William arrived at harvest orientation Tuesday morning as expected and made his way through all the paperwork, training videos, safety information, and, of course, the very important part — figuring out how you actually get paid.
Pretty standard stuff.
Before he left, though, the office staff pulled him aside to talk about something a little more interesting.
The Friday before ABGT700 weekend, William had spoken with Curt, the Senior Agriculturist, who mentioned there might be an opportunity for him to operate a skid steer once he arrived for the sugar beet harvest.
There was only one small problem.
Now that William had completed all his paperwork, there wasn't a little checkmark sitting next to “Skid Steer Training.”
So the conversation became whether William should reach out to Curt himself or wait for someone else to make the connection.
The office staff told him not to worry about it. They would handle it and get back to him.
Before leaving orientation, William also had something else he wanted to take care of.
Back when he worked at VistaJet, he had purchased a nearly $300 pair of Red Wing boots while visiting Red Wing Aviation. And yes, Red Wing Aviation happens to be located right around the same area of Minnesota associated with Red Wing boots.
Unfortunately, those boots didn't fit quite right anymore.
Rather than carry around an expensive pair of boots he wasn't going to use, William left them behind for someone working the harvest who might need them.
Hopefully they find their way onto the feet of someone who needs them and, in some small way, that person eventually pays the favor forward.
With orientation complete, William jumped into the truck.
Since he was already close to the plant where he would eventually do his yard training, he figured it couldn't hurt to swing by and figure out exactly where the gates, parking areas, and buildings were located.
And, as fate would have it, while driving over there his phone rang.
It was the office.
They had heard back from Curt.
Could William report that same afternoon at 1:00 PM for yard training and skid steer operator training?
Absolutely.
There was no way he was going to miss an opportunity to sit inside a skid steer instead of standing outside in the cold and rain.
And apparently North Dakota heard that statement and decided to prove the point.
As of writing this, it has basically done nothing but stay cold, gray, and rain.
That's great news for the farmers when it comes to sugar beet weight because the beets can keep fattening up.
It's not such great news when you're actually trying to harvest them.
Too much rain means trucks get stuck.
Tractors get stuck.
People get stuck.
Pretty much everything gets stuck.
And the dirt around here becomes something resembling an oil slick mixed with the world's largest mud-covered Slip 'N Slide.
Welcome to beet harvest.
Yard operations themselves are pretty straightforward.
Don't stand places where you can get crushed.
Don't stand near trailers while they're being lifted and dumping beets into the piler.
Stay clear of moving equipment.
Stand Clear of the closing doors.
You New Yorkers understand this one!
Basically, it's common sense.
Something that occasionally seems to be disappearing from society, but thankfully everyone in William's training group seemed to still possess some.
The foreman at Moorhead, Shawn, was also an amazing trainer.
After going through the yard procedures, it was time for some hands-on experience inside one of the enormous beet storage buildings.
Calling these things “buildings” doesn't really explain the scale.
They're basically enormous, sophisticated pole barns with ventilated floors designed to force cold air up through gigantic piles of sugar beets.
The beet piles can reach around 30 feet tall.
The buildings themselves are roughly 200 feet wide and about 500 feet long.
And the outdoor piling areas?
Roughly 200 feet wide and nearly a quarter mile long.
That, friends, is a whole lot of beets.
Once the yard training was complete, Shawn told William to report to the clock building, where Curt would have him watch the skid steer training video and then get some actual seat time.
The training video was pretty straightforward.
If you've ever operated any kind of heavy equipment, it's exactly what you would expect — basic controls, safety procedures, machine operation, and things you absolutely should not do.
But anyone who knows William also knows about the 7 P's of life:
Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
So naturally, William hadn't exactly waited until training day to start learning.
It had been nearly 25 years since he was last behind the controls of a skid steer, so before arriving for the harvest he had already watched just about every Caterpillar skid steer video he could find.
Operation.
Maintenance.
Cleaning.
Best practices.
Dos.
Don'ts.
And probably a few videos Caterpillar didn't even realize people watched.
He also stopped by Butler CAT before orientation so he could physically get into one of the machines and reacquaint himself with the controls.
Jake at Butler CAT was more than happy to give him a demonstration, talk through the equipment, and — conveniently enough — let him check out the exact machine American Crystal Sugar uses for most of its operations.
The CAT 255 two-speed.
There are also a few CAT 265s floating around with some extra bells and whistles, but they're basically the same machine from an operator's perspective.
So when William climbed into the 255 during training, fired up the engine, and headed off to perform a basic culvert-moving exercise, it really wasn't much of a surprise that operating it came right back.
Like riding a bike.
Just a much heavier bike with tracks, hydraulics, and the ability to move several thousand pounds.
Curt watched for a bit, realized William had the operation under control, and told him they'd see him again in a few days for some more seat time.
Apparently “a few days” means “tomorrow” in sugar beet harvest language.
The very next day, William reported to the Amenia piling station.
That's where he met his foreman, Adam.
Adam is also work camping for the beet harvest along with his wife, Heather, who will be working in the weigh station.
And because our travels somehow constantly put us in the path of interesting people, this one got even better.
After spending about three hours getting familiar with the piling station, Heather picked up on something William said about being from Ohio.
Interestingly enough, Adam and William hadn't even talked about that earlier.
William mentioned he was originally from Dayton, Ohio.
Heather responded that they were from Eaton, Ohio.
For those unfamiliar with the area, that's basically the same backyard.
Suddenly everything made sense.
Similar upbringing.
Farm work.
Heavy equipment.
Fixing things.
Building things.
Learning how to do a little bit of everything.
Jack of all trades, master of a few.
We had found our people again.
That evening, Adam and Heather invited us to join them for dinner at the restaurant attached to the RV park and hotel.
The restaurant specializes in Indian food while also offering some American staples like burgers, wings, and fries.
Almost everyone ordered Indian food.
Except Krysta.
Krysta ordered a burger.
Except apparently this wasn't exactly your average American cheeseburger.
The meat tasted more like the seasoned meat you'd expect to find on an Indian skewer.
Krysta was… not impressed.
Let's just say we probably won't be rushing back.
Which is perfectly fine, because William has been doing plenty of cooking anyway.
That brings us to one of the week's other important missions.
New boots.
After donating the Red Wings, William needed a replacement pair before the harvest really kicked into gear.
That mission was easily accomplished at Duluth Trading.
And man, did he find some nice boots.
Harvest footwear: handled.
Next mission?
Beef short ribs.
Somehow, despite all the cooking William has done over the years, he had never actually braised beef short ribs.
That needed to change.
We eventually found exactly what we needed at Hornbacher's.
For our Florida friends, Hornbacher's is basically what Publix would be if Publix had a little Whole Foods energy mixed into it.
Big store.
Nice inside.
Great selection.
Pretty much everything you could want.
With the short ribs secured, the rest of the week moved along pretty slowly.
Mostly because the weather kept doing the same thing.
Rain.
Gray skies.
Cold.
More rain.
At some point you just accept that sunshine has apparently been canceled until further notice.
Naturally, stormy cold evenings also mean one important thing:
Wine inventory must be maintained.
So we made another trip into Fargo to stock up.
While we were there, we also stopped at a few thrift stores to hunt down some additional cold-weather clothing.
That turned out to be one of the best shopping decisions of the week.
We found some really nice Columbia gear to help keep us warm along with several pairs of pants.
Name-brand Levi's.
$6.99 a pair.
You simply cannot pass that up when the same pair hanging in a retail store costs several times more.
Friday also brought a package we had been really excited about.
Our Unbeetable stickers!
Krysta took the Unbeetable logo and turned it into a transparent sticker that we can hand out to everyone working the harvest with us.
Because if there's one thing we've learned traveling around the country, it's that we love leaving a little piece of Solitude State of Mind behind with the people we meet.
And Krysta absolutely nailed these.
We ordered them using Ninja Transfers' sticker option, and they're waterproof, durable, and designed to stick to pretty much anything.
They came out fantastic.
Saturday arrived with more of the same weather, but we still managed to get a few things accomplished.
We handed out some stickers to our neighbors, washed what felt like several states' worth of bugs off the truck and fifth wheel, and started getting everything organized for the official beginning of harvest.
Originally, the entire team was supposed to report Tuesday morning at 9:00 AM for onsite training.
Thanks to all the rain — and even more rain in the forecast — that has now been postponed until Wednesday.
Because no matter how many employees, trucks, pilers, skid steers, tractors, and farmers are ready to work, Mother Nature ultimately decides when beet harvest begins.
Sunday's cold weather also made it the perfect day to finally tackle those braised beef short ribs.
And William wasn't cutting corners on this one.
The braise started with the classic foundation of a mirepoix — onion, carrot, and celery — slowly building that rich base before adding red wine and beef broth.
Then came the aromatics.
Bay leaf.
Rosemary.
Thyme.
The whole thing simmered together while the short ribs slowly braised until the meat became tender, rich, and exactly the kind of meal you want when it's cold and miserable outside.
For the base, William decided to serve them over polenta.
Or, as we probably should have described it to Krysta beforehand:
Cheesy grits.
That did not go well.
Polenta is officially not on Krysta's menu tomorrow.
Or next month.
Or next year.
Or apparently ever again.
Then William tried another chef-approved idea.
Gremolata.
A little bright, fresh garnish of parsley, garlic, and lemon over the rich short ribs.
Almost every recipe recommended it.
Surely it would add the perfect balance.
Nope.
Lead balloon.
William literally ended up scraping it back off.
So once again, we've learned an important culinary lesson in our household.
Stick with what works.
Meat.
Potatoes.
Pasta.
Salad.
Amazing sauces.
And maybe the occasional mushroom.
Krysta still doesn't love mushrooms either, but William has at least managed to sneak them into his mom's famous cheesy potatoes.
And when we say cheesy potatoes, we're talking homemade au gratin-style potatoes with Cheese Whiz and cream of mushroom soup.
Next time, we're going to try cream of celery.
Being partners is about compromise.
And apparently ours involves negotiating which cream-based canned soup is allowed in the potatoes.
And that brings us to Monday.
Yes, we know.
The blog didn't quite make it out on Sunday this week.
We've had a few things going on.
Harvest preparations.
Work.
Side projects.
And one particularly big development involving our earlier-than-expected return to Florida.
That return is going to change our lives in a pretty meaningful way.
We're not ready to share all the details just yet, but we'll give you this much:
We'll finally be back in Florida.
Sitting on roughly 80 acres of land.
Farming.
Raising livestock.
Building things.
Working outside.
Getting dirty.
And starting the kind of chapter we've been talking about and waiting to begin for a very long time.
There's much more to that story.
But we're going to save it until after the beet harvest.
For now, we're focused on North Dakota, muddy fields, giant piles of sugar beets, skid steers, and hopefully finally getting this harvest underway.
So we'll see you next week with an update from the first few days of the actual sugar beet harvest…
Assuming, of course, the fields dry out enough for the farmers to actually get into them.
Until then,
Stay Unbeetable.
