Week 2 - Sugar Beet Harvest

Week 2 - My wrists were very sore, so I slept with our wrist brace on and then wore it at work - it helped a lot when running the levers.  Today the wind kicked up, making it cold on the shady side of the piler and dirty on both sides.  We were in a routine now - Gary got up at 6:00, I got up at 6:15, made the bed, etc., while he was making his breakfast and coffee and then I had my breakfast.  We both loaded up our lunch bags and got our gear on - then into the car and picked up our two co-workers.
Outside of the buildings now, our piles were 30 feet high.  On all the outdoor piles, except mine, they put corragated pipe under the piles, which they used to ventilate cold air to the beets, helping preserve the beets until they were taken to the factory for processing.  Gary piled beets over the pipes, after the skidsteer loaders placed the pipes and secured them with buckets full of beets.  The challenge for the piler operator is to not cover the baffle or fan at each end of the pipes with beets.  Not easy!

Button and switch panel in the piler cab

Hydralic levers to raise and lower the gates and move the machine

Ventilation pipes under outdoor piles

Gary's outside work - you can see the skidsteer setting the pipes

Monday and Tuesday were typical fall days in the upper Midwest - windy, dusty, but sunny and dry.  Harder conditions for our crews, working out in the wind.  The company had a water truck drive around and water the dirt areas to keep some of the dirt from blowing.  Tuesday, I had a truck break one of my dump gates when his tailgate came down.  We were shut down for a couple hours as they had to weld it.  That night, Gary drove the car from his piler to the foremans' shack (this was where we checked in at the start and end of every shift - and met our co-workers riding with us).  When we were ready to leave, the car would not start.  We got a jump start, Gary drove us back home and then he went to the O'Reilly's store and bought and installed a new battery there.  We were so glad it had worked in the morning when we had to be at work.

Beautiful sunset behind the American Crystal Sugar Plant

Wednesday and Thursday - Nice weather days.  Gary and I could see each other now from our piler cabs, our piles were just across the road from each other.  My machine was shut down for the afternoon on Wednesday, more digging and cleaning.  The trucks just kept coming, the weather was perfect for harvesting.  Gary's machine was one of the few that was able to keep running.  Wednesday night after work, I made a quick run to Walmart for more groceries and another wrist brace.

Left gate down for trucks to enter - the conveyor ahead of the gate is where the truck backs up to get their dirt loaded.

Trucks unloading

My building (full of beets) and the pile growing outside

Friday - the truck traffic is slowing down.  They kept a few pilers running, but shut ours down. Both of our piles were complete. We spent the day cleaning the mud out of the machines.  Luckily, it was a nice sunny day and we enjoyed being outside. 

Saturday and Sunday -  the end is here!  Gary and I were assigned to work on the ground crews of two of the pilers that were still running.  The rest of the ground crews and piler operators spent the two days "chucking beets".  This involved going around all the piles, inside and outside, and picking up beets that rolled away from the piles or were dropped by the trucks or loaders.  Saturday was really windy and the dirt was blowing.  The foremen brought protective eyewear and breathing masks around - I should have used one - I was choking up the dust all that night while trying to sleep.  Late in the day, they moved me over to the piler crew Gary was on.  Working on these crews, we met more great people - hard workers, many of them RVer's too.  We went home that night, knowing there was just one more day of harvest!

Sunday - Gary and I continued working on the crew for Piler #7.  Smitty, the piler operator there, let me run the machine several times, giving him a break and allowing him to visit with the other "guys".  #7 was an older machine, a lot more creaking and noise running the conveyor belts and now and then you would get bombed with a beet when taking the beet samples!  Mid-afternoon, it clouded over and started raining.  What a mess that made!  (Pretty much what I had imagined many of the days could have been like from my research before we took the job.)  We then really appreciated the good weather we had had - quickly the piler area became greasy slick from the wet mud.  We were extra careful when working around the trucks in the wet conditions.  About 6:00 PM, the foreman came around and told us we were done.  We unloaded one last truck, which ended up getting stuck in the mud.  We headed to the shack to check out - shedding our rain coats and celebrating the end!  We turned in our padlocks, hard hats and safety vests and went home.  We had to bring some of the wet coats in to dry, but left the rest in the car to clean up on Monday.  We had already decided that we would stay at the park until Tuesday, so that we could sleep in Monday and spend the day cleaning, packing and napping.

Happy ground crew worker!

Ground crew work at Piler #7

Monday - Ahhhh, how great it was to sleep.  We woke up to a beautiful sunny day, took our time with breakfast and started laundry.  Gary started cleaning out the dirty clothes from the car and worked on getting things ready to pack up.  About noon we both were ready for a nap, I stayed in my pjs until mid afternoon.  Later, I cleaned out the lunch bags, coats and knocked some mud off of our boots.  One lunch bag, my hooded sweatshirt and $1 coat we had bought at the thrift store all went in the trash because they were oily and muddy.  We shook the rugs in the motorhome and car - decided we would deep clean when we got back to South Dakota.  That night we had a campfire and invited other harvest campers in the park to join us for a final visit.  Everyone enjoyed telling harvest stories and sharing their travel plans for the winter months.  We made new friends and will keep in contact and hope to see many of them in our travels.

And now for your question; will we do it again?  Maybe ("probably"-Gary says!)  We enjoyed running the pilers after we became comfortable knowing how, so we would not have that learning stress.  The most difficult part of the harvest was working fourteen very long days in a row.  This was the shortest harvest time ever because of the good weather conditions.  Most years there are 16-18 working days, but usually there are a couple days where you would be off part or a whole day because of rain.  One day of rest would have really helped us!  But, it was great to be done quickly,(the pay was great for the time worked) and getting done early allowed us to spend an additional week with our family in South Dakota.  We will clean up our cold weather clothes and boots and keep them stored in South Dakota in case we decide to go back again.