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?
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?