We Do the Sugar Beet Harvest...Say What?

Sugar beet pilers @ St Thomas, ND

     Before we were offered the hosting position at Colwell Lake late in June, we had sent in applications to work the sugar beet harvest in the Red River Valley along the North Dakota / Minnesota border. We decided that it would be a good way to supplement our retirement income. The extra income would allow us to avoid using any of our 401K funds or personal savings to fund vacation travels, NOMADS volunteer work projects travel and maintenance needs (tires for the truck, etc.) We had talked to friends of ours, Simon and Susan, that did the harvest in Sidney MT last fall. They said the work was hard, long hours, dirty and paid well. They also said they thought we would enjoy it. 

    Well around mid-July I received a call from Chad, head of the harvest in the Drayton district. We had an enjoyable conversation about the harvest and I was offered the chance to work as a foreman trainee this year based on my previous work experience in supervision. The seasonal workers are hired by Employment Express, which has an office in Grand Forks, ND. We were told to plan on reporting to them on Monday, Sept. 16th. The harvest hires both local seasonal workers and work-campers (those of us who travel with our RV's. The nice part of the deal, in addition to decent wages, is that Crystal Sugar pays for all of our full hook-up campsites. 

 Our campsite in Grafton, ND

 The park where we were camped

Part of the Disc Golf Course we played

     After we visited Employment Express in Grand Forks, where we received our orientation, we were assigned a campground in Grafton, ND. The site was nice and located a beautiful city park. The park was bordered by the Park River and had many flower gardens throughout. One enjoyable part was the Disc Golf course that we played several times.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

North Scale-house where Joyce worked @ St Thomas

 Trucks lined up 2 abreast at piler #1 

      The sugar beet industry in the RRV is huge. There are over 2800 farmers that have created a co-op that grow, harvest and process the sugar beets. There are around 430,000 acres of sugar beets planted in the RRV each season. The annual harvest is close to 11 million tons of sugar beets. There are something like 38 piling stations spread throughout the valley. Most piling stations have 2 pilers, while St Thomas where we worked had 4 pilers and at the Drayton factory there were 8 pilers. 

     The first 2 weeks we were doing pre-pile which is piling beets that are immediately transported to the sugar plant for current production needs. This time period gave us a chance to learn various piler jobs and I was able to get certified to operate the Skidsteer and pay loader as well.

      Joyce and I started the full harvest on Tuesday evening of October 2nd. The full harvest runs 24/7 thru the majority of the harvest which usually lasts around 3 weeks. We worked a 12 hour shift from 7pm to 7am due to Joyce being offered a position working the scales with Phyllis her partner. Phyllis is from the local area and has worked the scales for many years. Phyllis was a good trainer and she and Joyce had a good time together. My position was called Assistant Foreman, which as best I could tell was used to train you in a variety of positions at the station. Our foreman, Michelle, was a hard worker that treated her people well. I spent the first week mostly working on the ground at piler #1 due to staffing shortages. After that I did a variety of positions including relieving piler operators for breaks, working with the oiler/mechanic, Simon, lubing the pilers, relieving piler ground positions for breaks or shortages, testing for frozen beets when temps dropped too low, etc. Michelle spent time with me explaining the foreman's duties and various problems that may pop up. Our agriculturist, Rich, and Chad asked if we would be interested in coming back next year and would consider being a foreman. We will see what is offered...

     At this point we feel we will be back next year. We met a lot of nice people. The work was hard, challenging, and the hours long, but we feel that it is a great way to earn excellent wages for only a few weeks work. 

          We are happy to be home, but are very happy that we took the time to try out the sugar beet harvest in North Dakota. Another adventure we have enjoyed in retirement.

Enjoying Time With Our Friends from Texas!!

Tom (Pyro) & Erma (Flame) overlooking Spectacle Lake, Brimley Bay & Canada

     Our friends Tom & Erma Humphries, from Edgewood Texas, flew into Marquette to make their first visit to our beautiful UP. By Wednesday evening they had visited many sites in the Pictured Rocks area, the Big Springs @ Palm Book SP, Lake Michigan, Huron & Superior, Mackinaw Island and Drummond Island. 

      We were excited to have them stop by our place to spend some time together the last few days of their vacation. Things timed out nicely. When they arrived Wed. evening they were able to meet Jeb & Lisa and the kids, who were spending their last night at the cabin next door before heading back downstate to home. Joyce made a fantastic raspberry pie with freshly picked berries from our garden. We enjoyed this treat while we caught up on the highlights of their trip up to that point. We hit the sack fairly early as we had a busy day planned for Thursday and wanted to get an early start.

 Visiting the Soo Locks

     After eating breakfast we set out for Sault Ste. Marie, about 40 miles north of our place, to take in the Soo Locks. After a quick stop at Wal*Mart to pickup Subway sandwiches for lunch, we made it to the locks just in time to see 2 ships coming thru. With a 21' lake level drop from Lake Superior to Huron you can see the importance of locks and their value to shipping.

Point Iroquois Lighthouse

     After watching the ships at the locks we headed west along the Superior shoreline to visit Mission Hill, followed by Point Iroquois Lighthouse on Brimley Bay. About 10 miles west of the lighthouse we stopped at Big Piney picnic grounds for lunch with a view on Lake Superior. We then continued west to visit Tahquamenon Falls SP. We visited both the Upper and Lower falls before heading home.

 The Lower Falls

 The Upper Falls

     About an hour after returning home we met our friends Steve & Leanne for dinner at the Raber Bar. Steve and Leanne came out to hike a few days on the Appalachian Trail with Flame and us 2 years ago. They enjoyed seeing each other again along with the great Walleye meal. We enjoyed time afterwards back at our house re-living our adventure together on the trail. The next day we slowed down and relaxed around our place. I headed back to Colwell Lake to take care of hosting duties in the afternoon while Tom, Erma and Joyce went down to Scenic beach along Lake Huron. (10 or so miles south of us)

Flame, Steve, Leanne, Thimbleberry & Greenstone hitting the trail

     Saturday morning, around 10, we all met at Garden Corners and drove down to Fayette State Park. Fayette is a restored ghost town on Lake Michigan that once had been a busy iron ore smelting operation right on Big Bay De Noc. There are many restored buildings along with remaining foundations here. After we completed our tour of Fayette we stopped at a local eatery and had lunch. We topped it off with ice cream back at the state park. Back to Garden Corners and we sadly had to say our good-byes as our good friends headed back to Marquette for their flight back to Texas. We miss you guys and sure are happy that you came our way. We had a wonderful time together once again!

Family Visiting @ Colwell Lake - July

Jenni, Lisa, Jeb, Cole & Olivia overlooking Munising Bay

     Around the 3rd week of July our daughter Jenni flew into Marquette from Chicago to spend a week camping with us at Colwell Lake. At the same time our son Jeb and his family drove up from downstate Michigan to spend time with us in the UP. We enjoyed time together around campfires, playing games, along with visiting various places around the area. One day Jeb, Lisa and Jenni did the Mosquito River to Chapel Beach triangular loop in the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore. The trail is a 10 mile loop that includes 4 miles of walking along the tops of cliffs 200' above Lake Superior. We took the grand kids to visit a playground and the marina while their parents were hiking. Cole just loved all the boats. One evening we visited the "Big Spring" down by Indian Lake and the kids took us out to eat at the Pizza Hut in Manistique afterwards.

 Olivia & Cole @ the marina in Munising

 The raft at Big Springs

 The spring is 40' deep and stays 43 degrees year around

Lisa and Cole looking down at the fish in the sparkling clear water

      We also visited Munising Falls and spent some time on Lake Superior at a sandy beach west of Munising. Jeb and Joyce spent one evening fishing from the canoe on the lake just before sunset. Jeb did catch and release, not wanting to clean fish after dark. 

 Sunset across Colwell Lake

 Cole showing Grandma the flower he found while canoeing

 The kids enjoying Munising Falls

     We had a nice time together and the time went by quickly. Monday evening Jeb & Lisa headed over to our house in the EUP to enjoy some time back home before going to Mackinac Island on Wednesday. Less than 5 minutes after the kids left Tom & Erma (Flame) Humphries our good friends from Texas stopped by Colwell Lake and enjoyed a nice time around the campfire with Jenni and ourselves. They flew in to Marquette to enjoy a week of touring the UP. I will write more in the next posting about our time with Tom & Flame.

Camp Hosting @ Colwell Lake

Our campsite

     Late in June we received a call asking if we would be interested in taking on a paid camp host position at Colwell Lake in the Hiawatha NF on Hwy 94. We are located about halfway between Manistique and Munising in the central UP.

The previous couple had to give up the position due to illness (stage 4 cancer). We showed up on Sunday July 7th to take over our position. Colwell Lake is a nice clean, clear lake that is around 150 acres in size. It has a nice 2 mile walking/hiking trail that completely circles the lake. We have 35 sites, including one group site and 2 walk-ins. The majority of the sites are waterfront, including ours. In addition to a boat launch there is a nice fishing dock out in front of site #7. We are also responsible for Indian River campground which is a 5 site canoe/kayak launching area located about 5 miles south of us. We are enjoying hosting and have fun talking with many people that visit us.

     

     Due to not having internet at the campground my blog entries have been far apart. When I have opportunity to post I will.

 Fishing dock

 Lots of shade thru out our campground

Hiking trail that follows the lakeshore

Celebrating Father's Day and Joyce's Birthday with a Mini Camping Trip

Another crowded beach in the UP...not!

     Last week I got in the mood to take short camping trip that would give us a chance to enjoy some of the beauty nearby. The thought of relaxing up on Lake Superior over Father's Day and having Joyce be able to enjoy her birthday on Tuesday was too hard to pass up. We checked the weather forecast for the next few days, loaded the trailer and decided upon a location. We left Sunday late in the morning. We decided to see if we could find a nice site up on Lake Superior at Bayview NF campground, with Monocle Lake as a back up. We arrived at Bayview around an hour after we left home. The campground has around 25 sites, with about half being right on Lake Superior's lake front overlooking Whitefish Bay. It was raining and very dark when we arrived. We found a nice lakefront campsite and were set up within a few minutes. By the time we finished lunch the the sun came out. We enjoyed the rest of the day enjoying the beach, sunshine, waves crashing and reading books. By evening we were ready to enjoy a campfire followed by a nice sunset.

Our campsite...looking from the beach bluff 

    Monday morning we we for a long walk along the beach and enjoyed most of the day reading and relaxing out on the shore. An evening campfire topped it all off, with a nice game or Phase 10 before turning in. Tuesday morning we headed down to lighthouse at Point Iroquois about 8 miles to the east. We ran into Ron Gilmore there and chatted briefly. Ron and his wife Karen go to our church and are working and living at the lighthouse as caretakers this summer. You'd be be hard pressed to find a much nicer place to spend your summer!

After enjoying the lighthouse and watching a freighter going by down bound for the Soo Locks we drove up to the overlook at Mission Hill a couple of miles away. Once again we enjoyed a nice relaxing day for Joyce's birthday on the beach followed by a nice campfire. This beautiful campground never had more than 6 or 7 sites occupied the whole time we were there. We got up this morning and decided we had relaxed enough and it was time to head for home.

 Freighter headed to the Soo Locks...126 windmills on Canadian side

 View from Mission Hill overlook

 Thimbleberry putting the fire out!

A heart around the sunset!

Sunsets just keep on glowing after the sun's down

     

Big Meadows

     We left Cave Mountain Lake Campground after breakfast and showers Thursday morning heading north up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Shenandoah National Park. It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed the nice mountain scenery. We stopped at several overlooks to enjoy the views. We entered the park after an hour or so and were lucky enough to see a bear just off the side of the road after a few miles. Olivia had recently fallen asleep and missed the chance to see the bear. Around noon we arrived at Big Meadows campground and found a nice campsite back in the same area we camped at with Zig Zag last spring.

     After we set up camp and had lunch we decided to go down to meadow that Big Meadows is named for and take a hike. It was looking like it might rain so we took our umbrella along. 

     After we took a nice long walk I promised Olivia that we would stop at the Wayside and get her a treat. So she decided a chocolate ice cream cone would do the job. When we purchased the cone we were surprised at how large it was. Olivia did a good job of eating most of it with a little bit of help from Grandpa towards the end. After that we went over to find the Appalachian Trail so that Olivia could walk a little bit of the 1140 some miles that we have hiked during the past couple of years.

 Olivia and Adalena enjoy the AT

    After a nice nights sleep we got up early and after breakfast quickly packed up and headed towards home. After a long day on the road we found a nice campsite at Delaware State Park in Ohio. We had Olivia home by 10:30 the next morning which allowed her to attend her cousin Taylor's birthday party.

We had a wonderful time traveling with Olivia.