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Maple Syrup Symposium (2007)

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What is Miles2ogo?

It happened to us, crazy but true. 

                                          

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.

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PA200008.JPG (1125483 bytes)    PA200009.JPG (1141605 bytes)   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.

PA200007.JPG (1281672 bytes)    PA200010.JPG (1299477 bytes)     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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DEC. 2005
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2006