Friday, August 10, 2007

Going to the fields with Holland Harvesting

Ben and me with "Little Hoss", one of Ben's favorite guys the Christian Motorcyclists minister to.
Sue and Rob Holland, owners of Holland Harvesting and really, really nice people.
Three combines dumping at once. The elevator was slow so it slowed things a bit in the field too.
Thys and his grain cart.








Supper Time. Sue brings a welcome hot meal in the evening. the workers are very appreciative of the evening meal. They all speak highly of Rob and Sue.


Today is our son Ben’s 24th birthday. I miss him a lot. It brings back memories of being in the delivery room with Kim when he was born. What a wonderful experience! Happy Birthday Ben!
When I left Indiana, I never thought I’d get to spend some time with the guys on the wheat harvest. Yesterday I went out and rode with several of the truckers and Rob in the combine, all with the Holland Harvesting group. I also spent some time at the elevator waiting for a driver to pick me up and take me to the field. It was very enjoyable. Here’s some statistics I picked up from Rob. They hope to harvest 2 million bushels of grain in six months. Their combines have 36 foot platforms that are made in Canada. Some of their other header attachments stay with the farmers in certain areas that need them. The platforms float and have a lot of design and engineering. They also fold to go down the road sideways on a few minutes. Rob’s wife Sue has a degree in agronomy. Their grain carts hold 1100 bushels – more than enough to fill a semi. They have 7 combines, 2 grain carts with tractors, 2 maintenance trucks, several housing trailers and a cook trailer and I don’t even know what else. I’m sure they have several picks and the trailers that hold the tractor and grain cart hooked up. The longest Thys (Tise) from Holland, who runs one of the grain carts said he drove the tractor 185 miles without trailering once. He said it took 9.5 hours. He has a scale on the cart and logs how much is harvested and also can load a truck legally (or illegally) using the scale. I rode with Thys in the grain cart, “Patty” from Ireland and BJ from Australia in semis and Rob in the combine. It takes some concentration to understand Patty, but I love to hear him talk. Patty said Rob has trouble understanding him on the radios. Patty also said that the first time he ever drove on the right side of the road is when he took his CDL license test. Sue said some of the guys who work for them and then go back to their countries where they drive on the left say it is harder to adjust back to left than it was to adjust to right hand driving. When I left for the day, BJ (Australia), I shook his hand and thanked him. He said, “No worries”. It made me thing of Crocodile Dundee. He always said that. It was a truly good day.



















No comments: