American Harvester

Straw Boss

Well-known Member
There's a new program on RFDTV that must have started in December called American Harvester.
They're already six episodes in so I've missed the beginning but it looks pretty interesting.
Looks to be a Minnesota based farming operation that does custom cutting starting in Texas.
I counted at least 7 CaseIH combines with 45 foot draper heads in this crew, maybe more, I don't know.
Doesn't appear to have all the drama and made up personality clashes they put in so many shows
now days, they just show things as they are. In the episode I saw they were replacing sickle knives and
feeder chains because of all the mesquite stumps they were ingesting. Brings back a few memories of my
combining days down there. Hot, humid, muggy and hot. Did I mention it was hot? On this program the crew where
waiting to start harvesting and they were all sitting around with their boots off. I remember how the sun would
penetrate your leather boots and cook your feet from the inside out. I remember one time we were pulling our
combines down the road to the next state with those GMC tandem trucks with the screaming Detroit Diesels on another
of many 110 degree day. The heat coming through the floor boards was unbearable.

We stopped in one little town along the way because we spied a city park
along the road and there was a water spigot in the middle of it. There was room to pull over the whole crew so we
did. While we let those trucks cool down we soaked our heads, soaked our clothing, filled our water jugs and most
importantly, we pulled our boots and repeatedly filled them with water and dumped them out to cool them off.
Not something you usually do with a leather boot but we didn't care. Our boots were so hot you couldn't stand it.
Now days all the trucks have AC, better insulation and everyone wears flip flops. Back in my day only pu--ys,
qu--rs and hippies wore flip flops. A working man always wore boots no matter the situation.

Another time, we were in Kansas when it was 118 degrees in the shade. May have been the hottest day I ever experienced
while down there and it was humid as heck yet besides. The AC in the camper wouldn't keep up so my pregnant wife, to
keep from getting sick, had to sit for hours in my Ford 6.9 diesel pickup which could idle all day and not over heat.
It was on this same day that we had a kid on the crew who was new to the harvest run, a bit green and on the shy side,
and he needed to do a job while we were out in the field and wanted to go across the
road to a farm house and knock on their door. I said your kidding right? Your going to knock on some guys door
who you don't know and they don't know you and ask to use their bathroom? No way! Just go squat behind your
truck like everyone else, there's TP behind the seat. He says, I can't go outside! I says, fine, do what you want.

He comes back quite some time later lookin all used up like a wet dish rag and says they didn't have indoor plumbing
but they said I could use their outhouse. Says it was RIPE in there and about 150 degrees because it had a tin roof.
He seriously thought he was going to pass out at one point. He thought maybe he'd lost about 5 pounds between the dump
and all the sweating. He really didn't look good. I was afraid he may of got heat stroke but he was still sweating and not throwing up so I just let him lay in his truck awhile after he hydrated and he poured cool water over his head and clothing.

My biggest fear always was for one of my crew to get hurt or injured in an accident with machinery or on the road while
getting tangled up with traffic, and having to call their family back home to give the news. Thank God in ten years of
doing the Custom run I never had to make such a call. And in this case I often wondered how I would've explained to this
boy's mother how her son died on hole number 2 in a tin covered outhouse in the middle of nowhere Kansas.
Did I mention it gets hot down there?
 
You're right....it gets hot down there. Some of my truckin episodes wound up in southwest Kansas with a 1000 bushel of rye on a flat bed semi trailer. Traps in the floor and had to scoop it off. Nobody ever offered a drink or to help.....you were on your own. Remember being in a elevator in abundant Kansas at 8 in the morning shoveling rye.....inside thermometer said 108.
 
I've watched it from the very start and its been fun to see.....Its Johnson Harvesting from Evansville,Minnesota...I would have loved to have went on a harvest run when I was younger but I was always too busy....I enjoyed your stories about the harvest run from years ago..
Johnson Harvesting
 
Thanks for the stories. Would love to read anymore you feel like typing.

I do not get RFTV anymore but do miss it time to time. There is a young fellow named Levi working there. He is the son of one of our mechanics. He worked with me in parts for a stint while he was looking for full time work. I think that custom work fits him well.

Jim
 
My father in law only lives 10 miles from the Johnson's. Very nice and down to earth guys. If anybody wants to see the first episodes you can go to CarbonTv. Com they are playing the series to.
 
Thanks for the link to carbontv. I have been trying to find a place to watch it, since it is on Tuesdays, and that is my church league dartball nights.
 
Boy does your story bring back memories. The truck I drove did not have working air conditioning and the heat coming up from the Y pipe under the floor of that IH 9300 was something else. We didn't have any major injuries either, thank god. I saw 113 degrees north of Deerfield Kansas and 115 degrees north of Midland SD and at that time I was the mechanic working out under that sun. Heat has bothered me ever since those days.
 
Well I live in Hot Kansas..... Guess we don't know any better. I show my nephew's pictures of Harvest of my youth and they ask "Why is the hood up on the truck"? They just can't understand that when you got back from the elevator you opened the hood to let the chevy engine cool so that by the time the combine had it loaded again she would start. Our first combine with a cab was a 1968 Olivier 5542 with a blower only. After that first harvest we put in a swamp cooler. To this day I can still hear the water catch in the fan going over a terrace and the waiting for that dirty water to spat you on the head. I then went to a 1970 G Gleaner with a 20' header and AC. Then a 1972 G Gleaner with Hydro. Now we have a 2016 S88 Gleaner with a 40' header. I think my favorite days was running the 1972 G. I still have that combine but she is now used to cut a few acres every year so that my nephew can bale the straw for cattle.
 

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