In today's television world of Hulu, Netflix or Dish Network, we are able to stream our favorite shows and watch at any time. Those that can't stand to wait until the next episode have "binge" watched all episodes possibly on a weekend or on a sick day.
When I was a kid in Aneta, N.D., there were three channels and most know what they were. Some of my favorite shows were "Seinfeld," "Cheers," and "The A Team." Every once in a while, you could end up very caught up in the show and not realize the ending was coming until the dreaded "To be continued..." Welcome to the 2019 harvest.
Much of the region I work in received 20-plus inches of snow in the Oct. 10-12 storm. Certainly some areas are worse than others but regardless, it has caused an abrupt halt to harvesting any crops in the near future.
When we watched our TV shows 30 years ago, we had to wait until the next week to see how the episode would end. This harvest won't resume this week and likely not the week after. When farmers were harvesting canola, soybeans, edible beans, flax, and sunflowers prior to the storm, we were already faced with very saturated conditions with many fields being torn up with ruts. Our neighbors to the east in the Red River Valley harvesting sugar beets or potatoes were also faced with terrible conditions and having to pull many implements through the mud.
So now we wait. We aren't sure how long.
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I'm of the mindset that we may have to wait until the ground freezes to travel across some of these fields again. Other farmers are preparing for the tough conditions. Tracks are being put on combines along with rear axle "Mud Hogs" for others.
Until the day we are able to get back in the field, life moves on. We visit and share in our frustrations and discuss some of the harvest results up to this point. Many of us are doing repairs or cleaning the shop. The "Honey Do" list has a few items on it and those are also able to be completed at this time.
My spouse took advantage of the poor weather. Knowing her husband wouldn't be in a combine or soil sampler during a three day storm, she brought 5 gallons of paint home and put me to work. That's the old "when life gives you lemons buy paint and give your husband something to do and not think about the miserable harvest."
The good news for many is the snow is melting, even faster than we thought. The sun will need to continue to shine for days to come. We can go catch our local kids play volleyball or football at high school events and I'm sure the Harvest Bowl at North Dakota State University will be well attended.
So until you're able to get back in the field, work on your list. We all have them and our harvest episode will resume shortly.
