Some of you are probably wondering how the sugar beet harvest here in the Red River Valley is going. It’s now day 10, and this is the scene out our RV window.
Yes, it’s day 10 of the harvest and people have been able to work only three days out of the ten. First it was the rain. Now it is the snow (aka frozen rain).
It is not lost on me that it was 82 degrees back home today and we are in a snow storm.
And the snow is not enough. Let’s look at the temperature.

Do you see that forecast temperature for Thursday night? 20 degrees! Temperatures that cold can cause problems with an RV’s water system. Our outside tanks have heaters, plus they are full. It will take more than one night of cold to freeze a tank full of, um, poop. But the water lines are more of a concern. Jim has wrapped them with heat tape and we have purchased a small space heater for the basement compartment with the exposed water lines. We should be OK.
We have not ventured out of the RV today. Instead, we invited some friends over for lunch and had a nice visit with them this afternoon. We are making the best of it. To stay warm, we are running two space heaters and the heat function on one of our roof air conditioners. So that is not an issue. But we probably will kick on the propane furnace for that 20 degree night.
Normally the harvest finishes after 14 days. Not this year! A good number of the RVers that came in to work the harvest have given up and left. Those that are still here have been offered monetary incentives to stick it out.

The farmers who hire people like Jim to drive the trucks are also scrambling to keep drivers here or are looking for replacement drivers. I spotted this on Facebook for one of the local farms. Jim’s employer has offered to pay for our campsite to keep us around.
All in all, this has been a really abnormal harvest. But some of the workers do have a sense of humor. Here are a few pictures I “borrowed” from facebook.

Caption: “Maybe this would help us get back to piling beets.” One of the better replies was “Great idea lol you can throw a heater out there this morning for the snow lol“

The people who work in the piling yards wear safety vests and hard hats. I think one of them got bored due to too many days off. This is not an approved use of company equipment!
So that is how the harvest is going. It’s not. We are hoping things can start back up again on Friday. Our fingers are crossed! And I will quit whining about the weather. We are safe and not in the path of a hurricane. I’m counting our blessings.
Just another adventure!!! Stay warm!!!!
Thanks B.A. Stay warm we will. But this is just crazy here.