June 19

Views of the day-Just before the rain hit

Ahh...some things never change. The day started out humid and cloudy...AGAIN, but sort of cleared off as the day went on. We headed out to the field to do a test around 2pm and it was still to wet...surprise, surprise. Our other farmer stopped by the field for a chat, and after an hour we tested again and it was finally fit to go.

We made a couple of rounds, did a couple of terraces and didn't get stuck, which was nice. We were trying to at least get a truckload of seed wheat before the rains came. For a while it looked like it was going to miss us, but everything was just so unsettled, we knew something was really brewing. We managed to get back to the grain cart just as the sky let loose...guess who had to roll the tarp in the rain...? Standing in the pouring rain really wasn't that bad, more like a pleasant shower, since the temperature was still around 90 degrees.

Al took the grain truck to the farmers yard, just a few miles south of Cherokee, and parked it in his shed. By the time we headed into Cherokee, the rain was so bad, we couldn't see the elevator from four blocks away, it just poured. We got back to the camper and with the awning still out, were able to take in the downpour. That is until the hail started falling. No casualties on the camper or truck, even though some of the nuggets we picked up were almost two inches across. Fortunately, it didn't hail too badly in town, but we didn't really get the brunt of the storm, lots of rain, lightning and thunder, but nothing like they got around the rest of the area. Tomorrow's reports should be interesting, so far our rain gauge at the camper shows and inch and a half. We will be travelling over to Alva to visit with some other custom harvesters from Canada, who were able to keep combining for at least a couple of hours before they got shut down too, we believe they got hit harder over there.

Al claims this weather system will have all of the harvesters in Oklahoma sitting and waiting for a bit...just what everyone needs when they are waiting for us up in Kansas...