On the road again and boy does Passport America save you money it pays for itself with your first few stays. We are making our way from Sioux Falls, SD to San Antonio,TX to sell Christmas Tree's and I could not be more excited.
Our stop in Sioux Falls,SD we used our Passport America Card and we got 50% off we paid $15 vs $30 a night without the card, right there Passport America membership paid for itself. I think it was well worth it for us to join this club. I plan our trips with the Passport America app to find campgrounds to stay at along our route for the amount of miles we want to drive that day. The app has never failed us and we have never had a issue showing up to a park that was not receptive of the Passport America Card.
Along our trip this time we have stopped at a campground in Lyndon,KS I found this place on the Passport America app and we paid $16.00 a night.Very nice place showers were clean had laundry facilities on site and they fill propane there as well the staff was super nice. If you happen to pass by and stay there is a restaurant that you really need to try it is called Bill and Ellie's EZ Rock Cafe beware the portions are big and you could share a fry and almost a burger. The burgers are to die for, fresh never frozen and the owner of the joint Bill is very generous with the portions you will not be able to get this awesome burger on Sunday or Monday they are closed I suggest you try if you are in the area for sure. As for the stay we ended up staying 2 night because we did not feel like traveling on a Sunday we wanted to watch football. It was a very nice campground and I would recommend it to anyone.
Our next stop we know for sure accepts Passport America because it were where we were introduced to it. The new owner of the campground in Sawyer,OK that we used to manager gave us our 1st year membership for free and we are so thankful for him opening us up to this club. It is so nice to go back and visit some friends and be in a familiar place for a week. Adjusting to the weather here from MN takes some getting used to it was 77 today I guess since we are heading south we should pull out of summer clothes haha... nothing crazier then selling Christmas Tree's in your shorts and sandals lol.. Here with your Passport America card you will get a FHU site for $10 cant beat that and this place is awesome quite and has some great fishing right down the road. If you are ever driving through OK and are near Sawyer,OK you should stay at Sawyer RV Park the owner is a fantastic man who loves his park and takes pride in it so it is a great place to stay. We are here until Monday and we are headed to our destination in San Antonio.
My opinion on Passport America I think everyone traveling you should join the club it like $44 a year you can go wrong with that. It paid for itself with our first stay. You can use it US, Mexico and Canada. The campgrounds that accept it never give you any problems when you show them and you get 50% off the night. One thing I will say about this please make sure if you plan on staying longer always ask if the rate will be for your whole stay. Some campgrounds have restrictions on how many days you can stay at the discounted rate. #passportamerica
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Pit Stop To Become South Dakota Residents!!!!!
So long Hitterdal, MN until next Beet harvest season. We are on our way to our winter destination. With a super exciting pit stop in between that we are super excited about. We are stopping in Sioux Falls, SD because we are going to become residents of South Dakota.
Researching the best mail forwarding services and the pro's and con's of the states that cater to full-timers we decided on SD for one main reason. We were residents of FL and when we quoted our auto insurance to change to SD we could not believe that is dropped over 50% so that was our main reason for changing.
I researched all the mail forwarding services in SD and what they offered and I believe we made a great choice with http://www.yourbestaddress.com I called the owners and I spoke with Larry and since I was new to this he walked me through everything. He informed me of everything I was going to need to get our licenses in SD specifically. He informed me that we could pay 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, or 12 months and get the 13 month free I liked this options because we did not want to pay a lot of money to set up because we were going to have to pay for all the vehicles and license in SD so we started out paying for 3 months. I informed Larry that we were going to be in Sioux Falls in a few days. In order to have the proper documents for our license you need a receipt from a campground in SD for a stay or one day or more but it needs to have your mail forwarding address on there. We were going to check into the campground before we spoke with him and we would have to change the address with the campground for proper documentation. Larry was such a nice guy he gave our address over the phone with no money down, that way we would not have to go through changing the address once we were already checked in I was so grateful for this.
We finally got to meet Larry and Rose Marie his wife and they are such great people they are very helpful and attentive. They even offer the service of registering your vehicles it is only $26.00 per vehicle. They shred all unwanted mail for free, and much more we believe we made the perfect choice here and we feel we are in great hands. We now are official SD residents and off to the DMV to get our licenses before we head to the treasury to get our vehicles registered ( suggest you do in that order licenses then registration) Thanks to Larry this process was painless. you need 4/5 documents to get your licenses in SD
1. Social Security Card (no receipt or stub has to be the card and can not be laminated it is not usable if it is) also your birth certificates they need to be the certified copy other wise they will not be accepted.
2. You will need the paperwork for the mail forwarding place of your choice to as proof of your address (dont worry they people at the DMV carter to full-timers so they expect this documents. I was worried they would not be very receptive)
3. The receipt from your campground with at least one night stay (VERY IMPORTANT make sure your mail forwarding address is on this with both your names if your partner is going to be on there with you if this is not on there you will have a problem because this is the second proof of address for your license)
4. Women if you have gotten married or had a name change you will proof of this I used my marriage certificate and keep in mind this will need to be the certified copy if not they will not accept it.
We were in and out and we have our license now off to the treasury to register our vehicles. Walked in and I was nervous I hate this part I am always worried I will not have all the needed documents apparently I did. 10 minutes and about $100 later we have a plate for the truck and it is a registered vehicle of SD. Make sure you either have a bill of sale if you just purchased the vehicle like we did or the price must be on the title you have otherwise you will be turned away.
We had to wait a few days to register the camper because we waited for the title to come in the mail. I went by myself the first time and (MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE WEIGHT FOR YOUR CAMPER ON THE TITLE) I did not get a nice lady the first try she saw no weight on the title so she was nasty and turned me away with out answering how I could find the weight that would work for them. I picked Todd up from doing laundry and he went with me the second time keep in mind it was Friday and we were leaving on Saturday so it was stressful not being able to get it done when I went. The first window that I went to opened up 2 times when I was next so I sent the person behind me I did not want that lady again. We got very nice gentlemen and he was very happy to get us all registered he even looked the weight up online just to make sure our data was correct which it was and because that was were we found the weight as well. 30 mins later and a bill of around $250 dollars they register by weight and we had to pay taxes on it but we are now registered in SD and we can get on the road again and head to our winter destination. WOO HOO..... we are South Dakota Residents
Researching the best mail forwarding services and the pro's and con's of the states that cater to full-timers we decided on SD for one main reason. We were residents of FL and when we quoted our auto insurance to change to SD we could not believe that is dropped over 50% so that was our main reason for changing.
I researched all the mail forwarding services in SD and what they offered and I believe we made a great choice with http://www.yourbestaddress.com I called the owners and I spoke with Larry and since I was new to this he walked me through everything. He informed me of everything I was going to need to get our licenses in SD specifically. He informed me that we could pay 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, or 12 months and get the 13 month free I liked this options because we did not want to pay a lot of money to set up because we were going to have to pay for all the vehicles and license in SD so we started out paying for 3 months. I informed Larry that we were going to be in Sioux Falls in a few days. In order to have the proper documents for our license you need a receipt from a campground in SD for a stay or one day or more but it needs to have your mail forwarding address on there. We were going to check into the campground before we spoke with him and we would have to change the address with the campground for proper documentation. Larry was such a nice guy he gave our address over the phone with no money down, that way we would not have to go through changing the address once we were already checked in I was so grateful for this.
We finally got to meet Larry and Rose Marie his wife and they are such great people they are very helpful and attentive. They even offer the service of registering your vehicles it is only $26.00 per vehicle. They shred all unwanted mail for free, and much more we believe we made the perfect choice here and we feel we are in great hands. We now are official SD residents and off to the DMV to get our licenses before we head to the treasury to get our vehicles registered ( suggest you do in that order licenses then registration) Thanks to Larry this process was painless. you need 4/5 documents to get your licenses in SD
1. Social Security Card (no receipt or stub has to be the card and can not be laminated it is not usable if it is) also your birth certificates they need to be the certified copy other wise they will not be accepted.
2. You will need the paperwork for the mail forwarding place of your choice to as proof of your address (dont worry they people at the DMV carter to full-timers so they expect this documents. I was worried they would not be very receptive)
3. The receipt from your campground with at least one night stay (VERY IMPORTANT make sure your mail forwarding address is on this with both your names if your partner is going to be on there with you if this is not on there you will have a problem because this is the second proof of address for your license)
4. Women if you have gotten married or had a name change you will proof of this I used my marriage certificate and keep in mind this will need to be the certified copy if not they will not accept it.
We were in and out and we have our license now off to the treasury to register our vehicles. Walked in and I was nervous I hate this part I am always worried I will not have all the needed documents apparently I did. 10 minutes and about $100 later we have a plate for the truck and it is a registered vehicle of SD. Make sure you either have a bill of sale if you just purchased the vehicle like we did or the price must be on the title you have otherwise you will be turned away.
We had to wait a few days to register the camper because we waited for the title to come in the mail. I went by myself the first time and (MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE WEIGHT FOR YOUR CAMPER ON THE TITLE) I did not get a nice lady the first try she saw no weight on the title so she was nasty and turned me away with out answering how I could find the weight that would work for them. I picked Todd up from doing laundry and he went with me the second time keep in mind it was Friday and we were leaving on Saturday so it was stressful not being able to get it done when I went. The first window that I went to opened up 2 times when I was next so I sent the person behind me I did not want that lady again. We got very nice gentlemen and he was very happy to get us all registered he even looked the weight up online just to make sure our data was correct which it was and because that was were we found the weight as well. 30 mins later and a bill of around $250 dollars they register by weight and we had to pay taxes on it but we are now registered in SD and we can get on the road again and head to our winter destination. WOO HOO..... we are South Dakota Residents
We Have a New Truck!!!
So in this lifestyle we live our truck is our life line. The life line we started with has had enough towing. Our current truck, no longer wants to pull anything and we shall grant her wish lol...
We must buy a new life line, we have searched for weeks and weeks trying to find the perfect new addition. We want big enough to pull anything, 4 doors if possible the dogs need the big back seat, decent body not all rusted out, MOST IMPORTANT great running truck oh and another important thing NO PAYMENTS. that's what's great about everything we have we OWN IT, NO PAYMENTS and I think that is the best way to live this lifestyle.
I found what I said was going to be our truck 1 week into our search. Todd wanted nothing to do with it because the pictures the owner took did not show well it looked rusted out and the bed looked horrible. In our search we ended up driving to Minneapolis,MN to look at a yellow truck, I know who wants a truck that will stick out like a sore thumb.....I DID lol... but when we got there it did not have a/c that is a deal breaker because we are in the heat a lot and with the dogs it is a MUST to have a/c for comfort. So that was a wasted trip also because we had a few other trucks lined up to look at and no one would answer their phones. Honestly if you have something up for sale wouldn't you answer your phone??? just saying. That was a bust and a waste of a day.
It is getting close to the day we need to leave and we do not have a truck that will pull our camper. The next morning I remember that truck I said was going to be ours over a week ago.
I finally convinced Todd to go look at it, luckily it is right down in Fargo. We find out it is at a used car dealership which makes Todd a little hesitant to purchase but it does not hurt to take a look. We pull up and there is a home made wooden bed on a flat bed truck looks horrible. The body that Todd thought was going to be rusted out was just paint peeling nothing a paint job cant fix. We get in the truck and start it the engine sounds really good. We drive it down the road and Todd says this runs like a dream and for the right price this is going to be our truck (he should have listened to me from the beginning about looking at the truck we would not have wasted so much time and gas looking lol...)
We get back and we try to get out of the truck....the door handles on the inside on both side are broken off, we are stuck in the truck we had to roll the windows down and open the doors from the outside. I got a kick out of this and Todd said that is just something else to get the price just right lol... The bed looking horrible, door handles broke, we still fell in love with the truck. The truck was listed $1,900 the address that we are at was 1350 so Todd threw out $1,350 the owner countered at $1,700 they got to talking about the truck and Todd said he was still at $1,350 the truck bed was full of dry wall looks like someone was getting rid of stuff from a remodel. The owner says ok $1,350 if you help me empty the truck!!!! SCORE what a great day and the guy also tore the home made wooden bed off the truck, this could not have been any better. We now own our new life line she is a 1998 Chevy 3500 with a flat bed and 454 engine. she only has 160,000 on it and she runs like a dream.
The new few days to follow bought parts and Todd gave her a tune up. New plugs,wires,air filter,fuel filter,oil change, some treatments she ran even better. We are super excited about our new baby she needs a paint job but that will come the most important thing to us was she would pull our 5er with no problems the appearance can always be fixed she is white right now but we are thinking what color we should paint her and what we should call her?? any suggestions for names??
Here comes the sad part of all of this, the truck we started this journey with will have to be sold because she no longer works for us. We have priced her for a quick sale $1,000 you would think people would jump at this price being it is a good running truck. Most cars at that price need a tranny, engine or a bad head gasket. People were offering us $500 because of where we were selling her and she was not 4X4 everyone was low balling HELL NO>>>> she is worth more then that. Finally a couple that appreciated what she was drove 3 hours to look at her and she is going to have a great home with them we sold her for $950 and YES I CRIED I had to go out and say goodbye and as she pulled away I cried, Todd of course called me a weirdo but there is something sentimental about the truck because she is what we started our full-time journey with and she has brought us this far hopefully she will take her owner on a great journey as well.
We no longer have the truck we started out with or the camper, we have the new 5er that we love and our new truck but I will never forget what started us out. It crazy we have been at this for 2 years and boy how things change.
We must buy a new life line, we have searched for weeks and weeks trying to find the perfect new addition. We want big enough to pull anything, 4 doors if possible the dogs need the big back seat, decent body not all rusted out, MOST IMPORTANT great running truck oh and another important thing NO PAYMENTS. that's what's great about everything we have we OWN IT, NO PAYMENTS and I think that is the best way to live this lifestyle.
I found what I said was going to be our truck 1 week into our search. Todd wanted nothing to do with it because the pictures the owner took did not show well it looked rusted out and the bed looked horrible. In our search we ended up driving to Minneapolis,MN to look at a yellow truck, I know who wants a truck that will stick out like a sore thumb.....I DID lol... but when we got there it did not have a/c that is a deal breaker because we are in the heat a lot and with the dogs it is a MUST to have a/c for comfort. So that was a wasted trip also because we had a few other trucks lined up to look at and no one would answer their phones. Honestly if you have something up for sale wouldn't you answer your phone??? just saying. That was a bust and a waste of a day.
It is getting close to the day we need to leave and we do not have a truck that will pull our camper. The next morning I remember that truck I said was going to be ours over a week ago.
I finally convinced Todd to go look at it, luckily it is right down in Fargo. We find out it is at a used car dealership which makes Todd a little hesitant to purchase but it does not hurt to take a look. We pull up and there is a home made wooden bed on a flat bed truck looks horrible. The body that Todd thought was going to be rusted out was just paint peeling nothing a paint job cant fix. We get in the truck and start it the engine sounds really good. We drive it down the road and Todd says this runs like a dream and for the right price this is going to be our truck (he should have listened to me from the beginning about looking at the truck we would not have wasted so much time and gas looking lol...)
We get back and we try to get out of the truck....the door handles on the inside on both side are broken off, we are stuck in the truck we had to roll the windows down and open the doors from the outside. I got a kick out of this and Todd said that is just something else to get the price just right lol... The bed looking horrible, door handles broke, we still fell in love with the truck. The truck was listed $1,900 the address that we are at was 1350 so Todd threw out $1,350 the owner countered at $1,700 they got to talking about the truck and Todd said he was still at $1,350 the truck bed was full of dry wall looks like someone was getting rid of stuff from a remodel. The owner says ok $1,350 if you help me empty the truck!!!! SCORE what a great day and the guy also tore the home made wooden bed off the truck, this could not have been any better. We now own our new life line she is a 1998 Chevy 3500 with a flat bed and 454 engine. she only has 160,000 on it and she runs like a dream.
The new few days to follow bought parts and Todd gave her a tune up. New plugs,wires,air filter,fuel filter,oil change, some treatments she ran even better. We are super excited about our new baby she needs a paint job but that will come the most important thing to us was she would pull our 5er with no problems the appearance can always be fixed she is white right now but we are thinking what color we should paint her and what we should call her?? any suggestions for names??
Here comes the sad part of all of this, the truck we started this journey with will have to be sold because she no longer works for us. We have priced her for a quick sale $1,000 you would think people would jump at this price being it is a good running truck. Most cars at that price need a tranny, engine or a bad head gasket. People were offering us $500 because of where we were selling her and she was not 4X4 everyone was low balling HELL NO>>>> she is worth more then that. Finally a couple that appreciated what she was drove 3 hours to look at her and she is going to have a great home with them we sold her for $950 and YES I CRIED I had to go out and say goodbye and as she pulled away I cried, Todd of course called me a weirdo but there is something sentimental about the truck because she is what we started our full-time journey with and she has brought us this far hopefully she will take her owner on a great journey as well.
We no longer have the truck we started out with or the camper, we have the new 5er that we love and our new truck but I will never forget what started us out. It crazy we have been at this for 2 years and boy how things change.
Monday, October 12, 2015
Winter Plans changed during the sugar beet harvest
As you may know we were going to be selling See's Candy this winter. During the harvest we got a email that we could not refuse. We are now going to be selling Christmas Tree's in San Antonio, TX area. One of the companies we applied with had 2 people cancel and we got the spot we have wanted and could not be happier.
I am such a Christmas Freak so when I saw the email I jumped for joy. The timeline for See's Candy was very stressful for us because we have to buy a new truck after we get paid for sugar beets. We would not have time to do this and still be able to make it in time for the training so we had to decline the opportunity for this year sadly.
If you happen to be in the San Antonio area this winter and you need a Christmas Tree stay tuned to get our exact location and I would love for you to come see us and maybe buy your Christmas Tree :-)
WE MADE IT THROUGH THE SUGAR BEET HARVEST AND WE ARE STILL ALIVE!!!
I know I did not have a lot of time to blog. So I am going to catch everyone up on how the harvest went for us. As you all have read we started working early for pre pile. After we completed 3 days of pre pile and cleaning of the pilers to get ready for the main harvest.
We had 2 weeks off to relax , we spent with the pups and the kitty because we knew we had to leave them for long periods of time. Did some laundry and just prepared ourselves for 12 hours days for how ever long we go.
Oct 1st is finally here the main harvest kicks off at midnight, Of course we were not working that shift because we are now on days. 7 am rolled around pretty quick . Todd needs coffee I need OJ, then take the puppies out. Kiss them and the cat and off to work we go. Luckily we are less then 1 mile from the piling station so our ride is very short the truck doesn't even have time to warm up.
The first three days of the harvest were super busy. Every grower that grew ran the first three days. I am the operator of the piler and it was non stop trucks. I barley had anytime to take a drink. My hands are always doing something. Todd being the Foreman the first three days were busy for him going between both piler's cleaning under the boom with the loader so the dirty beets did not get in the pile of clean beets, making sure the pilers are running their best and checking on all his crew.
After the first 3 days it died down some, it was still busy tho. We had a few minor set backs that shut down both pilers for maybe a max of 1 hours. Nothing major at all this is looking to be a short season. I really enjoy my job when the trucks are backed up and I just keeping the trucks moving quick and steady. So when the last few days came along and all but 4 growers were done harvesting it became really slow. A few trucks here and a few trucks there the piler would only run tops 8 hours a day on a 12 hour shift. Todds job got easier because we were not moving the piler back as often so the cleaning was not needed every 10 minutes like the beginning. The employees had their grove and were just ready for this season to be over, just pushing through the lack of sleep and energy. Nothing broke down, we were some smooth operators. The last few days we had a all female piler of course that was my piler, and a all male piler of course it seemed like all the trucks were coming to #1 with all the girls.
It turned out to be a record season this is our last day Oct 9th. We worked 9 days straight no time off, no major break downs, and no issues with employee's. On the last day Todd shut down the second piler early the had to do a final deep clean and that crew got to go home. Of course since the night shift shut down the previous night for lack of trucks and a storm that came through( when it is lighting weather in the distance or close you must shut down til the storm passes or the rest of the shift if the storm is bad) we had to run the whole day rather then half of the day like we thought we would the previous day. Lunch time rolled around and Todd being the awesome boss he was, got us pizza for lunch. The girls have been talking about pizza the whole season so when we finally got some that gave us that extra boost to finish the season strong..
7pm rolls around and we are dancing and chanting 1 hour left 1 hour left....wooo hooo. For the next hour I had truck come steady which made that last hour go very fast before I knew it night shift was here. They came and relieved us and we all screamed WE MADE IT THROUGH THE SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!!! Met up in the scale house to clock out said our good byes. Said that we hope we all come back next year and work together.
Here are a few tips that we would like to give about what we figured out work and what didn't work so well...
Chap stick make sure you bring it my first day my lips were so chapped i could barley talk.
Food I bought stuff to microwave because I thought I would have more time to go to the scale house and make it. Boy was I wrong Todd had sandwiches that worked way better,lunch meat,PBJ,tuna fish ect. Also with food we put a tote in the back of the truck and a cooler in the bed of the truck. We put all the dry foods, snacks, chips, candy, etc in the tote. This way was easy for us because we did not have to think about what we wanted before we left the house and then get to work and not really want that you could have something else if everything was in the truck. The cooler was for all our sodas, lunch meats, and snacks that needed the be cold. We froze bottles of water every night to act as the ice since we were not close to a gas station to get ice in the AM.
Clothes please make sure you have clothes that you do not mind getting dirty. The company provides you a hard hat, safety glasses, safety vest and they also have respirators for when it gets windy, and believe me it does you are in a open area the winds can get bad. We bought cold weather gear but we did not end up needing it. It was a surprise to us that this season was mild, granted we did have a few days in the am the called for long johns but, other then that both Todd and I wore a t-shirt under a long sleeve shirt with either a jacket or a hoodie. We wore multiple layers so that through out the day you could shed the layer depending on the weather. Foot wear they suggest no steel toes and I am not sure why but I saw people with regular sneakers I wore duck boots and Todd wore hiking shoes and we had no problems. (just do not kick a beet toes first it hurts like HELL!!! I know from experience lol) The weather can change in an instant so we always kept extra clothes in the truck for emergencies.
Make sure you have everything you need before the harvest starts, food, clothes etc because once it starts you will not want to go shopping after working 12 hours. Also we were 10 miles from any town to go shopping so not that easy.
Keep some medication in the truck for aches and pains. Half way through the shift a headache might come and having that will make for a better second half if you didn't have it.
No matter how tired you get or how much you would like to be done, Keep up the good attitude and keep good energy. We danced in between trucks, sang, and just kept each other in good spirits. The truck drivers will also notice your energy and if we can all help each other get through the season safety and as quick as possible it make for happy growers, driver and employees.
All in all we had a BLAST!!! I was hard at sometimes because we worked everyday straight no time off. People got cranky but we worked together and made it together. We will def be coming back for many more years to come. It is tough work working out in the elements and with lack of sleep and energy but what kept me going was thinking about all the $$$$ we are making. We work our buts off in the winter so we can do whatever we want in the summer.
We had 2 weeks off to relax , we spent with the pups and the kitty because we knew we had to leave them for long periods of time. Did some laundry and just prepared ourselves for 12 hours days for how ever long we go.
Oct 1st is finally here the main harvest kicks off at midnight, Of course we were not working that shift because we are now on days. 7 am rolled around pretty quick . Todd needs coffee I need OJ, then take the puppies out. Kiss them and the cat and off to work we go. Luckily we are less then 1 mile from the piling station so our ride is very short the truck doesn't even have time to warm up.
The first three days of the harvest were super busy. Every grower that grew ran the first three days. I am the operator of the piler and it was non stop trucks. I barley had anytime to take a drink. My hands are always doing something. Todd being the Foreman the first three days were busy for him going between both piler's cleaning under the boom with the loader so the dirty beets did not get in the pile of clean beets, making sure the pilers are running their best and checking on all his crew.
After the first 3 days it died down some, it was still busy tho. We had a few minor set backs that shut down both pilers for maybe a max of 1 hours. Nothing major at all this is looking to be a short season. I really enjoy my job when the trucks are backed up and I just keeping the trucks moving quick and steady. So when the last few days came along and all but 4 growers were done harvesting it became really slow. A few trucks here and a few trucks there the piler would only run tops 8 hours a day on a 12 hour shift. Todds job got easier because we were not moving the piler back as often so the cleaning was not needed every 10 minutes like the beginning. The employees had their grove and were just ready for this season to be over, just pushing through the lack of sleep and energy. Nothing broke down, we were some smooth operators. The last few days we had a all female piler of course that was my piler, and a all male piler of course it seemed like all the trucks were coming to #1 with all the girls.
It turned out to be a record season this is our last day Oct 9th. We worked 9 days straight no time off, no major break downs, and no issues with employee's. On the last day Todd shut down the second piler early the had to do a final deep clean and that crew got to go home. Of course since the night shift shut down the previous night for lack of trucks and a storm that came through( when it is lighting weather in the distance or close you must shut down til the storm passes or the rest of the shift if the storm is bad) we had to run the whole day rather then half of the day like we thought we would the previous day. Lunch time rolled around and Todd being the awesome boss he was, got us pizza for lunch. The girls have been talking about pizza the whole season so when we finally got some that gave us that extra boost to finish the season strong..
7pm rolls around and we are dancing and chanting 1 hour left 1 hour left....wooo hooo. For the next hour I had truck come steady which made that last hour go very fast before I knew it night shift was here. They came and relieved us and we all screamed WE MADE IT THROUGH THE SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!!! Met up in the scale house to clock out said our good byes. Said that we hope we all come back next year and work together.
Here are a few tips that we would like to give about what we figured out work and what didn't work so well...
Chap stick make sure you bring it my first day my lips were so chapped i could barley talk.
Food I bought stuff to microwave because I thought I would have more time to go to the scale house and make it. Boy was I wrong Todd had sandwiches that worked way better,lunch meat,PBJ,tuna fish ect. Also with food we put a tote in the back of the truck and a cooler in the bed of the truck. We put all the dry foods, snacks, chips, candy, etc in the tote. This way was easy for us because we did not have to think about what we wanted before we left the house and then get to work and not really want that you could have something else if everything was in the truck. The cooler was for all our sodas, lunch meats, and snacks that needed the be cold. We froze bottles of water every night to act as the ice since we were not close to a gas station to get ice in the AM.
Clothes please make sure you have clothes that you do not mind getting dirty. The company provides you a hard hat, safety glasses, safety vest and they also have respirators for when it gets windy, and believe me it does you are in a open area the winds can get bad. We bought cold weather gear but we did not end up needing it. It was a surprise to us that this season was mild, granted we did have a few days in the am the called for long johns but, other then that both Todd and I wore a t-shirt under a long sleeve shirt with either a jacket or a hoodie. We wore multiple layers so that through out the day you could shed the layer depending on the weather. Foot wear they suggest no steel toes and I am not sure why but I saw people with regular sneakers I wore duck boots and Todd wore hiking shoes and we had no problems. (just do not kick a beet toes first it hurts like HELL!!! I know from experience lol) The weather can change in an instant so we always kept extra clothes in the truck for emergencies.
Make sure you have everything you need before the harvest starts, food, clothes etc because once it starts you will not want to go shopping after working 12 hours. Also we were 10 miles from any town to go shopping so not that easy.
Keep some medication in the truck for aches and pains. Half way through the shift a headache might come and having that will make for a better second half if you didn't have it.
No matter how tired you get or how much you would like to be done, Keep up the good attitude and keep good energy. We danced in between trucks, sang, and just kept each other in good spirits. The truck drivers will also notice your energy and if we can all help each other get through the season safety and as quick as possible it make for happy growers, driver and employees.
All in all we had a BLAST!!! I was hard at sometimes because we worked everyday straight no time off. People got cranky but we worked together and made it together. We will def be coming back for many more years to come. It is tough work working out in the elements and with lack of sleep and energy but what kept me going was thinking about all the $$$$ we are making. We work our buts off in the winter so we can do whatever we want in the summer.
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