Some of the Beet Harvest Details... For The Answers Inquring Minds Want to Know...

#1... Would she do it again? I think she would. It just isn't that physical a job. The bigger task is the waiting between trucks. Once you're geared up properly to stay warm and dry... the rest of the ground crew work is pretty easy... actually, the Tare Lab job was the far more demanding of the two...

Now... as for that other... #2... Sitting on my kiester in a warm dry bobcat cab... yeah.... not so much. ;)

First, the night crew blew the door out of the bobcat assigned to me, the first night. So much for warm and dry bobcat cabs.

Second, the ground crew has breaks, lunch hours, and all that time waiting between trucks to kick back and visit...

The bobcat guys, two of 'em, have five pilers to keep cleared out, power cords to move and rebuild crossovers... and ventilation pipe to ferry from several hundred yards away while running a gauntlet of beet haulers that seem blind to the existence of any other machinery in the vicinity...

Soooo... breaks become eating your lunch as you walk to and from the port-a-potti ... quickly ;)

... now... add in a beet piler that's operating more like an automatic potato gun... whacking you in the head and chest with BEETs... (because that door is missing) every time you duck in under the boom to clean up the mess it's making... and the "Romance" of a warm dry Bobcat cab kinda goes away in a rushin' hurry! as well as a thumping UMPHHHHHH!

*view inside a warm, dry Bobcat cab*

Yeah... they kinda get your attention when the things fall out of the sky... through the cab door that... AIN'T there!

Now, shine all THAT up with the mechanicing to repair the hydraulic hose fittings that get crushed by 25 foot pipes three feet in diameter when things don't "fall" according to plan... or the ones that spray a load of fluid in your face when one of those Beets gets trapped between the bucket and another fitting and SNAP! WHOOOOOOSHHHHHHH!...

Then put in there that keeping those control sticks pushed against the wall to keep the bobcat moving as you slam and bam (Bouncing on the Cab roof more than once) across the rutted ground of the beet yard scurrying to the next chore consumes quite a little more effort than you might think... and the "Ease" of sitting on my kiester is not quite so laid back easy as it might appear to the un-initiated. ;)

Yep... there's ups and downs to Beet Harvest
Brian