We just returned from our 2nd season at the sugar beet harvest in the Red River Valley along the North Dakota / Minnesota borderline. This year we worked at the piling station near Stephen, MN which is about a half an hour east of St Thomas, ND where we worked at last year. I received a call back in July asking if I would be interested in taking a foreman's position this season. I accepted and was offered the day shift foreman position at Stephen which also had an opening in the scale house for Joyce. We were excited to get days and quickly looked up the campground at Stephen on Google along with a satellite view of the area. The campground was very nice with grassy, roomy full-hook-up sites, including cable TV and Wi-Fi less than 5 minutes from the piling site. We were asked to report to Express Employment on Sept. 11 or 12 to do our orientation and paperwork along with my drug test (required for foreman position).
Our campsite in Stephen
We enjoyed the Disc golf course that surrounded our campground
Stephen Scale House
Karen & Joyce - the scale house girls
Karen ready to weigh another truck out
Joyce at her station receiving loaded trucks
I worked pre-pile for several days before the main harvest started on Oct. 1st. This year was very unusual in that we did the full harvest 24-7 non-stop for 13 days. Normally you are held up at least a day or 2 along the way due to weather problems (heat, cold, too much rain) We finished our last truck at 8pm on Monday Oct. 13th. We had a great bunch of people to work with this year. Our agronomist, Todd, was a pleasure to work with. Karen, from Cambridge, MN, which is north of Minneapolis, was a wonderful working partner for Joyce. They enjoyed their time together in the scale house a lot. Our piler operators and ground crews did a great job and were lots of fun to be around.
L to R: Hosea, Maria, Todd and Rachel enjoying a break in the scale house
Rachel and Julia, with Karen in the background - Julia always had a smile for us
View of truck unloading beets into end dump from piler operator cab
View of main conveyor running beets into the hopper which separates the dirt and sends them to the pile on the boom conveyor
The 150' long dirt pile of mud and spilled beets that the foreman cleans up from around the pilers...the road became very muddy after receiving a small amount of rain the night before.
Piler #2 control panel operated by the piler operator
This is the Chop Shack - where we inspect truck for frozen beets, or too many green tops or mud balls in a load.
Inside my John 524 front end loader
Truck receives dirt back after unloading beets...Julia & Hosea working as ground crew
Looking at Piler 1 and scale house from piler #2
Julia shoveling spilled beets out of the way for JD loader to clean up
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| Transit truck heads to the sugar plant in East Grand Forks |
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| A pile of sample bags...24 hours worth |
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| Some of our crew helping load the sample bags into the loader bucket for me...I then drop them in the semi trailer to be taken to the lab at the sugar plant |
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| A truck unloading sugar beets at Piler #2 |
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| I spent a lot of hours in this machine during harvest |
