Day 70.

August 11, 2016August 11, 2016 / aeporior / 1 Comment

We’ve been in New England, North Dakota for two weeks now, and surprisingly it’s gone fairly well up until a few days ago. Starting in mid-August, ND weather usually turns into a crap shoot- you never know what you’re dealing with really. When we were here last year, it was 80 degrees on a Friday, two days later that Sunday was a high of 35 degrees with freezing rain. Nasty and miserable. Thankfully we had a stretch of good, hot weather that cooked our fields. There were some late starts, early nights, and a few days where the farmer told us not to bother.

durum durum.

Even with it being stop and go, we so far have managed to cut all of our farmer’s spring wheat, and about a third of the durum. The past few days we’ve been running up against green durum that isn’t quite ready, and we’ve been playing the “find the dry patches in the field” in between the threat of rain.

stupid weeds.

Durum is a very specific type of hard wheat. It’s worth much more than the typical hard red winter and hard red spring wheat that’s typically grown. Regular wheat is used for feed and flour, but amber durum is to make flour for pasta and can be processed into semolina. After the durum is ready to be cut, farmers can get a bit fanatic to get it off as soon as possible- if ripe durum gets rained on, it gets bleached out, which causes it to be worth approx. a dollar less per bushel- which adds up to be a lot.

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The canola is still a ways out yet, but was sprayed earlier this week. Fingers crossed, we can jump on that in a few days. We straight cut canola here, which is always a fantastic time (/sarcasm).

Sunflowers (or, just “flowers”) are a pretty big crop in North Dakota as well. We don’t cut flowers, but a lot of our fields border flower fields. Seriously, how can one not be happy when there’s a couple hundred acres of these looking at you?

sunflower fields forever.

I mean, really. flowers!

When we’re here in ND, we cut back on how many people we need. Because all of the grain goes right to the farmer’s bins, we only have two truck drivers. We also only run three combines and one cart. Matt hops in a combine up here, and I’m usually on the ground until the remaining college kids go home. We only have one up here this year, so I’ll hop into that combine, and we’ll have a total of six people.

white sage and goldenrod. nothing to do with anything.

We rent out part of a house/pheasant lodge to stay in, and it has a full kitchen, living room, and dining room set up. By this point of the year, it’s fantastic to be able to have real meals, space to relax that isn’t a hotel room, and a tv to watch the Olympics. The South Africans that came up here with us are an absolute blast. Damn near every night we cook family style and actually all sit down around a table with good food and drinks, which I think has improved the general mood greatly. We’re all away from home, and this makes it feel less so. The inside jokes and stories have definitely increased in the past week.

The warm fuzzy “family” feeling makes for practical jokes if you’re not paying attention.

We’ve got (high) hopes that we can be done here around August 20^th or so and head back home to Valentine. I’m ready to be home for a little bit before leaving for York, Nebraska for our high moisture corn job, and I’m definitely ready to see my dog again. Our farmer’s hired man, Ben, has a pup that makes me miss my dog tons more, but he helps me watch the combines go around the field, and is damn good company (and a pretty decent afternoon nap and cuddle buddy).

Thanks for hanging with me, Trapper!

We didn’t work at all yesterday, and Jan (one of the South Africans) cooked us an amazing meal of beer can chicken done on the grill. Ben and Trapper showed up, and we spent a long time laughing and putting down brandy. Ben also brought us a bunch of lamb, and I am beyond excited. Lamb is something that American’s just cannot cook right, and the SA’s are going to do something amazing with it tonight.

Of Weeks Past

July 30, 2016July 30, 2016 / aeporior / 1 Comment

It’s been almost a month since I’ve taken the time to sit down and write. Time has spun a fast web and I’ve gotten caught up in it. To be honest, I have had the time to write in the past week or so, but lure of extra sleep or brief times we were actually home in Valentine outweighed sitting in front of a computer. Cell phone reception has also been pretty sketchy in the fields we cut, and that’s when I normally take the time to post anything new. Lugging the backpack with my laptop and camera equipment got be to be a pain in the ass too. I’m picky and don’t like it to be in the bed the of the pickup and we didn’t have enough room in the pickups for it to be comfortable. So, unfortunately, most of the pics I’ve taken have been from my phone.

The sky was on fire. -southwest of Ogallala

My last post put us in Dodge City being constantly rained out. Since then we moved to and from Ogallala, NE and Hemingford, NE.

Dodge City/Ford ended up being a one hell of a muddy mess, but thank the lucky stars no one got stuck. We ended up pulling out and leaving just one combine and truck behind to finish up a particularly hellacious field.

We moved from Dodge City to Big Springs/Ogallala area in southwest Nebraska in a series of moves over the course of almost a week. The job itself went really well, even though we had to call in help for our second job near Chappell- there was no way we could do two jobs so close to each other with the amount of combines we had this year. Wheat from Scott City KS all the way into Murdo, South Dakota and places in Idaho and Montana ripened at the same time. I think just about every custom harvester was put into the same position as us. When we got to Ogallala, one of our harvest kids from last year took vacation from his summer job spraying for a co-op this year to come out and run combine for us. (Only a hardcore farmer would take a vacation to go work.) We “stole” a combine from Valentine and needed an extra guy. We were so glad that Seth was able to come and help us out and it was great to catch up with him.

Seth was #thelonewolf

I was able to meet up with the son of a guy that I’ve known for a very large part of my life. Darcey was in the Navy with my dad for many many years, and was pretty much an uncle type figure to me, along with the rest of the unit. His son, Logan, joined with a different harvest crew, and we knew our paths would cross at some point this summer. Luck be have, his crew was cutting less than a mile from us and we were able to chat in the middle of the road (literally) for quite awhile. I think our dad’s were pretty excited that we got to meet up.

Heeeeeey, Logan!

The wheat at home got ready at the same time we were in Ogallala and those poor bastards only had two 670s with 35 ft heads. Virtually all of our wheat is irrigated, so it was a slow process until combines started to come back from Kingsville, TX. After they got two 680s with 40ft heads running with them, harvest went fast. It’s almost funny- Matt and I pretty much never get to see our own company’s wheat.

Ogallala came and went and we moved to Hemingford, NE. The same crew that helped us out in Chappell moved to that job and started for us there. We caught the middle of harvest there, and with two seperate crews, the wheat was knocked out in record time. The farmer had quite a few acres of yellow field peas this year, so after the wheat was done, we got the 680s blown off and pinned up to move to North Dakota, and sent everyone home to Valentine. Matt and I stayed behind with a 670 and a 35ft flex head to do peas. While Matt combined with the farmer, I did a bunch of maintenance work on the 40 ft heads, got the rotor bands and brackets in the 680s.

And we watched it rain and hail more than once. Once storm brought a fury of hail that seemed to just flip the bird to our farmer and only hailed out his crops. We used a scoop shovel to re-ice the beer coolers and sat in his shop and watched it all play out.

Some days require a 60oz coffee…

Hemingford is probably my favorite place to harvest at. We’ve been cutting for the same family owned farm for over 20 years now, and it’s always a lot of fun. Some customers you tend to bond more with, and that’s the case with this job. Another big factor is Phillip’s F&T in Hemingford. Phillip’s is a family owned fuel and trucking station/shop. They are hands down some of my favorite people on this earth. They are so much fun, helpful beyond belief, and always good for a laugh, shenanigans, and just a plain old stress reliever. They are friends. That statement may sound generic, but when you’re on the road for so long, the term “friend” becomes much more meaningful. These are people we talk to year round, people who know what our job entails, people who know the lingo, know when we’re stressed beyond belief, etc. When the night is winding down, you can usually find a movie projected on the side of the shop, wheelbarrows with iced beer, something cooking on the Pizazz, and always good company (and a dog to love on!)

Because of the weather and the delays, we managed to get home and sleep in our own bed on two separate occasions. I’m happy to say that the house is still in good repair from all of the vicious storms Valentine has had in the past week.

Now we’re currently calling New England, North Dakota home. The three combines and cart we needed were moved on Tuesday, and we followed with the pickups, shop truck and headers yesterday. It was a long and frustrating day for us.

Hemingford, NE

Nothing is quite ready here near New England. We cut spring wheat, durum, and straight cut canola for this farmer. The whole area is green. Regent, ND is a popular place for custom crews to base their operations at and holy crap, I’ve never seen Regent so full of harvesters waiting. We sampled a bit tonight on the field that looked the most ready, but it was still at 17.5 on the hill tops. It’s going to be awhile, and we’re going to be here awhile. It seems like this year we’re either early or fashionably late. (Fashionably makes it sound better….?)

Jan.

I’m still a sucker for a sunset and clouds. I don’t often take photos of people, but I managed to snap this one with him knowing. This is Jan, one of the South Africans that joined with us this year. He’s always taking pictures of harvest and every one else, but not many pictures get taken of him.

So, now we sit and wait in ND and hopefully something will happen later today or tomorrow.

Oh, Kansas.

July 1, 2016 / aeporior / Leave a comment

“Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”
-Charles Dudley Warner

At least the arrival of bad weather makes for some killer pictures.

And trust me, if there was one group of people in the world that could do something about the weather, it would be farmers.

We are still stuck in Ford/Dodge City. No offense to Kansas, but I’m starting to get sick of you. Any ground and time we had gained at the start of harvest has disappeared in a heart beat.

As awful as this storm was to watch roll in, somehow by the grace of God we didn’t get anything out of it. Like I said, killer pics.

Six combines and four grain carts have now left over the course of the week for Kingsville TX to harvest the entire milo crop for the historic King Ranch. If you’ve never heard of the King Ranch, I highly encourage you to take a quick look at the history behind the Ranch. It’s absolutely incredible, and the scale of it’s diverse operations is enormous. I was lucky enough to go down a few years back before Matt took over “the north route”.

So, now we’re down to three combines and one grain cart to slowly finish the last of our job in Ford. The weather has not been cooperating and it’s been one step forward, two steps back. We only have about two hundred acres left here and we have to get to Big Springs, NE. In all reality, we should be there now.

Down wheat and bad weather makes for some miserable cutting conditions.

The only solace is that we know a bunch of other harvest crew stuck in the same situation. It’s not really a solace, I guess. No one wants to be stuck at a job. No one wants the weather to be shitty. Everyone wants a quick, fast, hard run.

But all of us know that concept is never a reality. If wishes were horses…well…. combines would be running full bore.

I tried giving Mother Nature the stare down. It didn’t work.

Nothing real exciting has happened since my last post. If the weather is decent, we can run. Thankfully the rain has mostly occurred at night, so the next day we stay busy doing maintenance on trailers, trucks, combines, tractors, and this week, loading the equipment for Texas.

We’ve been on the road for just shy of a month now, and we still have a long road ahead of us. It’s hard to believe it’s July 1^st already.

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Wish I could write something with more juicy details or anything exciting, but, it’s been boring. Boring is good though because it means nothing awful has happened.

This is how farming and harvesting goes. Hurry up and wait. Suck it up and take Mother Nature for what she’s worth. No one can control the weather, but what a superpower that would be.

Take what you can get inch by inch. Beat your head against the wall. Live and breath and love and hate this job all at the same time. Go to bed and wake up the next morning and do what you can. Try to be a little bit better each day.

The Days Blend Together- Dodge City/ Ford, KS

June 24, 2016 / aeporior / 1 Comment

“How did it get so late, so soon?
It’s night before it’s afternoon,
December is here before June.
My goodness how the time has flewn,
How did it get so late, so soon?”
-Dr. Seuss

Nothing beats a Kansas Sunset. Ford, Kansas

I remember being a little kid and time seemed to go so slow. How soon is my birthday? When’s Christmas? Why are we driving so slow? I want to go to Grandma’s now! My parent’s would laugh and tell me “wait until you’re older”.

Well, I’m not “old” by any means but the past few years, holy crap do I understand what they mean. I’m not sure how time the time flies by, whether you’re having fun or not.

We’ve been staying in Dodge City for almost two weeks now and it’s been slow going. Previous storms and high winds have laid almost all wheat down. Anyone who has run a combine knows that this is the total shits. It’s not just “our” wheat. It’s everyone’s in the area. It only proves that Mother Nature is always Boss.

We breezed right through Oklahoma, and now Dodge City has crept us to almost a standstill. Any time we thought we had gained has now been pretty much lost. Mother Nature decided to throw a nasty heat wave through out the entire Midwest and Plains region making everything ready way too close together. I know of crews that have been harvesting in Idaho already.

I’ve been in a black & white mood lately.

It’s. Been. Hot. Like over 100 degrees hot. The type of heat where it sucks the energy out of you, makes you not want to eat, and no amount of air conditioning in the middle of the day makes it bearable when you’re in and out of the pickup. I’m glad that the combines and tractors have awesome air conditioning so that the “kids” are comfortable. As long as they don’t break down or have any problems, they’re fine. Heat waves like this make me want to make shorts, but crawling around on the ground in wheat stubble in shorts or getting covered in chaff gets pretty itchy pretty quick. I dug around online and found some super lightweight military issue paratrooper type cargo pants. They breathe much easier and are more comfortable than jeans in this heat. I know I’ve gotten some derogatory comments about wearing military cargo pants, work boots, and tank top with a baseball hat (heard the word “dyke” get muttered once when I ran to get lunch at Jimmy John’s). As to that, a big middle finger to that chauvinistic pig.

The now nicknamed Goodfeathers outside of our hotel. (Which you probably won’t get unless you remember Animaniacs.)

Like I wrote at the beginning of this entry, the days have been blending together. Looking back on the calendar, all I can really say is that it’s been a lot of long but slow days. Nothing big has gone wrong, the guys have settled into their grooves for the most part, and we can feel confident leaving the field for awhile to get stuff done without too much supervision. The nine combines are now broken up into three different crews. I’ve either spent the day sitting in one field and only running to get lunch, or I’ve spent the whole day running around and not staying in one place for more than an hour.

Late evening on the last field of the night is always my favorite time.

It rained last Saturday, and I’m not ashamed that I spent the whole day sleeping. I woke up in the morning to tell everyone to go back to bed, then woke up for lunch, and woke up again for supper. Sunday was Father’s day, and we managed to move a few combines and start around 5pm to only shut down around 930.

We knew it was going to rain yesterday, but had hoped it would have held off a few more hours, at least so one crew could finish cutting the last field of seed triticale.

Waiting for the storm. Mike apparently has no legs.

First storm rolling in yesterday. Ford, Kansas.

That didn’t happen. Nothing was accomplished besides servicing combines and blowing off another air-to-air on a truck. Everyone went and ate lunch, and again, I slept most of the afternoon after taking a care of of some paperwork. Matt and I went to see the late viewing of Finding Dory in 3D and I wasn’t disappointed. There was two other people in the whole theater and all of us were adults. Bonus: Dreamlounger seats. I don’t think I can go to the movies without those seats anymore.

It rained again a few more times last night and this morning, so it’s another day at a standstill. Matt went out with some of the crew to replace a load cell in a grain cart and do some other odds and ends, but I really didn’t need to go out there. I’ve been catching up on some emails, a bit of editing and writing, and we’ll see what the afternoon brings.

Rain rain go away.

May 30, 2016May 30, 2016 / aeporior / Leave a comment

April showers bring May flowers.

Or so they say.

Because all this spring has brought was a dreadfully rainy and severe storm filled month of May.

I don’t want to know what May weather brings for June. Hopefully hot, dry, and good wheat cutting conditions.

The past few weeks have been crazy.

This is the time of year where I think just about every farmer thinks “How the hell are we going to get this all done in time?” and the answer that is always said goes along the line of “It always manages to get done.”

And, everything somehow usually does manage to get done. Everyone knows you can’t control the weather and conditions, but things always manage to just get done.

Because of all the rain, planting season has been dragging on. Fieldwork has been almost impossible. Those of us running one trippers, vertical tills, discs, and field finishers have barely been able to get into the fields to do secondary tillage before the planters. There were numerous days where the planters were forced to shut down and wait. As soon as we thought we would get caught up and have enough of a timing gap between the fieldwork and planters, it would rain again. Some fields had to be done twice. One field washed out so bad that the county was forced to bring out a snow plow to scrape the mud and corn stalks from last season off the road. Even as I write this, it’s raining again.

The worst storm dumped five inches of rain, seven inches in some places, along with high winds, a few tornados (thankfully not super close to town) and oh, the hail it dumped out. This picture was taken quick by a coworker/friend as he went to the shop to check for damage and to pull all possible equipment inside or under the giant shed. It became a running joke for awhile- “How much rain did we get last night?” “Oh, about half a tire worth”

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We should have been done by now, but every cloud has a silver lining, however small. We’ve been able to get a lot of things ready to leave on harvest. All equipment and trailers have been checked over, shop trucks restocked and ready. Two loads of equipment totaling eight combines and one header have already been hauled down to our first stop. The remaining combine, four tractors and carts, shop trucks and fuel trailers, and seven more headers will be taken on final trip down, with another tractor and cart following. One header is waiting for us in at a John Deere dealer in Bucklin, KS which will be a side trip at some point.

On the second trip, I went with and pulled a header and trailer down. We loaded the pickup on the step deck, and headed right back for home. We knew that the weather was not going to be on our side. It started raining just north of Alva, OK, and by the time we got to Medicine Lodge, KS it was really coming down. We had more than enough fuel to last until we had to stop for the night, so we decided not to stop with the other trucks that were with us. We’re glad we did. By not stopping, that allowed us to get into a tiny pocket of calmer storm conditions. We timed it just right- any sooner and farther north by even just a few miles we would have gotten into some really awful weather, and the same would have been if we had stopped for fuel and was even twenty minutes behind. We had the weather on the radio, and I constantly had the radar pulled up on my phone in real time. Baseball size hail, straight line winds, and even tornadoes were all around us, save for our little pocket. We managed to get to Russell, KS safely and park for the night without any damage. It’s not the first time we’ve had to drive in crappy weather, and it won’t be the last, but that storm filled my weather fascination for the rest of the year I think.

All of the hired harvest help is now in town anxiously awaiting our departure. The South Africans, including three that worked for us last year, arrived safely two Fridays ago. Some help has been here for almost two weeks already. It’s been nice to have the extra bodies around the shop and people to do the odd jobs and do some work in the fields so the rest of us can focus on either working on planters or getting ready to leave on harvest. It seems so far that we have a really good group of guys hired, mostly college aged “kids” as per the usual. We have 25 people as of now going on harvest, but that number will fluctuate as we go to job to job and have to call in back up people from home to help.

Matt and I held the mandatory safety meeting this past Saturday, and I think it went well. Some of us have sat through that meeting too many times now to find it interesting, so I redid the presentation and added pictures that have been taken over the years.

On a personal level, this spring has also been insanely crazy. We not only sold my car (we barely use it enough to really justify the cost of having it; we function just fine 80% of the year with just the pickup), but we also are in the process of purchasing our first real house.

For your sanity, however, I do not suggest buying a house two weeks before you have to leave, during planting season, in a rainy spring, and making trips to Oklahoma to haul equipment. I did find out it’s a great way to get a jump start on a summer weight loss program.

We got word from the bank that we were accepted, but due to us leaving on harvest, we don’t officially close until August. The house we’re buying belongs to one of the owners of the company we work for, and he had no problem letting us move in before we left. Thankfully, I was able to give up my tractor for a few days, and managed to keep our pickup with me. I hammered down and in about four long days I was able to get everything packed, moved, and unpacked into the new house. By myself. Big shout out to our good friend Mike and two of the harvest kids- after getting done spreading chicken manure on organic fields early one day, they voluntarily hooked onto a big trailer, loaded all of our furniture, brought it to the new house, and unloaded it inside within a matter of an hour.

Finally got to unpack all of the presents we had gotten from our wedding in March. It kind of felt like Christmas seeing everything again.

Memorial Day weekend was actually pretty laid back for us- we worked all day Friday and Saturday, said screw it on Sunday. We held a big grill out with the harvest kids, the South Africans, and our friends/people we work with. Today, Matt went into work and let me sleep. I caught up on laundry, and some more unpacking, and took more than one or two naps. I only felt slightly guilty.

The current plan is for almost everyone to leave on Thursday. We’ll space out the timing of the groups leaving so we’re not one giant convoy moving down the road.

I still have to pack for the both of us, send the dog off to her “summer vacation home”, and do some odds and ends errands around town before we leave. It feels like we just left on harvest a few weeks ago, not a year ago already. Farming and getting older tend to blur the line of memory.

Haven’t been able to get out the camera lately, not even very many pictures from my phone. To be honest, I’ve hardly had time, and when I do have time, I don’t really feel like Although I did finally get a kickass new Lowepro camera backpack that I’m absolutely in love with.

I did manage to snap a quick pic with my phone between storms while I was moving.

I’ll end with this- no matter how busy you are, or what is going on in your life at the moment, take a few minutes each day just to look at the clouds.

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Q&A: Part One

May 13, 2016May 13, 2016 / aeporior / 2 Comments

Sometimes, I get asked questions. It comes in the form of small talk- like when you’re at a salon, a nurse asking questions before the doctor comes in, waiting at an airplane terminal.
Usually I’m glad to answer their questions, but sometimes it gets tiring. How do you explain what you do for a living to someone that doesn’t have a clue about the agricultural world? There are times I wish I just had a card that I could pull out of my wallet and give to the person. Something like a brief summary. It would go like this. You can pick your answer.

What do you do for a living?
I farm!
I work for a family owned and operated large scale grain farming company. We farm 20,000+ acres of conventional and organic soybeans, corn, wheat, rye, popcorn, pinto and kidney beans. Fieldwork starts in March, followed by planting, cultivating, and eventually ending in final harvest usually around November. Our company also does custom harvesting, which means we travel in TX, OK, KS, NE, SD, and ND and harvest other people grain; mostly wheat, some durum and canola, and a little bit of corn. Depending on the year (aka, Mother Nature and predicted crop yield) we take about 9 John Deere S680 combines with 40 ft. grain heads and 4-5 John Deere 8370R tractors with Brent 1196 grain carts along with a mix of Freightliner and Peterbilt semis with Cornhusker grain trailers. We also have 3 fully equipped shop trucks with fuel tanks and trailers we bring. We leave on the harvest trail late May after our crops are in, and are on the road through early August. The crew I’m on also leave again middle August into September, and again in mid September. Last year I spent a total of six months on the road, including trips back to WI. During the winter months we replace the years equipment with new equipment- 12 combines, approx 22 tractors, etc. All need to be gone through, thoroughly washed, old ones brought to dealerships, and new ones picked up from the factories. By the time all that has been taken care of, it’s time to go through 5 planters, all of the fieldwork implements, and that brings us to March again. That’s our year in a nutshell.

Oh, you farm! You must have a ton of cute furry cows and chickens and pigs and stuff?!
We grain farm and don’t have any cattle or anything like that!
No. Hell no. That would add to the headache.
I do have a German Shepherd- Kelpie mix that would love to have some animals to “play” with though. I’d love to have a small acreage someday with a steer or two, couple of chickens, and a nice big vegetable garden again. Someday. When we have time.

So you work on a farm…. are you like the farm secretary? What do you “do”?
We have an office that’s full of awesome secretaries that deal with all of that stuff. I’m out in the field with the rest of the guys!
(ah, yes! I am woman therefore I can only be in an office!)
I do play secretary when we’re on the road for harvest. I keep track of internship paperwork, receipts, payments, make hotel reservations and things like that for all the crews.
During the winter I recruit possible new hires and interns for the next season, help with interviews, etc. But no, I’m not an office person at all.
My office is inside of a pickup, combine, or tractor. Yes, I drive all those things, operate them, and work on the them.
In spring I do field work, seed tend, and keep everyone else running and (somewhat) happy. On harvest I’m also equipment hauler, flag vehicle, equipment mover, lunch getter, part runner, fuel deliverer, grain samples to the elevators, the runner, the gopher, and everything else that needs to be done. There’s a not so nice word that is generally used. It rhymes with witch, and I’m everyone’s. It’s fun. I love it. I’m never in one place for very long which suits me.
During fall harvest I usually grain cart. I like it. It seems like a vacation. All I have to do is get the grain from the combine, dump it on a truck, and record the weights. It’s simple and no one bothers me.
In winter I work in the shop when I feel like it. Mostly I enter into a hibernation mode and say “screw you world.”

You work with all guys then? Are there other girls that you work with? Does that get old after while?
Yes and no!
There are the “office girls” that keep the whole company running which is a giant undertaking. Those girls are worth their weight in gold. They really go above and beyond- even taking care of our personal matters like paying our bills when we’re gone, getting our mail, picking up prescriptions, running errands, going to the grocery store because we’re out in the fields during any sort of business hours, etc. They make our lives tons easier and probably don’t ever get thanked enough for it. But I don’t work in the office with them.
As far as the shop is concerned, yes, I’m the only girl. There have only been 2 other girls that have come out for summer harvest and they. were. awesome.
Working with all guys is great. No one cares what you look like, smell like, talk like, act like, etc. There’s considerably less drama than working with girls, and if someone has a problem they come directly to your face instead of talking behind your back. For the most part. We all talk crap to each other, but I know that if it came down to it, if something happened, there’d be a whole line of guys waiting to beat the crap out of a guy who pissed me off. These guys are my family, my best friends, my drinking and cook out buddies, my confidants, my rant listeners, etc.

That sounds like a lot of hard dirty work and long hours!
Yeah, it can be!

No.
Freaking.
Shit.

Dirt. Grease. Fuel. Engine oil. Hydraulic oil. DEF. Fertilizer. Chaff. Dust. Mud. Anti-seize. Brake cleaner. Unknown goo. Sweat. Blood. Tears (occasionally). It’s been in my hair, skin, clothing, boots, vehicles, in my bra, down my pants, caked in my eyes, up my nose, packed in my ears, jammed under my fingers nails, ruined washers and dryers, dyed and stripped my hair, destroyed clothing, etc.
Try to add in normal stuff like preparing meals, eating, cleaning your house or hotel room you only sleep in, laundry (oh my God the laundry), errands (grocery shopping!), paying bills (thank you online banking and auto pay), keeping in touch with family (because they all want to know what you’re doing, and why haven’t you called us for so long!) taking care of a dog, being a good wife, trying to get a haircut every once in awhile, and sleep. Sleep is a big one. Coffee is my main food group, followed by Diet Coke. If there was something stronger than caffeine and more legal than cocaine, you bet it’d be added.

So why do you do it?
I get to see the country, meet new people and form new relationships, visit old friends, swap stories on rainy days with a beer, view beautiful scenery, hang out with my friends on a daily basis, create a lot of inside jokes, talk to people from all walks of life in agriculture, from the old boys that hang out at the elevators who have seen it all, to the little kids that come out to the field and make you see the world again through a untainted eyes and honest thoughts.

Because I love it.

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the tempering of wanderlust

April 29, 2016April 29, 2016 / aeporior / Leave a comment

In the whole year of 2015 I was on the road one way or another for a total of a scattered six months.

Trips to haul to equipment for the start of harvest, mini vacation weekends, the long harvest itself, and many different treks back to Wisconsin for holidays and wedding planning. So many miles traveled, so many different unique places.

I love being home- the dog, our own bed, being able to cook real food, but over the past few years wanderlust has settled deep into my bones.

Not right away. It takes a bit of time. It starts off with just hopping the pickup and going for a drive. 10478677_10100161210276957_572497094808312584_n There’s something comforting about dirt roads and asphalt. The growl of an engine. Open country with clouds. Small towns that are barely on a map that no one notices.

It started with missing Wisconsin. I grew up in the hardwoods and Nebraska isn’t known for it’s trees. (Hilariously enough, Arbor Day started in Nebraska.) I went from thick forests that stood firm right up against major highways packed with traffic to dirt roads with open land as far as the eye can see. Slowly it transitioned- a few years after moving to Nebraska, we drove back. The forests I used to find so calming had turned almost chokingly claustrophobic.

I feel an almost unsettling ache to be on the road again. When you travel (even for work) you leave bits and pieces of your soul strewn about. Relationships with people. The land. Even little things start popping into your mind, like an old lone windmill at the east side of a wheat field that you always park by. Something always feels missing after you return home, where ever home may be.

For me, it’s a constant internal debate as to “where” home is. Is it WI, where I grew up, where my closest friends are, where both Matt and I’s families are? Or is it NE, where I live now, have settled down and made roots, have a job I love, and friends that truly understand my life and what it has become?
My Dad spent years in the military traveling, and one of the last times I was in WI we had a deep conversation about the concept. He brought a view to it that I hadn’t considered- “home” doesn’t change. The traveler changes.

Your views, experiences, sights, thoughts, habits, everything about you changes. You don’t realize it. Then, when you go home, there’s this almost frustration, this not quite anxiety that starts to creep up on you. You’re not there for big events, you miss out on weddings, new family members being born, baptisms, holidays, and even the little things like spontaneous dinners. You miss out. It’s all just snapshots into a different life.

So you go home, and find out that life has gone on without you.

It’s this feeling of wistfulness– wishing you were there for everything, but at the same time wishing your friends and family could go into your mind and understand. Time at “home” still flows and you feel like an outsider. But, your time also is flowing, like currents in a river. Still the same river, but different swirls and eddies. I think the older you get, the more this feeling stretches out and touches on the way things used to be, what the could be, what might have been. There’s never regret- regret is pointless, but the thoughts are always there.

Wheat harvest is fast approaching- it feels like forever since we left last year, and it feels like yesterday. The first haul of combines is leaving this weekend to be unloaded at our first stop in Oklahoma.

Harvest is coming and so starts the tempering of my wanderlust.

Caffeine and Diesel

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