Work-Camping Update #5 – Final for this job.

Work-Camping Update #5 – Final for this job.

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Since our last update, the reason we came to NW Minnesota has begun (and ended)!! The “stock-pile” sugar beet harvest began at midnight on October 3. We both participated in the “pre-pile” portion of opening the sugar beet fields and driving semi-trucks from the fields to the piling station in Crookston, MN. Now the regular seasonal employees arrived and there were too many truck drivers, so Chris was asked if it mattered if she drove a truck or a tractor plowing the harvested fields. She chose the latter and spent many, many, days in a John Deere 9330 tractor pulling either a chisel plow or a speed-disc plow. She would typically work from 9am until the sunset. She really enjoyed her experience. Ken remained as a truck driver throughout the harvest. Driving a truck is way easier during a “stock-pile” harvest than during a “pre-pile” harvest when the fields are being opened. Ken made 120 round-trip runs from the sugar beet fields to the piling stations. After all this driving experience, he can now shift gears without even grinding the gears!!! The final beet was lifted from the field and delivered to the Crookston, MN piling station at 4:08am on October 18.

We’ve been in Fisher, Minnesota since September 1, working for farming brothers Curt and Scott Knutson on their family farms. These past seven weeks have been nothing less than AMAZING. We were offered a complimentary full hook-up site on their property for our RV and paid a VERY respectable hourly wage for all hours worked. We enjoyed absolute peace, quiet, and solitude on the RV site. The brothers, and their families, took us in like family including us in meals and conversation. It seemed that nothing was beyond what they would consider asking us to do. What do we mean by this? They weren’t afraid to take a chance (risk) with teaching us something and then putting us to work doing that task eg: driving 88,000-pound semi-dump trucks, driving various John Deere tractors and implements, driving various farm vehicles, and even doing maintenance on tractors and implements. To say we learned a lot would be a huge understatement.

So…What have we learned? Below is a bullet-point list of a few things we made notes on. Of course, we couldn’t write everything down!!!

When driving a tractor and/or truck in the field…

• When there are dips in the field you have to slow down.
• Even very large tractor tires feel the ruts/ridges in the field. Trucks feel EVERY ridge!
• If you go against the planting rows in a field, you’re in for a bumpy ride!
• After harvest, the field needs to be plowed, but first the contracted fertilizer spreader needs to apply fertilizer to some of the fields.
• Satellites (used for all aspects of field farming), can have an off moment. Farmers use onboard GPS navigation to plant, harvest, plow and plot…down to the INCH!!!
• Wind can be helpful for “drying,” but needs to be considered when raising the dump trailer so as to not get tipped over! Don’t forget to mind the electric lines overhead!
• The hawks fly over fields being plowed because they know the rodents hiding will be stirred up a bit.
• Going uphill – drop it down a gear or two.
• There are no port-a-potties on the corner of any field. Not an issue for guys, but for Chris…well she always brought her personal roll of TP with her!
• Check the fluid levels of all the tanks on the tractor/truck; fuel, hydraulic, oil, and coolant.
• Maintenance is important.
• It’s good to have a “plan B” in the back pocket for when Mother Nature alters your plan.
• Having the “gift” of directional sense (north, south, east, west) is very beneficial.
• Mind the culverts.

Other things we learned…

• People at the piling stations get really excited by a small piece of chocolate and a friendly driver.
• DUST is EVERYWHERE!
• If you are tightening a nut/bolt, when you think it is tight, ask Travis to check it. He will show you that you barely had it finger tight!!
• Innovative thinking on a farm is absolutely essential.
• Don’t dump your tare dirt in the headlands or ditches.
• Be in the correct gear BEFORE you get to the beet lifter, because they are already “lifting” when you pull up next to them.
• DON’T make the driver lights on the lifter module light up “ALERT”!!
• A “coolie” actually spelled coulee is a deep ravine. We had never heard of a “coolie” before in our lives.
• “Hot Dishes” are delicious. To the other 49 states, a “Hot Dish” is a casserole.
• “Dinner” is eaten around 1pm. “Supper” is eaten around 6pm.
• Family gatherings with a hot meal IN THE FIELD on a Sunday are heartwarming to be a part of.
• “Headlands” are different from “this land” or “the next land” but are all in the same field. Good Lord, this took a while to sink in.

Surely there are many, many more things we have learned and experienced. It’s just that people won’t read posts that are too long, so this is our “short” list.

One final comment…We are incredibly grateful for the warm welcome we received by everyone at the Knutson Farm. We are thankful for Curt and Scott who took the blind risk and hired us. We are thankful for the patience of Travis and Isaiah who answered question after question (some more than once) without ever getting annoyed, and taught us countless skills. We are thankful to Kim, Bonnie and Kristin who prepared meals and snacks and made sure that we were included. We are thankful to Jim, who on our first day at the farm, drove up and welcomed us, and then the next day gave us a whirlwind tour of the area and taught us to drive the trucks.

Tomorrow, we leave the Knutson Farm and begin our journey to the next work-camping job at the Bowlin Travel Center in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. But first, we will take some time off to visit with our grandson, Henry, and his family in Texas, as well as have our “Meet in the Middle” annual gathering in Watkins Glen, New York. We start our jobs in New Mexico on November 10th.

We RVery Blessed.