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Maple Syrup Symposium (2007)
Terry's cross country bicycle trip
Bicycle Route
Great places we
stayed
What is Miles2ogo?
It happened to us, crazy but
true.
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October 17 - 22, 2005
Have been spending some time with my brother Mitch and his wife Karen in
Fargo, North Dakota in the hopes of getting a temporary job driving a sugar beet
truck. Well I lucked out and got in on the end of the harvest. The sugar beet
harvest starts out slowly usually the end of September with the local farmers
opening up fields to get ready for the full blown harvest. Opening up a field
consist of picking the beets at the ends of the field and also picking some down
the center of the field to make room for the beet picking machines and for the
trucks to drive. The sugar beet picking machine is referred to as a
"lifter". I drove truck number 8. There were 6 semi trucks and 2
tri-axle trucks and still at time the beet lifters would have to wait for a
truck to fill. After the fields are opened up the real harvest begins. The
harvest runs 24 hours a day until complete. The only delays would be weather,
usually rain, and equipment breaking down. The trucks drive up and down the
field next to the lifter. The lifter has a small storage bin to hold beets when
the trucks are not alongside.
Before
the beet can be lifted into the truck the leaves have to be cut off. This
machine is a rotor beater. It is actually a weed eater on steroids.
The trucks got stuck quite often, which is not uncommon.
There was a tractor in the field just for the purpose of pulling out trucks.
After the trucks are loaded the beets are hauled to a piling station. The numerous
piling stations are located through out the Red River Valley. Delays can also
happen at the piling stations. The piling stations have two pilers each and they
can break down and also have to be cleaned periodically. When the piler breaks
down or is down for cleaning there can be a long line of trucks at the piler.
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AUG. 2005
OCT
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2005 |
SU |
MO |
TU |
WE |
TH |
FR |
SA |
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1 |
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3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
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NOV.
2005 |
SU |
MO |
TU |
WE |
TH |
FR |
SA |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
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DEC. 2005
(no updates)
2006
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