We arrived at our first work-camping gig last Friday, August 30. This is a recap of our first week.
We are working as truck drivers and farm hands for a farmer in Fisher, Minnesota. We are beyond excited about this opportunity and are working hard, outside, and in the fresh air!
The farmer farms 5000+/- acres of land growing wheat, soybeans, and sugar beets. We are here primarily for the sugar beet harvest. During this fast-paced harvest, we will drive a tractor-trailer dump truck from the field to a piling station 10+/- miles from the field. The harvest doesn’t start until October 1. So, in the meantime, we are helping out wherever needed, learning a lot, practicing driving the trucks, and having a blast!
The farmer has set us up on a beautiful former home site with full hook-ups. So far our jobs have been to paint and improve a garage on our site, detail the inside of several farm trucks, learn how to drive the 9 speed (manual transmission) trucks (practice, practice, practice), run an odd errand into town for supplies, reconfigure some of the trailers from grain to beets, shadow one of the much more experienced helpers on a John Deer 9620 (look it up), and have had an amazing week!
The lane from the main road to our site is 1/2 mile long, so we walk that lane several times a day trying to get some steps logged! The sunrises and sunsets are beautiful.
This weekend, we are off, so we are going to a Farmers Market in Grand Forks, North Dakota on Saturday. We are a 10-minute walk from the MN/ND border. Our site is right along the Red River. Then, on Sunday we plan to drive to the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca State Park.
Next week, we will practice driving the trucks some more and we think we may get to practice some field plowing. Sugar beet “pre-pile” starts next Sunday for us, so we anticipate this coming week to be busy getting ready. “Pre-pile” seems to be a few days of practice runs for each sugar beet farmer to test all their equipment and be sure their team is trained and ready for the real harvest in just a few weeks.
Stay tuned!!! Until next time, enjoy the pics below…
This is a fun screenshot of us and all the kids. It is from Ken’s phone so he doesn’t show up, but he is with Chris in NW Minnesota.
Sugar beets for a far as the eye can see!
This is the lane from the main road to our site. We are the only people who live down this road!
Our site from a distance.
Aren’t we tall?
A beautiful Minnesota sun set.
Our site.
Last Sunday we put the RV on a diet. We shed some pounds by getting rid of some things and reorganizing all the storage bays. Weight management is critical in an RV. So we must always minimize. We also stop at CAT weigh stations to check our weight periodically.
Chris is behind the wheel of one of the farm trucks.
Driving a truck isn’t for the meek, but practice makes it easier!
One of the things on Ken’s long bucket list has been to drive a semi. This work-camping job is helping to check that box!
A beautiful Minnesota sunrise!
This is the garage we worked on. It needed some trim replaced, and then scraped and painted.
Here Ken is removing some trees that had grown along the sides of the garage.
Ken is using a miter saw to cut some trim.
Making progress…
Adding some new trim to the garage door.
The JD 9620 and a field cultivator. Chris got to shadow and drive this rig turning over the soil after a wheat field harvest.
A back side view.
Chris is painting the roof trim.
One day, after work, Ken dropped Chris off at the laundromat and he did the grocery shopping. He has decided that we are both going on a water diet since prices are SO OUTRAGEOUS!!! This is a 3-pound container of pasta salad…$18.99!!!
Ken stood in front of the eggs for probably 7 minutes trying to figure out what was so special about “Large Eggs” that they cost $4.99 a dozen. Surely, something is wrong!!!
Chris and Ken, out practicing. So far, the hardest thing to master is downshifting to slow down, and especially getting from 6th gear to 5th gear!
One of the trucks we will drive during the sugar beet harvest.
Ken is wiping down the windows.
Chris helping to detail one of the trucks after a dusty wheat harvest.
Chris is filling the truck with diesel. This particular truck has a 100 gallon tank!!!!
Ken is moving one of the grain trucks into a shed.
Ken is bringing in another truck for an interior cleaning.
A few of the trucks, ready for beet harvest!
We had a VISITOR!!!! The UPS driver found us!!!
Home-made Irish scones. They were SO good!
The finished product. It looks really good!
A quick pic while checking the oil on one of the trucks.
