A yard sign on the side of the road in the summer of 2021—spotted as we drove east from Montana toward Wisconsin— led us to Carl’s regular harvest gig starting in 2022.
For five years now, at the end of August, we have made our way to Gary, Minnesota, where Carl drives a truck for Skaurud Grain Farms during harvest. September is primarily corn silage for the nearby Riverview Dairy Farm, with 10,000 cows; often alfalfa; and sometimes hauling manure from the dairy to barren fields. October is all about the sugar beets.
As of today, we have been here for one week, and Carl has already worked 69 hours. The week started with sugar beet “pre-piling.” But now the corn silage harvest is well underway.
We have already had a couple of surprisingly chilly nights, with temperatures dipping into the lower 50s or upper 40s, and we’ve had to turn our space heater on for a couple of hours in the morning.
And since we have an address to receive mail and packages, we’ve indulged in a small shopping spree: rugs, a bike mirror, plexiglass for our screen door, clothes, and so on.
What, you might ask, does Karen do while Carl is trolling the fields?
I keep busy! Writing articles for my two websites – this one and BookLayoutPro.com; updating both sites; working on book projects; preparing work-related social media posts; making food for Carl’s 12-hour shifts; occasionally embarking on some “Spring” cleaning in the Airstream; visiting a nearby laundromat; battling the incursion of Asian lady beetles (they look like orange ladybugs); spending time with my friend (one of the owners of the grain farm); crocheting; binge-watching interesting shows; reading; reading; and more reading!
This year, I’m committed to writing a weekly article for RivetingJourney.com and a bi-weekly article for BookLayoutPro.com. I’m also helping an author friend finalize her book for submission to publishing houses.
As full-time RV travelers, it’s nice to sit in one spot for a couple of months and focus on the day-to-day minutiae that get overlooked or neglected on the road. At the same time, it is important that at least one of us has a job that takes him away from the Airstream for long stretches. Sitting in one spot with both of us here is…insupportable. We would drive each other insane!
Next week, who knows what I’ll write about. But I hope to keep it riveting!
A glimpse of our time in Gary in previous years:
https://www.rivetingjourney.com/the-past-3-months-where-pray-tell-have-we-been/
https://www.rivetingjourney.com/a-city-boy-harvesting-sugar-beets/
