The harvest season has officially begun! Every spring, Jim and DeAnn Deibert of JKD Harvesting host a giant cookout for all of the local harvesters and their hired hands.
This year, we enjoyed the company of Schiltz Harvesting, Farris Harvesting, Beckley Harvesting and, of course, JKD Harvesting. It is always enjoyable to converse with others who understand the ins and outs of harvest life.
We met new hired men from across the globe: Zimbabwe, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and England, to name a few. We also became reacquainted with guys who have returned for another season of the great harvest life.
Now that everyone has had a chance to mingle and relax over great food, it’s time to get down to business. We’re finishing the combines, polishing trucks, packing trailer houses, and training for CDLs. Most of our hired men have arrived, and it’s time for my job to begin again as well.
It’s time for tri-weekly grocery store trips, time for buying three pounds of pasta at a time, time for loading up the van with car seats, children, and casseroles. It’s time for harvest to begin.
1. Be ready to go at the drop of a hat...sometimes without a lunchbox.
2. Has removed the word impossible from her vocabulary!
3. Can hold a baby, take care of a toddler and drive a tractor or combine all at the same time.
4. Must be able to cook for a crew - large or small.
5. Must be able to read minds.
6. Must be able to banter with a parts man until he realizes you DO know what you're talking about.
7. Must be the entertainment director for those rainy days.
8. Be a wife, mom, friend, helper, cook, problem solver, taxi driver or extra crew hand at all times.
9. Can handle the call that makes you react, "You need what? When?" Dropping everything you're doing to make it happen.
10. At the end of the day say, "I really do love this life".