Tribune, Kansas: We have finished up all our acres by Tribune and Colby. Tribune had an above average crop this year, and yields ran anywhere from about 25 up to 60 bushels per acre. This wheat crop survived every obstacle you can think of: drought damage, bug damage, wind and hail damage, freeze damage, and mosaic wheat damage. Above all that, conditions to combine were further complicated by continuous rain storms. After all that, we still combined an above average crop. That’s pretty impressive for Western Kansas.
The rain has been unreal since we’ve been in Tribune. Storms come up at least every other day, and bring strong winds. We’re not quite half way through the month, and Tribune has already gotten 2.69 inches of rain for July so far. It looks like the drought may be over for this part of Kansas.
With all the rain, the roads became pretty treacherous on several occasions. I even got my pickup stuck helping move a pickup to the next field. The roads here are more sandy than full of gravel rocks like back home. They turn to slick quick sand immediately, and when the mud dries, it’s like concrete to try to wash off. After getting stuck and thinking I did a thorough job washing out my wheels, my steering wheel started shaking. I must’ve knocked some residual mud loose, and ended up having to re-wash out my wheels. Thankfully that’s all it needed, and that I didn’t do any damage when I got stuck.
It’s great to be finished up in Kansas, and now we’re ready to make the move to Fort Benton, Montana. I’m sitting here right now all packed up in the campground, ready to take off, but it now looks like we’ll be waiting for a couple hours. Paul has to head all the way to Garden City to get an airbag for the tractor and cart trailer. We were hoping to make it to Bowman, North Dakota today, but with this last minute trip for a fix, I’m not sure how far we’ll get today. Our trip may end up being three days instead of two.
Some of our new crew this year are a little leery to make this trip, but it really isn’t any different than all the other moves we’ve made outside of the length of the trip. It is definitely a very tiring one, but it will be worth it for the views when we start combining. Crops out in Montana sound very promising to be good this year. I’m excited for us to be on our way, and praying for a safe trip. Hope all harvesters on the move have good trips coming up.
