Wheat Harvest: Nothing better to do

I am still here at the library so I figured I would use the internet while I have the chance. I have taken about 1000 pictures so far so I wanted to post some more.

This is a picture of what the inside of my truck looks like. I have a normal radio, and then under that is the two way radio that we use ALL THE TIME. Try coordinating 10 trucks, 2 service trucks, 9 combines, thousands of acres of wheat, miles of unmarked dirt roads and a pickup with lunch and dinner WITHOUT radios and you would have one big mess. It really gets hairy when they get ou of range (20 miles). Then we have to use the base station to relay messages back and forth. And the Last Item is a picture of Sarah and I. This adds some beauty to my otherwise dusty and dirty job. What you can't see is the picture I have of us on the dash .

We had a really nasty storm recently. I went outside and could hardy see these comines because of the dirt and dust blowing around. This is later after everthing settled down.

Often we save a few loads of the best wheat for seed. This often gets hauled back to the farm or other storage bins for planting this fall.

I am used to raising chickens by the thousands, but in Kansas everthing that is counted has at least 3 zeros behind it. This is the milking parlor (double 60) of a dairy that milks about 6000 cows.

This is a feed yard that we hauled grain to. He said they can hold between 30 and 40 THOUSAND beef cattle at this facilty.

Unloading at the Feedyard, (thats not me).

From Left, Adam, Ben, Kyda, Andy, Kamie (Ben's Wife)

This is our Current "town". It is the back side of the fair grounds.
There are probably about 4-6 other harvest crews here too.
Everyone in these towns know and understand the harvest. Anywhere you take more than 3 or 4 young men people know you are a crew.
Our trailers are at the far end.

Combines

Wheat Harvest: Picture Diary

First, I want to thank the Colby , KS library for the use of their computer. I also want to thank God for the rain (dont' tell the boss) that gives me time off for internet use.

So here are a few pictures and brief headings which are snapshots into my life here on harvest.

2 (of the nine) combines loading a (one of the 10) truck


Big storms bring hail=destruction for the corn crop.

Kyda, the boss's daughter. Runs around being cute.

The map I keep in my truck. Colby is the big box near the bottom.

This is one the grain elevators we haul to.
Frontier Co-op, Brewster, KS

Rain Day.

More rain day. Boss paid for the whole crew.

Chuck wagon....Errrrr, Chevy Pickup

New Wheels, For me anyhow.
The old ones had holes that let wheat in everytime I jumped into my loaded truck.

Day's half done.

3 of the 9

Um ...Boss ....we lost the hitch.
Ready to head north.

Bad wheat= Time to nap.
Anywhere, anytime

Tidbit of Info: Pay.
The formula for a harvest crew getting paid goes something like this. There are three seperate calculations all added together. 1-Per acre, 2-Per bushel, and 3-Overage.
Per acre is just that, ABOUT $15-18 dollars per acre harvested regardless of yeild. Per bushel is also just that, ABOUT 15-18 cents per bushel that we haul. Overage is like a bonus that the harvesters get if the average yield is over 20 bu/ac. Last year was a good year and many fields got 40 bu/ac or more. This year they say 20 is the average, but many are not harvested because they are too poor. Yesterday we were cutting a field that was at about 5 bu/ac.
I get paid a monthly salary, + room a board. He also does things like pay for us to go to the races and such. So on days like this I still get paid to check my e-mail. But yesterday We started aobut 8 and I got back to the trailer just before midnight.