A Noisy Slow Roll Grumblefest
The combine lumbers and lurches like an enormous beetle rustling through the wheat. It is loud, lethargic, and tipsy as it moves through the dry creeks that cross the fields. A noisy slow roll grumble fest. A clanking, roaring, green agri-terrorist machine spinning a fine waltz, like a drunk dancing by himself on the dance floor. A mercenary for the hawks who hover above on hot July thermals, waiting for the rabbits and pheasants to flee the cacophony. It disappears over a hill, leaving only a fog bank of dust, chaff, and black diesel smoke trailing behind it like a slow-burning fuse.
The description above was written quickly, on my phone, during one of the few short breaks that happened during harvest.
Harvest is funny that way. As a combine driver, I have plenty of time to think about harvest as I drive 4.5 miles an hour, but no time to stop and photograph it, or write about it. We start the machines after fueling and greasing them up; and then we cut, non-stop, until we finish for the day. The truckers work their you-know-whats off. They truck from the field to the elevator, tarp and untarp, then they jump into the tractor to run the grain cart at the field. It's all go, go, go. No lunch breaks. You eat on the run, if at all.
Maret's hand was sore and bruised from shifting the crappy transmission on the GMC. Joel was constantly repairing the semi: shredded belts, clogged filters, and blown tires. The wheat this year was good. Really good. Some of the best we've ever cut. The grain elevator in Sterling where we were trucking the wheat was not having a good year. They were broken down often, so, at one point, we resorted to dumping wheat on the floor of the shop. This allowed Maret, who was trucking, to get back to the field faster.
During wheat harvest, the shop is emptied out. It is the only time of year it happens. All the equipment is in the field. The space is huge. Cavernous and echoing. Later that day, when you walked by that pile of wheat on the floor, if you held your hand over it, you could feel the heat radiating off of it.
We had both fire and mud during harvest this year. My combine had a problem in the wobble box on the header that started a fire. We got it out after doing our best imitation of a three ring circus. No one was hurt and no wheat was burned, only stubble. One combine got stuck in the mud. Getting it out broke chains, enormous tow ropes, and pulled a combine tire off its bead. Joel and Gary fixed everything, in the field, in ways that normal people couldn't even think of. But that's just how they roll.
Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 12:31AM
Reader Comments (4)
Your work means the difference between dust and death to millions of starving all over the world.
I wrote that on my spot.
We thank you for your bruised hands, your hot face masks, your hard, hard work.....
I'm watching the weather up there and hoping your crops are still okay. Please tell us if you had hail three days running now.
Fey, thanks for checking and asking about us. Yes, there were 3 nights of threatening storms. We only got a little rain and a little hail on the third night. The corn shows a bit of shredding on the leaves, but it will be okay. And, compared to others in the county, we feel damn lucky.
I'm so happy to hear that but feel bad for others. The US desperately needs the food you are hustling to harvest.