A new barista!

Roni Jo arrived at the Rolinco Road Resort Monday afternoon.  She spent some time catching up with her dad and Alicia, and then me in Starbucks.  After talking and talking she was finally ready to take over the wheel of the truck.

Roni Jo and Starbucks!

Both girls started driving really young, so this all comes very natural.  

The first load in to the grain storage silo at Tokio was a little rough.  She said "looks like we have a new barista mama!"  But by the second load and every load there after, there hasn't been much, if any grinding!  She catches on a lot quicker than I do......two loads vs. three years of harvest driving!  Ah, to be young and sharp!

So, here's what it looks like in the field, once the grain cart is full and Alicia comes to fill the truck.

Alicia is filling Starbucks.  We find a nice level spot, at the edge of the field, to park the truck.

Alicia drives Arthur and the grain cart to the tuck to fill.  This way, the truck doesn't bounce through the rough fields.

As stated earlier, it only takes about 3 minutes to fill 1,000 bushels of grain in to the trailer.

Look at the concentration!  The stuff that looks like snow is chaff from the thrashed grain.  It is wise to keep windows rolled up when chaff is flying.  It sticks to sweaty skin and is very itchy.

Once the trailer is full we roll the tarp across the top of the load.  I am spoiled and have an electric roll tarp.   More common is a hand crank, but I told Reynald I was too old to hand crank a 42 foot tarp.

Now you can see that the tarp is completely over the trailer and locked in to place for the trip down the road.  This keeps the grain from blowing out while driving.

Then off to Tokio we go to deposit the grain in the commercial storage facility.

First you pull on to the scale to weigh the loaded truck.  You also weigh after you dump your load to get the net weight of your load.  These scales are just barely big enough for the large trucks.  This plant was built when we were all driving single axle trucks!

Next you pull in to this hut, which has a large grate in the floor.  There are elevators legs that carry the grain from this pit to the big silos.  Again, this capacity was sized for 300 bushel trucks, not 1,000 bushels at a time, so it takes a little time, especially if someone has just unloaded in front of you.

Here's Mike, opening the gate in the bottom of the trailer to let the wheat out.  There are two sections to this trailer, each with it's own gate to empty.

It's kind of dusty, and grain dust is explosive, so no smoking in the hut!

Mike and Roni Jo.  This is Mike's last harvest and then he is retiring after 32 years of working at Ritzville Warehouse.  He and his wife are planning a trip to Boston to see a Red Sox game at Fenway! Of course they will enlist the girls as tour guides!  Roni Jo was just a little girl when she first started delivering wheat to Mike!

You can see that it's kind of a tight fit in and out of the hut!

And Baxter is a great co-pilot!

We are marching right along with harvest.  The crop is not terrific, due to the drought, but we are thankful for what is coming in.  It certainly could be a lot worse.  But the best part of all, is that both girls are back in the field!  It's just so much fun having them here!!!

Amber Waves of Grain

We started harvest on Thursday, well, kind of on Wednesday, but mostly on Thursday.  Wednesday afternoon Reynald and I moved equipment to Pumpkin Center and then cut a "loading zone".  The loading zone is where I will park the truck and then Alicia drives to that spot to load me.

Also just wanted to see if everything was going to work the way it is supposed to work, and it did!  

Alicia's plane landed in Spokane at noon on Thursday.  Reynald picked her up and they were home by 1:30 and we were in the field by 1:45!

Here are some photos of the first day.  It's the most exciting day of the year!

Our Amber Waves......

This is my truck, affectionately named, Starbucks.  I named her that because I grind the gears all the time!  Interesting, I grew up driving trucks, but Starbucks shifts differently than the old '69 Ford that I learned on, and I'm slow to adapt.

Baxter is ready to go!

Arthur and the bank out wagon, aka grain cart.  This is where Alicia will spend the next 18-20 days!   Air conditioned comfort, cell phone, some wi-fi service, depending upon the field, and a good stereo system!

Alicia will do Gardner Museum work all during harvest from her tractor seat.  Her boss, Scott calls Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10am, PST to check in and conference.

Here's the combine!  Funny, we don't have a name for this machine!  Any suggestions?

Reynald is setting all the coordinates for the satellite guidance system.

He spends a lot of time on the phone during harvest.  He does a lot of business, but also does a lot of "chatting"!

This is the control panel for the operation of the combine.  Most of those buttons have pictures to indicate what they are supposed to do!

The essential lunch box and water jug.  I pack breakfast, lunch and dinner in our lunch boxes.  We have found that it is best to spread out eating through out the day, instead of  one big meal mid day.  Munching and crunching helps keep one awake and alert.

Reynald loves to give "orders" over the CB radio!

This is what Reyanld looks at all day long!  This is the part of the combine that cuts the grain and gathers it to the center and then up and in to the machine to be thrashed. 

Thrashed grain coming in to the holding tank on the combine.  We call it the bulk tank.  It holds a little over 300 bushels.  It takes three full bulk tanks to fill the grain cart.  It takes one full grain cart to fill Starbucks.  

This is the screen for the satellite guidance.  There's all kind of information on this screen!  To the right you can see a picture which is a real time movie of the bulk tank.  There is a camera mounted on top of the combine cab.  This is just an additional check to tell you when the bulk tank is full.  There is an alarm that goes off too!

Filling the grain cart on the go.  Both combine and tractor travel together as they fill.

Full grain cart.

Filling Starbucks.  This is harder than it looks.  Alicia rarely spills a single kernel.  It takes about 3 minutes to fill 1000 bushels of grain in to Starbucks trailer!  Grain is moving fast and it takes good hand/eye coordination .  I am not good at this!

The nameless combine chomping away.

Starbucks cockpit!  It was 99 degrees and then some, the day we started harvest, and the next day too!  Next week is supposed to be a bit cooler.  Welcome relief for man and machine.

Another look at the "cockpit".  I'm pretty sure I know what all these gauges mean!  I try to keep an eye on everything so as not to get in to trouble.

This is our farm name, printed on the doors of Starbucks.  

This is also on Starbucks.  I don't know why I love this little emblem, but I do!

And, the sun sets on the first day.  

We are taking today (Sunday) off.  The only time we work on Sunday is if it is late in the season, or if there are weather issues.  It is nice to have a day to catch up.  Reynald will do a thorough walk through on the combine, to check for any problems that may arise.   Alicia and I have a list a mile long to get through today!  Roni Jo arrives tomorrow to take over truck driving!

Independence Day Celebration

We celebrated the 4th of July holiday yesterday with a super fun group of people.  We know they are a super fun group because this is our sausage making group!!!

But, before any celebrating could take place, invitations had to be sent, buntings needed to be placed and lots of food preparation happened!

Here is a photo journal of the last few days goings on at the end of Rolinco Road!

First, the invitation and the bunting set up!

The invitation came in pieces, in an envelope and guests had to put it together to make a flag!  This is one of the few attempts that I have ever made at being crafty!

Reynald putting up the buntings.

We should not have assumed that all the buntings were the same size and that all the grommets were evenly spaced!  Nevertheless, we got them all in place!

Louise arrived mid morning, laden with fresh produce from a farmer's market in Spokane.   She also brought a ham from the a vendor at the market that was "real"!  It wasn't processed and pressed and icky!  Oh so good!!!

New red and white potatoes from the market.

Louise making the best potato salad ever!

You can almost taste this!

While Louise was making the salad I was making red, white and blue deviled eggs!

It was kinda messy!

It was so hot yesterday.  We don't have air conditioning in the house, so we retreated to the east porch, which was just as hot, but at least there was a bit of a breeze to cool us.

Louise, Les and Marty

David, Crayton, Eva, Beth, Ron and Del's legs!

One of the few times Reynald sat down all day!

Crayton and my mom and dad and Baxter of course!

Chemyn and Tucker, all decked out!

There is a saying, "your corn should be knee high by the fourth of July".  Mine rarely is, but look at this year!  Crayton is the tallest person in our crowd and it's still above his knees!

Les and Crayton in the corn patch!  Definitely knee high!

Love these buntings on the east porch!

And the flag....

Chemyn and Les both put together a slide show that we all enjoyed at the shop.  It was so cool!  We projected the images on to the north wall of the shop.  It was like being at a real theater, the "screen" was so huge! Les' show was from a lecture he gave this past February in Yuma AZ and Chemyn's was her recent trip to Scotland.  Both delightful presentations.

Movie bill for the feature show at the shop.

Deviled eggs at the shop.

Better than popcorn at the theater is Eva's amazing baked treats!

More of Eva's creations.  Chemyn and I may have sampled one of these before we sere supposed to!

Dinner was cold cucumber soup, cold sliced ham, homemade bread, new potato salad, fresh cucumber salad. lots and lots of fruit and for dessert, homemade huckleberry ice cream and crisp lemon sugar cookies, baked by Chemyn.  Oh my goodness.

Les taking the cold cucumber soup outside to serve.

Buffet style serving in the house, then out to the patio to eat.

Louise making the ice cream earlier in the day.

Oh my goodness, huckleberries combined with heavy cream and just a tiny bit of sugar......heaven!

Les made the place cards.  This is Chemyn's.  Lady Fingers with a Lady Finger fire cracker!

Place cards, table runner, cold cucumber soup.....kinda fun.

Here's the crew!  The fire crackers were not real!  Les made them out of an aluminum foil tube, red paint, a bit of rope and super cool vintage circus posters.  Absolutely darling!

Sampling of the dinner fare!  Ham and Swiss sandwich on herb bread with dill pickles, dijon mustard  and a little mayo.  Potato salad and cucumber salad.

And dessert!  Even though we were all stuffed to the brim, somehow the ice cream managed to go down!

And, to finish the day, we were rewarded with a spectacular sunset!  Sigh.........

Happy Fourth of July!