South Dakota Archives - Brown Acres Custom Harvesting

July 30-August 5, 2014 Week #31 Custom Harvesting SD

What a week! Our dog Peaches has made a full recovery from her rattlesnake bite! We lucked out on most of the rain this week! We’re custom harvesting northwest of our campground in Murdo, SD this week. We got shut down one afternoon and were able to resume harvesting by the next afternoon. It was perfect timing – one of our crew members had a visit from his parents. We were able to go back to camp for supper. We grilled burgers & potatoes and had corn on the cob I picked up from the farmer’s market in Pierre. We also celebrated a crew member’s birthday with cake. It was nice to have a sit down meal back at the camper. It had been quite awhile since we were able to do that! Here are this weeks pics…

Brett was walking Chevy as we waited to feed the guys supper.

This field had no flat spots!

Unloading on top of the hill.

We were on a few hundred acres for a few days. It was so hilly! The trucks were unable to get very close. We could have used 2 grain carts. The combines were sitting by the time the grain cart made it back from the trucks.

We were surrounded by rain and thought maybe we lucked out. Then it rained – very hard! We weren’t sure we’d make it out of the field. The field ‘road’ was very slimy!

One of our combines was vibrating more than it should. Our rain break turned into a repair day. Mick replaced all the knives on this chopper at the back of the combine. We were able to combine by supper time.

More rain around us. This one turned into almost 4” by the next day. We headed for home!

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Catch The Moment 30 July 23-29, 2014

We’re still custom harvesting in South Dakota. The fields have been yielding pretty good for this area. The weather was a little cooler this week 95F most days. We harvested about 40 miles southwest of Murdo most of the week. We tend to think we live in the middle of nowhere, but these guys are even more in the middle of nowhere than us! Here are some of my captures from the week…

This was the ‘shortcut’ to our next field. Around here there are no ‘shortcuts’. We drove very slow through a very narrow rough pasture. Everybody was glad to be done with this trek!

This was on the way to the field. We had 12 miles of this to drive through. It was very hilly, curvy and narrow.

An old narrow bridge we had to cross on the way to the field. On the way out the combines had to use the river to get across since they are too wide for the bridge.

Some of our equipment moving to another field.

Chevy was prancing with a rabbit she caught as Brett watched. It was such a beautiful day.

Our combines harvesting winter wheat southwest of Murdo, SD.

This is one of my favorite places in the area. It’s such a beautiful spot in Pierre.

I just dropped our dog, Peaches off at the vet in Pierre, SD. We didn’t know what happened but her leg was swollen and after a midnight phonecall to the vet we decided she would be ok until morning. She was bitten by a rattlesnake and spent the night at the vet. She is a great hunter so she probably put up a good fight. The vet said she had a good dose of venom. She is recovering but it is a slow process. Until next week…
Erica

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Catch the Moment 29 July 16-22,2014

We finally caught up with the crew! We are harvesting winter wheat in South Dakota. We set up camp in Murdo, SD – a small tourist trap town east of the black hills along the interstate. The fields we are harvesting are hidden through deep back roads on narrow curvy steep hills. It is not easy or fun to drive the combines and trucks on. The temps have been hanging around 100°F. 85°F at night feels very good! We’ve had pretty good weather with minimal rain – at these temps it doesn’t take long to dry up! We’ve already come across several rattlesnakes. Luckily, most of them have been on the road in the evening. Our 6 year old wants to get back to North Dakota “because there are no rattlesnakes there.” Here are some of my captures from this week…

My cosmos were just starting to open today. They’ve become one of my favorite flowers over the last few years. I love how they get so big and the blooms continue until freeze up.

We watered our potatoes with a sprinkler that shoots water in a circle around it. The black dog, Chevy was not so sure about it. She tends to be by my side in the garden, however this obnoxious thing was making funny noises while spraying water and she was having nothing to I with it.

As seen on the road near Edgeley, ND. I finally got a picture of this happy Git-R-Done guy!

We had to do our 1st wheat field picture of the year. I’m sure there will be many more yet to come.

We had a pink sunset just as we finished up a field.

The dust was hanging in the air, we shutdown for the night within minutes of this picture.

Mr. Independent doesn’t like to be helped with anything this year. Brett road with me in the combine for most of the day. Sometimes I think they only like to ride with mom since I always pack snacks. The 1st thing they do when they hop in with me is dig in my bag for snacks!

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