Sugar Beet Harvest in the Red River Valley area of Eastern North Dakota and Western Minnesota. We had heard from several RVer’s that there was fun to be had and a little money to be made. October in N.E. North Dakota, Cheryl and I had no idea what to expect. When we arrived in the small town (being very generous calling it a town) of Drayton, N.D. we pulled into the Express Personnel Office, right next to Andy’s Diner, the only place in town to eat. We were met by Ron from Express and he took us over to the City campground, where we would stay until the end of the harvest -- for the first time I regretted not getting 8 wheel drive with a lift kit in the motor home. Black mud and lots of it, but being the professional driver I am, I slid right into campsite number 6.
We had a couple of days before we started work, so Cheryl drove the 50 miles South to Grand Forks, N.D. and did some shopping, since that is the closest city with more than one stop sign. The next day we took what we thought would be a day trip to the small town of Walhalla, N.D. for the “Fifth Annual Pumpkin Festival”. Walhalla is a small farming town close to the Canadian border and Cheryl and I both think all 20 people that lived in the town were at the festival. We walked around, enjoyed ourselves and getting to see them raffle off rifles out of the back of a pickup truck was quite a kick. We then took a three hour drive through the beautiful country side back to the big town of Drayton.
We started work on Monday 30th of September 2008, working 12 hours days, 7 days a week. Cheryl never looked so hot as seeing her in her hard hat! The first day was interesting since Cheryl and I had no idea what a sugar beet was, let alone a piler. Wednesday we were old pros at the sugar beet pile and Cheryl has learned how to operate the piler. Honestly, of the three jobs I have had in my life, this was the only one I had fun at every day. The days are long, kind of cold, since you work outside in the weather; I even had to put on long pants and real shoes. The local Eskimos’ seem not to mind the weather and speak of something called minus 20 in the winter!
This being our first time back in the work world in almost three years, I am amazed at how people speak to their employees. I was asked by a Foreman at the plant if I got my tattoos in prison. There was good comedy every day, be it a truck driver who is barely old enough to drive or that can barely see over the steering wheel so he can drive a beet truck forward, but cannot back it up to save his life, to the piler boom getting stuck in the beets with only one beet truck at the piler, or no matter how great things are running, let’s change something! Communication was always good for a laugh as well.
Well it snowed on October 27, 2008, so it is time to leave here and head south to Coffeyville, KS.
We had a great group at piler number eight! Cheryl and I both recommend working the sugar beet harvest. Special thanks to our Operator Jill, Troy our bobcat operator, Mr. and Mrs. Fox and Chad our Supervisor. Cheryl even added two new consultants to her Creative Memories team.
Want to know more about sugar beet harvest or production click this link http://www.crystalsugar.com/products/products6.sprocess.asp
Want to work the 2009 Sugar Beet Harvest click this link and please let them know we gave you the info http://www.sugarbeetharvest.com/index.cfm
Want to see pictures of us having fun at work click this link http://www.bigrigrving.com/photogallery.html