Kylee DeBock – DeBock Harvesting
As I sit in the camper today and look out the window, all I see are clouds.
In my last post, we were at home getting finished up on all the last-minute projects and getting ready to head to Texas. The day had finally come and Dillon woke me that morning like a kid at Christmas, he said “Honey, it is moving day, we are heading out for HARVEST” and with that, he jumps out of bed and gets dressed. This is our sixteenth year heading out on the harvest trail and I love that he is still so excited about what we do.
We were loaded and headed to Texas on May 24, 2019. We had a few things to finish up at the house that morning and we were on the road by noon!
We arrived in Olney, Texas with just a minor breakdown on the way. The service truck broke down about an hour from our destination. Luckily, it was just a broken belt so we bought a new one and got it back on the road. We don’t have enough drivers to get everything in one trip so the hired hands went back the next morning and got the second load of equipment.
The next day, we were headed to the field to start cutting. Texas has been in, what you could call, a slump for the last several years. The crop is good enough to go ahead and cut, but there hasn’t been a bumper crop in years…until this year. This years crop was looking to be the best we had ever cut, so we were anxious to get in the field.
The wheat looked amazing! It is tall, even, and oh so lush! We cut for about three days before we got the first round of rain. We knew the rain was in the forecast so that night we cut until 1:00 a.m. to get the field finished.
That morning around 7:00, the rain came and it came in hard. The storm system was a big one and it rained all day long. We knew we would be off a few days so we made the best of it with a few small outings.
The neatest one was going to a Food Truck Festival in Graham, Texas. This is an annual event that has been going on for years. There were over 50 food trucks parked around the town square, as well as live bands and vendor booths. Everyone enjoyed the afternoon and the food!
We did finally get back into the fields but it was short-lived. We weren’t able to get started until around 3:00 and as I showed up to feed the crew dinner that night about 7:30 and it started to pour just as I pulled into the field. So, needless to say, I packed up dinner to haul it 25 miles just to turn around and haul it back home.
With this round of rain, the clouds just won’t seem to break for longer than an afternoon. We are now on day four of not working. But, like I said before, we have to take advantage of our downtime and make the best of it.
On Sunday, we enjoyed a church service at the Southside Cowboy Church here in Olney and then headed to Graham for lunch and a movie.
On Monday morning, we decided to take a drive over to Dougherty, Texas to visit Dillon’s youngest brother, Casey, and his family. We enjoyed a cookout and the boys got in some playtime fun with their cousin, Cutter. While we were there, the men worked on combines and the ladies enjoyed visiting while watching the kids play in the water in the backyard!
While we were there, we received some very exciting news! Dillon and I will be getting another niece/nephew in November. We are all very excited to have another baby to spoil! Since we won’t be working for a few more days, the boys got to spend the night with Aunt Kortney and Uncle Casey. They were pretty thrilled about that and I was happy, too, since I would get in another visit with Cutter when I go back to pick them up. It’s hard to believe that the next time I will see him, he will have turned two and become a big brother.
The rain is in the forecast until Thursday so we are very hopeful that it will turn sunny and we will get back into the fields soon. We have barely gotten started and we are getting behind quick! Our Oklahoma farmers will be expecting us soon so we need to get to work as soon as we can.
Here is hoping the sun will shine soon…and often!
Happy Harvesting!
God Bless,
Kylee DeBock
“He spreads clouds over the sky; he provides rains for the earth and makes grass grow on the hills.” Psalm 147:8
