A Bad Day for the Watchman

Some days it doesn't pay to be the watchman when the truck arrives

You find your self laying where you don't really want to.

You know, that really hurt!

Who was driving any way?

 

The Lions witnessed it all from the front of the coach.

Leo rallies the rest of the lions to check on the damage, and places a cell call for help.

Review of Weeks Four and Five

By the end of week five, we have only picked up 228,000 pounds of seeds as compared to 320,000 pounds at the end of week five last year.  As a result we only have completed 48 bags for shipment to Oregon, as compared to 60 for last year. We will probably be finished by mid week and on our way back to Oregon by this time next week. We have been gone over three months already, so we are ready to be back and see the family.
Most of the last two weeks have been uneventful.  Due to a light load at the midnight run, we were finished by 9 AM and were able to make a Wal-Mart run to Muskegon as well as have breakfast out a couple of mornings. We had to be back by 11:15 so that we could make the noon pickup. We also made another trip to Luddington for the 2$ breakfast.
Monday afternoon the 19th, the truck came to pick up our second load of 19 bags of seeds. This time I did all the loading, while Izak and Caleb helped guide me onto the ears of the bags. We will probably not have a full load for our last one.
Saturday morning, Izak and I completed some updates to the vacuum system.

We Take a Saturday Morning Trip to Manistee

We only had a light load of seeds to dry Saturday morning, so we were finished a little after 8:30.  We decided to jump in the Suzuki and head north the 23 miles to Luddington, and try out a $2.00 breakfast that we had seen advertised.  Since senior coffee was only 50 cents, our breakfast including tax was $5.30.  One Egg, one bacon, hash browns and toast.  Not Bad!
At this point we were feeling pretty good, so we decided to head on, another 25 miles further north, to Manistee and check out the light houses. By the time we got to the city limits, we were both so tired, that we weren't sure we could make it back to Hart. Since we were so close, we decided that we at least needed to see the light houses. When we got to the river entrance, there was quite a crowd of people gathering. It seems a retired Coast Guard ship was returning to spend the next several years as a tourist attraction, and would be coming up the river in half an hour, so we decided to stay and see the excitement.
By this time, we had started to feel a little better, and headed back South to Hart, vowing not to head out again, just after finishing a week of 12 hour shifts.

Sunday Morning Temperature

Poor picture, but look at the outside temperature at 7:10 this morning.

Remember the Good Old Days?

Review of Third Week in Hart

This was another slow week, with the cannery shutting us down on Friday, so that they could concentrate on the overload of butternut squash that was accumulating.  We almost got 10 bags of seed ready to ship.

Since we didn’t have to work Saturday morning, Barb went for a walk to the store, but got sidetracked when she got to Hart Lake.  It was one of the first mornings that the sun was shining, and when she saw the lake, came back to get her camera, to get some pictures.  I, of course, didn’t want to miss the opportunity, so proceeded to scrape the ice off the windows of the Suzuki, and tag along.

On the right hand side of the Blog is a small slide show titled “Fall in Michigan”. If you click your mouse in the middle of the picture, it will expand to full size, so that you can enjoy it.  You can also do this on any of the slide shows, to view the pictures in a larger format.

Because we didn’t work on Friday, Caleb made a weekend trip to Goshen, Indiana to visit friends and relatives. Izak had been under the weather part of the week, so he just relaxed in his room. (Caleb had his car).

Sunday after church, the Hardins joined us for some Oregon fried razor clams and Oregon blackberry pie. I think the blackberry pie is Elda Ann’s favorite.

The Lions couldn’t remember what the Sun looked like, so they went and visited the Squash Man.

First Load on it's Way to Oregon

We finally have our first load on it's way to Oregon.  The pickup was scheduled for 10 AM on Tuesday, so we told Caleb and Izak that we would wake them up when the truck arrived. The driver always calls about 15 minutes before he gets here to get direction, so we were quite surprised when at 9 AM the driver came walking through the door.  He had been here two years ago for a load, so didn't need help.
Since neither Izak or Caleb had seen how we load the container, they needed to get involved.  As you can see from the pictures, that is just what they did.
The container will be put on the railroad in Chicago, and then be picked up in Portland, OR and delivered to Autumn Seed, in Corvallis, OR, probably later this week.

Review of second week in Hart

Things are still running behind what we had at this time last year.
19 bags ready to ship to Oregon on Tuesday plus one for next load.
We finished up about 2 PM on Saturday
Went to Luddington on Sunday after church for a Wal-Mart stop.