Kylee DeBock / DeBock Harvesting
God is good ALL the time!
We finished cutting in Oklahoma on June 12th.
This is crazy early considering on a “normal” year we don’t even start harvest until around June 5th. The drought conditions made the wheat ripen much quicker this year. We lost quite a few acres due to the drought but we have also picked up extra acres for new farmers which helped tremendously!
Kansas wheat was not quite ready yet so we did not have to rush off.
We enjoyed spending extra time with Dillon’s family, the boys spent the night with friends, we went to the Woodward Elks’ PRCA rodeo, worked our calves and did a few maintenance jobs on equipment to pass the days.
We had both equipment trips made to St. Francis, Kansas by June 20th, just in time to watch it rain for a week. This actually didn’t bother us much because we had ZERO acres to be cut.
Kansas has also suffered from drought and hail conditions. All of our farmers, who we typically help, own combines so they didn’t need the extra help this year. We decided to just wait it out and TRY to be patient because we didn’t really know where to go. Colorado and Nebraska are up against drought conditions, too. The wheat that was worth harvesting in the St. Francis area was not ready yet so we just decided to hang around.
Dillon and I went looking for work one day putting up flyers and business cards in elevators. While talking to the elevator in Wheeler, Kansas, I was able to find us a job hauling corn from their elevator to Oakley, Ks. This job kept the boys busy all week.
Since the elevators are closed over the weekends, this gave us the opportunity to go to a concert in Colby, Kansas with our friends, Matt and Jori. We enjoyed a nice dinner at a Mexican restaurant before heading to the Collin Raye and Walker Montgomery concert. Collin is 65 but put on a good show! Walker is the son of John Michael Montgomery. He sang several of his dad’s songs but had some of his own, too. It was so nice to have time to go do something fun with friends.
Our patience paid off! We got a phone call to cut a few fields for a farmer we have worked for in the past. It wasn’t a lot of acres but it kept us busy for a few days.
After finishing these acres, the kids blew off the machines and began driving them to town to load them. The kids were about a mile from the lot we keep our combine trailers at when I got a call from a new farmer. So, we turned around and went back to work! This job only kept us busy for one day but that is okay as every acre counts this year!
The boys cleaned the combines off, again, but we left them in the field this time. We would load them the next day. However, that night while we were eating supper, we got a phone call from the farmer we had just finished. He said his brother needed some help.
So, the next day, we started that two-day job and again thought we were done. So, once again, the boys cleaned up the combines. But, like I said before, God is good ALL the time.
The phone rang again and the farmer we first worked for asked us to cut more acres. We were happy to help out! We cut one day and then got rained out. We have been waiting for it to dry out.
The rain came at a great time because we got the Fourth of July off! We had a cookout with the Haken family and watched all the kids shoot off fireworks. We ended the evening with a FANTASTIC fireworks display in Bird City!
I enjoy it when rain days lead to “real” Summer activities!
The sun was out all day yesterday and there was a breeze so it is very likely that we will be cutting after lunch today! We plan on cleaning the combines off, again, and bringing them to town to load so we can get ready for our long trip to Montana….unless the phone rings again.
God Bless,
Kylee DeBock
Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock. Isaiah 26:4
