Diary of a Rookie Harvester

Barley Harvest, Day One

Approximately 1:00 pm

I have just arrived home from town and am ready to eat lunch.  I'll be cutting hay for the rest of the day.  Wait a second...Farm Pro has just informed me that today is a good day to start harvesting the barley.  Awesome!  I've never really helped with a harvest before.  Oh, sure I've run the swather a little, and I've even driven the combine a few hours, but for all of my life, school has come first.  There was no way I'd ever be allowed to forsake classes in favour of helping in the fields.  So here I am, 24 years old, poised to take over the farm in the next few year, and I can claim only a few hours of harvest experience.  I am a harvest newbie, a greenhorn, a rookie.  Today will be my first day of my first real harvest season.  Woohoo!

1:30-ish pm

Harvest is starting slowly.  We haven't even really started.  Farm Pro is trying fix the brakes on the combine.  I am handing him tools, tightening random bolts, and stepping on the brake pedals when Farm Pro asks me to.  We finally finish.  Now we can get going!  Or not...we still have fuel up and grease the swather and combine.

Some time around 4:00 pm

I have finally got the swather to the field.  Farm Pro told me to go counterclockwise around the field for the first round, stopping about 200 yards along the side that borders the hay field.  He'll pick me up and we'll go home and get the combine then.  No problem!  This is super easy!  I am going in the wrong direction.  Darn...now what do I do.  I can't turn around without driving on the crop.  I guess I'll have to go around the field clockwise.  No problem.  This is a piece of cake!  Why is it getting harder to drive forward?  Maybe I should lift the header - WHY IS THERE A FOOT OF WATER IN FRONT OF ME?!  Am I stuck?  No, I can back up.  Nope!  I'm spinning!  I stuck!  WHAT HAVE I DONE?  I guess I'd better call Farm Pro and admit my mistake.

Okay, he's coming.  There he is!  No, you can't get it out.  It's stuck, look it's just spinning.  We'll need the tractor.  Forward?  You want to drive us further into the water?  Are you seeing how deep it is?  Seriously, that worked?  WE'RE OUT!

Approximately 5:00 pm

After a short delay with the oil level in the combine, we are full-on harvesting this field!  I've had to avoid a wet spot, but I kept from getting stuck this time!  Everything is going smoothly - what's that sound?!  I've heard that before.  It's not a good sound.  I'd better check it out.  Oh, great.  A knife section AND a guard on the end of the cutter bar are mangled.  Farm Pro stops to see what the problem is.  He removes the broken knife section and tells me to finish the row, so I can get the swather out of the way.

7:00-ish pm

We've had a quick break for supper and are just finishing up with the swather.  It is now back in working order.  I am now wearing my coveralls over my regular work clothes, because I felt a wee chill in the air as I left the house after supper.

Sunset

The wee chill has intensified. My bare hands are getting numb.  I've had to go around a few more wet spots.  Those wet spots are cutting into my deep thought process.  Apparently swather thoughts don't get to be as profound as tractor thoughts.

An hour after sunset

The "wee chill" is gone.  My hands are fully numb.  The coveralls that become a personal sauna in the summer heat are just barely keeping me from shivering.  The swather keeps plugging up for no apparent reason.  Don't you raise your eyebrows at me!  I checked.  There is nothing plugging up the cutter bar.  This thing is clearly just being difficult.  Oh, here's Farm Pro.  He's telling me to go back to the end of the field, and then we'll be done for the night.  The barley is getting tough, anyway.  He'll take the combine home and I'll take the grain truck.  It'll be a quick trip home and then I can relax for the rest of the evening.  I haven't driven this truck very much.  I can't even remember the last time I did drive it.  I do know that it likes to die on me.  I get the truck on the road and shift up to second gear, then third.  I'm now approaching the intersection.  I should shift down.  Where is second gear?  It's not where it's supposed to be!  Where did it go?!  Come on, you dumb - OW!  I found second gear.  I also smashed my thumb in the process.  By now there is no time to find first gear.  I have to just stop, and I'll shift at the stop sign.  I'm not stopping!  What on earth!?  It's okay, no one's coming.  I can just roll through the stop sign and keep going.  Now I'm approaching home.  I'd better slow down.  Slow down!  What is happening - this is the truck with bad brakes!  I somehow make it around the bend into the driveway and park where Farm Pro told me to.  The truck has failed to kill me, but my thumb is still smarting from trying to find second gear.  I find the knob that turns off the lights in the truck, gather up the tools that we used to fix the swather, and roll the window up, trying to ignore the insult of having the window handle come off in my hand.  I put away the tools and feed the farms dogs, who are going wild with hunger.  Finally, I can go inside and get out of my chaff-covered, no-help-in-the-cold coveralls.  Wait a second...why are the lights on the back of the truck on?  I go back to the truck and open the door.  The light in the cab refuses to turn on.  I'm starting to think this truck is possessed.  After groping around in the dark for a while, I find a knob that moves when I push on it.  A quick check tells me that the lights are now off.

The day is finally over.  Farm Pro has admitted that this is not the best year to be learning how to harvest, due to the many wet spots in the field.  I look forward to learning more, but me and that truck are going to have to come to some sort of understanding before I can say I'm excited for the rest of harvest.

This is as far as the diary got.  Harvest is not a convenient time to be blogging, especially if I want the blog to be coherent.  Harvest was awful this year due to unusual amounts of rain.  We managed to get our crops harvested, but many of our neighbours had to give up when it finally snowed.  

My view from the swather while Farm Pro (Dad) combines the row of barley I just swathed.