March 4, 2012

View of the week-Marilyn, Dana Peterson and Lynn Prevost, with the guys from High Valley after they entertained us at the United States Custom Harvesters convention in Grand Island, Nebraska.

Oh, how plans change from day to day. We had planned on leaving for the convention on Tuesday the 28th, right after work, then getting as far as Carlyle, where we would spend the night, then be at the border when it opened at 8am. That was before the weather forecast.

There were winter weather warnings for North and South Dakota, with heavy snowfall and wind warnings...actually, it covered a bigger area than that, but we were mainly concerned with the route we were going to take. We decided to forgo the pit stop at Carlyle and drop the hammer to get at least as far as Bismarck after a short visit with Glen at White's Ag in Whitewood. We made Bismarck by 11pm and only had a few flurries to deal with...we had dodged a bullet.

Up early to get on the road...the weather had pretty much missed Bismarck, but we weren't out of the woods yet...the warning was out until 6pm. We rerouted to miss where the brunt of the blizzard, opting to take US83 to Pierre, SD, then cut back over to Winner. By the time we had gotten Pierre, the sun was shining and it looked like everything has passed on to the east, the only thing we had to deal with was

a 75 mile stretch that hadn't been cleaned off, so the slush was pretty deep,which made going a bit slow. We had clear sailing after that and made it to Grand Island around 10:30pm.

Thursday morning we were at the Heartland Events Center to get Registered and plot a course for the day. With almost six times the membership of the Canadian Harvesters, they have a lot more sessions to cover the interests and concerns of all types of custom harvesters. With so many things on he agenda, we weren't always able to get to the sessions we wanted, but rather than miss the entire meeting, we cut short and ran to the next one so we could at least get some information.

Fellow Canadian Harvesters, Gerry and Lynn Prevost, Lee and Dana Peterson, Chuck and Colleen Roy, we're also attending. The Prevosts were on their way back home from a winter swing through CA and AZ, the Petersens flew in just for

the convention and the Roys were passing through on their way to some NASCAR races. We had to make a point of getting in on one of the CNH tours,even though we had just been on a great one at the end of December when we had seen our combine being built...but, it never gets old. The trade show was quite a bit bigger than ours as well, and we got a lot of information from everyone there...and a lot of their swag. It was a great opportunity to get caught up with the latest from the manufacturers and to see our harvest friends under a lot less stress from the run.

The entertainment for the first night was a great comedian, with a farming background...a lot of "hit home" stories. The highlight of the evening was a performance by High Valley, a trio of brothers from LaCrete, Alberta...which is, as they put it, is straight east of Juneau, Alaska...a long way from home...check out their website for their interesting back story. A great close to the evenings they did "On The Combine", then posed for pictures with everyone who wanted one.Friday was filled with more meetings and "hospitality"...and, of course,the auction. This year New Holland had a neat little replica of their Harvest Support truck, but since we don't have yellow and the drivers seat was a bit tight, this item didn't make the short list...especially after last year's purchase of the mini combine. Marilyn did check with Ryan and Al at Trailtech to see if they could build a combine trailer that would haul the mini88...don't think the scale is the same, though. Just as we did in Calgary,we came away from the auction with a big green purchase...this time a JD lighted display cabinet that looks like a fuel Bowser, and a chrome CLAAS 4wd tractor - 1 of 300 replicas of the 600hp that is not available in North America. Marilyn kept her hand down during the auction, channeling all her "want-its" funds to the display case. As with last year, the auction went late and the things we wanted were close to the end...but it was still over least an hour earlier.

Saturday morning we took in the session with Trent Loos, who always has an interesting tale to tell. Thanks to him, we can go back to drinking whole milk...and lots of it. At lunch, Marilyn was wished Happy Birthday from the podium, thanks to the discovery on Facebook by Dana, as she was killing time in line for the buffet. This was the second year she got to spend her birthday at the convention, instead of with her sister Marg, who also celebrates her birthday on the same day...oh, well,we'll cake it up on our way back through Carlyle.

We left just after lunch to head back north to Canada, since we both have to get back to work first thing Monday morning and we wanted to get back early enough on Sunday to regroup after a great week. Thanks to the Verizon MiFi, we were able to get Internet most of the way...which was VERY important, what with Al's Terriers going head to head with their arch rival Melville Millionaires in hockey playoffs. We were able to keep updated at the auction between the Internet access at the Heartland and the scathing texts from Al's boss, Curtis...a die hard Mills fan. Terriers won on Friday....but lost on Saturday, so the texts were flying.We made Bismarck around 11pm, hit the sack, the got rolling again Sunday morning. There had been just a skiff of snow, so the roads were not an issue and the sun eventually broke through by the time we hit the Canadian border. The border crossing was relatively painless...just had to cough up some cash for the tax.

It was a great few days away with our friends from the south and after seeing all things harvesting, it makes us anxious for the season to get started.

Mind you, there is a ton of things to do before we get that far...