp. Apparently, I did not relax. After 20 minutes I got a phone call from Chris asking me to come out to the field, so I was released of my duties and away I went. 

Barb went out to the field with me a couple time to help me a few times. I even got her to change a few sections on the combine!

Before I knew it, it was time for her and the girls to head home. But it was great seeing them if only for a few days. 

I also got a chance to harrow this week, which is the process of fluffing up the residue in the field which gets rid of it in the wind. 

We also combined the chickpeas this week. So, everything is in except for the soybeans which need a week or two to finish before being harvested. Barb was still here when we were doing the chickpeas, so I sent a bag full of them home with her to try and do something with them.

Chris was telling me something interesting about chickpeas. Did you know that of all the 400,000,000 or so acres of cropland in the U.S., only 54,000 of them were planted in chickpeas? There is just not a huge demand for them in the U.S. and the tariffs for exporting them make it cost prohibitive. 

Once those were done, we got a break of sorts. No more 14-16 hours days, we have a lull for about 2 weeks waiting for the soybeans. So, what did we do? Played poker of course! Almost 8 hours of poker, before we knew it, it was 3:30am and Ty had all the chips on this side of the table. 

We have also been cleaning and organizing the shop, no small undertaking. Barb sent me a couple of pictures from home. She is being Barb. Remember that table she was working on from that slab wood she bought? Well, she finished it! It now sits proudly in the gazebo with some stools she purchased. 

She also went to Octoberfest in Hill City with Dan and Bonnie this past weekend. She just loves sending me pictures showing how much fun she is having without me!

She did take the time to check my trail cameras, however. No big bucks yet, but we do have some thirsty deer and fox!

So here I sit, toiling away, while Barb is out carousing the Black Hills of South Dakota. What is wrong with this picture? I've already started next week's post which will detail some of the challenges we have had to overcome during this fall's harvest. Some unavoidable, some self-inflicted. With luck, by the time the next post comes out, the beans will be off the field and it will be time to start duck hunting!

Brrrr!

The roller coaster ride that is our weather continues ranging from 90's to 60's with lows in the 40's. We have not had a frost yet, but it is not too far off. I prefer 60's to 90's any day, but waking up in a chilly camper sometimes makes me rethink that. I could turn on the heat, but I am too stubborn. 

Peas, done. Wheat done. Canola done. I cannot say that things are going smoothly, but we are getting there acre by acre. Flat tires, broken gear boxes, burst hydraulic hoses, rocks, shear bolts. Many obstacles getting thrown at us; it seems like we have not had a trouble-free day yet. What have I contributed to these obstacles? A few, but I am saving them for my last farm post so I can take all the ridicule and harassment at once rather than spread it over a few weeks. I will mention this one right now however as it was pretty intense. Farmer was combining canola when he smelled smoke.

Smoke+Combine=No good. So, he booked it over to the service truck, got out and found smoke pouring out of the back end of his combine. Over the next hour and a half, we fought embers that were burning throughout his combine. Residue and chaff build up everywhere as you go through the field and somehow about 20 spots throughout his combine were smoldering. We don't know if it was an electrostatic charge, or one hot ember started all the others, but it was intense. The embers we got off the combine landed in the field catching that on fire. Eventually we got everything out and we were whooped. He went home to hose off the entire combine and was back a couple hours later to finish the field. 

Next up, chickpeas, roughly 200 acres or so. Why God created chickpeas (also known as Garbanzo beans) I will never understand. 

chickpeas

I have never had anything with them in it that tasted even halfway decent. Oh, Barb loves her hummus. Probably because it is one thing she does not have to share with me: gross. Falafel? I don't think I have ever had one, I am a Scandinavian boy from the Midwest, meat and potatoes for me. 

Up until this week, I have pretty much just been trucking from the field to the farm or the field to the elevator. When you first "open" a field, we park the trucks just inside the approach and load there. As the combines get further and further out in the field, we move out there with them. If you have a minute and 15 seconds in your life that you just don't know what to do with, you can watch this video of me driving the semi out in the field. 

Surprisingly smooth. Often times you arrive at the field just as the next truck is loaded, so you just switch trucks and carry on back to unload. Truck, after truck, after truck all day long and well into the night. 

We are down to 5 people right now with Bob S. going home for a few weeks before coming back up. As a result, I switched jobs from trucking to carting. As many of you know from previous years, carting is the process of taking the grain from the combine and putting it into the semi. 

I sit and wait for the combine to fill up. There are lights that start flashing once the combine is getting full alerting me to the fact that they will need to be dumped soon. A bit longer, they will put out their unload auger telling me it is time to unload. I have to approach the combine from the left side staying within 2-3' of it so the auger is over the cart. See that combine header? That is just a few feet off the back track of my tractor. It is worth more than most people make in a year, and you certainly do not want to hit that! Beside the fact that it would bring harvest to a standstill. 

Once the cart is about halfway full or so, I make my way over to the semis and dump into one of them for the driver to take to the farm or elevator. 

This is probably my favorite thing to do up here. Maybe not, I do like trucking too and other tractor stuff. I guess I love multiple things. I just haven't had much of an opportunity to cart the past two falls so right now it is my favorite thing to do. 

It does provide me the opportunity to take a few pictures and this little video while I wait. This video is only 41 seconds. I think it is mesmerizing how these combines gobble up the field and spit everything out except the grain. 

There was a farmer harvesting in the field next to ours one day and I sat there watching him I could not help but feel sorry for him. He was doing it all himself. He would combine until his hopper got full, then he would drive it over a 1/2 mile to his truck and dump into his truck before heading back out into the field and harvest some more. Once his truck was full, he would park the combine, walk over to his truck and take it to his farm to unload it. No additional help whatsoever. 

Even with all the help we have here 10 acres/hour/combine is about all we can get done. This guy doing it all by himself was probably once getting 3-5 acres done an hour. Made me want to go over there and help him, it is going to take him forever to get done!

They also got a new toy since I was up here last. Some of you may remember, it is this time of the year that they need to change the tires on the sprayer from crop tires to the fatter tires. In years past they had to use the forks on the bobcat to do this. No more! They still use the bobcat, but now they have this fancy tire grabber! They also got a new wire-feed welder as there is always something to be fixed. 

The highlight of my week? Well, there were a couple. The first one occurred when I dropped a truck off in Garrison and DeAnne had to pick me up. The first thing I asked her is if she wanted to go to Dairy Queen. When she said "Sure", I asked her if she had any money as I didn't. That worked out well for me!

The next was when we got done early(ish) one day and Farmer Bob asked if I wanted to have happy hour. One does not have time for happy hour most days, so the answer was a definite yes!

As cool as those highlights are, they pale in comparison to this one. Barb said she was thinking of coming up for a few days to see me and baby Tessa. I am pretty sure it was mostly baby Tessa as in previous years she never offered to come up. This set into motion a whirlwind of cleaning. Holy crap, did I have some work to do. Sweeping, scrubbing, cleaning, laundry. As a matter of fact, I better wrap this up as she will be here at any minute. 

Speaking of Barb, she got one more project done at home when she stained the entryway to our property. In the picture below, she was halfway done. The wood on the right is stained, the left, yet to be stained. She says it looks good, but now the wheels blend into the wood too much so she may have to spray those black. 

This last picture is of Ol' Remy (Remmington). He is almost 13 and is having a harder time getting around. Most days he just lays around and passes the day. But on this day, Chris brought him out into the field while we were working on stuff and he wandered out into the canola hunting up some birds. It was bittersweet, you could see his youthful mind wanted to get out there and kick up a few pheasants, but his body fought him every step of the way as he limped his way through the field. I could not help but wonder if that will be me someday. Having the want and desire, but not the physical ability. I suppose it is the fate for each and every one of us at some point. Regardless, what a life. Life is good at the farm.

That's it from the farm next week, next time you are driving down the road and see a combine out in the field with its lights flashing, you will now know that his hopper is almost full and the cart guy (if he has one) will soon be back to take his grain!

Delivery Week!

It's been a busy week here at the farm. The last of the wheat (l) went into the bin today. None too soon either as my sinuses, eyes and throat are really paying the price. We have now moved on to Canola (r). They planted just under 2,000 acres of canola this past spring and now it is time to harvest it. Unlike wheat, canola is a much slower process. With wheat it was everything I could do to keep up with the harvesters. I would no sooner return with an empty truck and another full truck was waiting to go out. Even with two truckers they were sometimes texting me asking me where I was as they needed the truck I was in!

There are a couple reasons the canola is slower. First, the yield is much less than wheat, then there is the grain/seed size. It would take probably 6-9 canola seeds to equal the size of one kernel of wheat. As a result, it takes a couple hours to fill a truck versus 30 minutes. So, I find myself doing this....

This does not mean that the days are any less busy though. In fact, in the past 7 days we each worked over 100 hours.  We can typically get into the field a little sooner each day with canola. So, we are harvesting a little sooner each day and going a little later each day versus wheat. Noon to midnight would not be unusual. Luckily Ty's wife, Stephanie, brings us supper out in the field each day. For a picky eater like me, it forces me to try some new things. I am not a big fan of Mexican food, but I had the best fajitas of my life while sitting in the truck the other day. Some of them even come with dessert!

There has been a lot of talk in the news lately about price gouging and people/companies taking advantage of the unstable market. Well, I can tell you it is not on this end of the spectrum. Farmers do not set their own prices. Commodities are priced based on not only the U.S. supply, but the world supply mainly on price and demand. For example, wheat prices right now are at a low for several reasons, mainly there is a huge supply right now. This bin below holds 50,000 bushel of wheat (3,000,000 lbs) and right now wheat is approximately $4.56/bu making a full bin worth $228,000. Earlier this year wheat was at $7.40/bu making that same bin worth $370,000. That's nearly $150,000 swing in what they could have gotten for that wheat in just one bin! Think about all those bins of wheat across the country and how much less farmers are making now compared to that high. 

Farmers cannot raise their prices to make up for this loss. They have two choices, sell at that lower rate or hold it, hoping the price goes up. Some farmers need to take their grain to the elevator right away to live and pay bills, while others have the ability to hold it until the price goes up. Add to that increasing fuel and electric prices and you can see why the small farms are disappearing across the country. 

Much of this canola is going straight to the elevator to fulfill a contract they had made earlier in the year. Some of it is going to the farm as well. Here is one of my least favorite things to do. I don't hate it; I just don't love it. Checking the grain level in a bin once it gets near the top. Heights never used to bother me, but these last few years it has started to. I am just not as stable as I was used to be. I continue to do it to fight my fear. The views from the top are worth it though!

It is so dry out here that the combines are just in a dust bowl as they harvest. 

I cannot help but think about Farmer Bob in his younger years when he could harvest in an open cab. We get filthy throughout the day in our enclosed cabs. Imagine how filthy you would get sitting out in the open!

Although I cannot check my trail cameras back at home, I can check the ones they have around here. Here are a few of the more interesting ones; mostly catching some yellow-headed blackbirds in flight, which is really cool, but that last one with the deer in the foreground and the pheasant on the fencepost, looks like it comes right out of a Redlin or Kouba painting! 

In the 'pictures from home category', I have a few. There is a squirrel that terrorizes the girls almost every day. You say the word "squirrel" in our house and both of the dogs immediately jump to their feet and run to the door. The squirrel is usually long gone from the bird feeder by the time the girls get there but this week, for the first time, they were fast enough to trap this squirrel on the feeder post! That poor thing did not know what to do!

It sat on top of that post for a minute or so before launching itself at the nearest tree, which was much too far for it to actually make it. It hit the ground with all four of its feet spinning, making it to safety just ahead of the dogs. I bet it won't make that mistake again!

Barb also painted the door going into the garage. Frankly, I never thought of even painting it, but it does look much better! Now if she would only grout the stone.....

She also did me a favor by going to our local liquor store on Allocation Day to get me a hard-to-find bottle of bourbon. Once a month, the liquor store owner takes all of his hard-to-get bottles and puts them out. This is known as Allocation Day. He posts on Facebook what he is going to put out and they are available on a first-come-first-serve basis, limit 1 bottle. Barb got there about 6:20 in the morning and she was 23rd in line waiting for the 7:00 opening. People had their chairs set up, one guy even brought his Blackstone and was cooking people breakfast! See that kid in the baby stroller? Nothing like family day at the local liquor store! I wonder if the baby was able to get a bottle as well?!!? 

I gave her a list in order of which bottle I would like. When it was her turn, my top 10 were gone, but she did score on this bottle of Bookers!

But this ordeal cost me a lot more than the cost of the bourbon. She liked the idea of a Blackstone so much, she went and bought one!

This caught my eye as I walked by the chicken coop. I had heard about the tragedy when the dogs got into the chicken coop killing every single one of them, but I did not know that Gavin (10) insisted on putting up a cross as a memorial. It is hard to read but the writing says: Maple, Brighten, Chuckles, Meadowlark, Speedy, Scardy Cat, Clucker, Blacky, Snowman and the other 9. Tragic, but cute.

All of that and I have not even gotten to the biggest news of the week. Chris and Holly got a brand-new baby this week! By "got" I mean "had" and by "brand-new baby", I mean Ms. Tessa Mae, coming in at 6lbs-6oz. It was a scheduled delivery so at least they got to plan for it. Check out the boys shirts.

Holly absolutely would not allow me to take a picture of her, even before Tessa was born! Baby #4 for these two. Here is the thing about Tessa, she is only the 2nd female baby in the Sobieck family in a couple of generations. Bob S. (Chris's dad) came from a family of 4 boys, and he is the only one (and now Chris) to have a baby girl! Their lives have changed for sure, no more restful nights for them for a while. Chris took an afternoon off the day before she was born and a couple days after, but now he is back at it! 

I'll leave you with this picture of Dylan eating a donut. Do you think anyone else was interested in this donut? This picture is so cute, even Harry would love it!