HARVEST TIME

My grandfather, Jack Dobson, farmed this homestead until his passing in 1945 by means of horse-drawn equipment. When my dad took over, he used a Cle-track and in 1952 or so, he bought a D2 Caterpillar to pull the equipment, including a combine. Our neighbor and eventual farmer, the late Neil Miller, told me that he (Neil) had delivered an ultimatum to his father: “If you expect me to farm this place, you will buy a tractor. I’m not walking behind the horses!” They bought a tractor.

Before he graduated from college, my brother Chuck was my dad’s farm helper. When he was no longer available (about 1958), various family members stepped in to help with harvest, especially Nina. She rode the combine during lentil harvest. In those days, we would stay here in the house, which constituted a step back in time – cooking on the wood stove, bringing water from town, using the old kerosene lamps at night. At my mother’s request, my dad installed a three unit gas or oil burner so that we could boil water, warm baby bottles, or heat soup without lighting the wood stove. (It’s summer, remember.) My only “creature comfort” was my radio, which I carried with me constantly. The harvest operation started early in the day and went late. It seemed like it went on for days. My role was to help care for Nina’s children so that she could work. Whenever the pick-up was full of lentils, Mother would drive the load to Nezperce, taking the little ones and me along. Perhaps we made two trips a day. Yes, ours was a small operation but in the 1950s there were still small operations. Harvest time brought with it a sense of excitement as farmers from all over brought their crops to the grain elevators, all of them working at once.

I thought of all this the other day as I watched the barley being harvested. Our farmland is leased and the crops belong to a large farming corporation headed by a young man who farms much of the land in this area. He and his workers arrived at 5:00 p.m. with two huge combines and two semi tractor/trailers. By dusk – less than three hours -- barley harvest was over.