Posts about the Sugar Beet Harvest
FIRST DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA
Hillsboro, North Dakota, we have arrived
GETTING READY FOR WORK
Some paperwork to get us started
ON THE JOB TRAINING
A trip to the Hillsboro factory for some OJT
TEN DAYS OF WORK
Notes and pictures on our ten days of work
THE CAMPAIGN
A quick summary of the annual campaign of sugar beet processing
THE SUGAR BEET
Bigger than a coconut, smaller than a football. Here is the story on the sugar beet
THE PILER
I was very impressed with the big machine we worked on. I thought you might like to learn more.
THE SUGAR BEET PILE
How big is a pile that contains 90,000 tons? Here are some pictures and figures
DOWN AND DIRTY: GIVING BACK THE TARE DIRT
Harvesting root crops produces dirt. How to handle and dispose of it is an interesting side story
A LOOK AT THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
A $20 billion industry with 142,000 jobs in 22 states. Take a look at the Sugar Beet Industry
AMERICAN CRYSTAL SUGAR COMPANY
Get a closer look at the company providing this workamping opportunity.
EXPRESS EMPLOYMENT PROFESSIONALS
If you are a workamper interested in short term hard work for big bucks, here’s the link
American Crystal Sugar Company
Hillsboro Processing Plant
Hillsboro, ND
GPS: 47.434612, -97.062921
Sugar is the most widely used sweetener in the world, with its closest substitute being high-fructose corn syrup. Other caloric sweeteners are not significant in the global sweeteners market, but their shares are rising due to increasing cases of obesity, diabetes, and growing health concerns among people.
The global market for sweeteners totaled about $76 billion in 2012 and is projected to reach nearly $97 billion by 2017. In this market, sugar holds the majority share, about 85%. The global volume of sugar consumption is rising by about 4% per year, but the market value is dictated by sugar prices, which are extremely volatile.
Sugar Beets require fertile soil and a temperate climate while sugar cane grows in a tropical climate. Production areas for sugar beets in the US are in fertile river valleys in the north. The Red River Valley supports the crop in North Dakota and Minnesota while the production in Montana and northern Wyoming comes from the Yellowstone River Valley. The North Platte River Valley is a growing area in southeast Wyoming, western Nebraska, and northeast Colorado. Growing sugar beets is done in Idaho along the Snake River Valley, and in Oregon in the Willamette River Valley.
The American sugar industry has a significant impact on the nation’s economy. The industry creates 142,000 direct and indirect jobs in 22 states and contributes $20 billion in positive economic activity each year.
Posts about the Sugar Beet Harvest
FIRST DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA
Hillsboro, North Dakota, we have arrived
GETTING READY FOR WORK
Some paperwork to get us started
ON THE JOB TRAINING
A trip to the Hillsboro factory for some OJT
TEN DAYS OF WORK
Notes and pictures on our ten days of work
THE CAMPAIGN
A quick summary of the annual campaign of sugar beet processing
THE SUGAR BEET
Bigger than a coconut, smaller than a football. Here is the story on the sugar beet
THE PILER
I was very impressed with the big machine we worked on. I thought you might like to learn more.
THE SUGAR BEET PILE
How big is a pile that contains 90,000 tons? Here are some pictures and figures
DOWN AND DIRTY: GIVING BACK THE TARE DIRT
Harvesting root crops produces dirt. How to handle and dispose of it is an interesting side story
A LOOK AT THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
A $20 billion industry with 142,000 jobs in 22 states. Take a look at the Sugar Beet Industry
AMERICAN CRYSTAL SUGAR COMPANY
Get a closer look at the company providing this workamping opportunity.
EXPRESS EMPLOYMENT PROFESSIONALS
If you are a workamper interested in short term hard work for big bucks, here’s the link
American Crystal Sugar Company
Hillsboro Processing Plant
Hillsboro, ND
GPS: 47.434612, -97.062921
Harvesting Sugar Beets brings along dirt
Sugar beets are a root crop. Just like carrots, turnips, radishes, and potatoes, the part you want is in the dirt – not on a tree or bush. So harvesting involves dirt. Mechanical harvesters dig the beets out of the ground and throw them into a truck at a pretty high speed so a lot of dirt goes along for the ride and into the piler. This dirt is called “Tare Dirt”. American Crystal Sugar does not want the dirt, has no place to keep it, and certainly does not want to pay for it. It is part of the truck weight coming into the yard and they want it to be part of the truck weight going out.
Pilers include large cleaning devices to carry out a secondary cleaning of the beets to remove all foreign materials that made it into the piler with the beets. Beets are bounced and rolled, being scrubbed clean as they move; dirt and other foreign materials are sucked through the rolls, collected into a hopper, and returned to the truck as the last step in the receiving process.
Piler cleans off some of the dirt ...
... and that dirt is returned to the truck
By this time loose dirt is gone and the beets are “pretty clean”, but they still carry some clinging tare dirt through the piler. The beets are subject to a deduction for that tare dirt. Tare determination, sugar percentage, and sugar loss to molasses are determined based on the sample at the quality laboratory in Grand Forks.
That’s the story on Tare Dirt.
Posts about the Sugar Beet Harvest
FIRST DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA
Hillsboro, North Dakota, we have arrived
GETTING READY FOR WORK
Some paperwork to get us started
ON THE JOB TRAINING
A trip to the Hillsboro factory for some OJT
TEN DAYS OF WORK
Notes and pictures on our ten days of work
THE CAMPAIGN
A quick summary of the annual campaign of sugar beet processing
THE SUGAR BEET
Bigger than a coconut, smaller than a football. Here is the story on the sugar beet
THE PILER
I was very impressed with the big machine we worked on. I thought you might like to learn more.
THE SUGAR BEET PILE
How big is a pile that contains 90,000 tons? Here are some pictures and figures
DOWN AND DIRTY: GIVING BACK THE TARE DIRT
Harvesting root crops produces dirt. How to handle and dispose of it is an interesting side story
A LOOK AT THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
A $20 billion industry with 142,000 jobs in 22 states. Take a look at the Sugar Beet Industry
AMERICAN CRYSTAL SUGAR COMPANY
Get a closer look at the company providing this workamping opportunity.
EXPRESS EMPLOYMENT PROFESSIONALS
If you are a workamper interested in short term hard work for big bucks, here’s the link
American Crystal Sugar Company
Hillsboro Processing Plant
Hillsboro, ND
GPS: 47.434612, -97.062921
That phrase used derisively to describe a PhD surely fits a sugar beet pile. A piler is able to make piles of sugar beets over 200 feet wide at the base, and over 20 feet high, containing between 70,000 and 90,000 tons of beets. There is no angle from which I could take a picture that would capture the size of these beet piles. Maybe this diagram along with some pictures will do the job.
Compare the pile to the piler and the trucks
Looks like gravel but every particle is a sugar beet the size of a coconut
The pile grows 24/7 and the top of the boom is 30 ft above the ground
When we started, I could see the factory buildings under the stacks
Sugar beets are harvested quickly and stored up to 180 days to await processing. It is during this storage period, that sugar is lost through normal respiration. Respiration causes about 70% of sugar loss during storage, and decay accounts for 10%. The remaining 20% is the result of fermentation when the oxygen content is low because of poor ventilation, freezing and thawing cycles, and root desiccation. Storage losses caused by respiration have been controlled through the utilization of forced-air ventilation and subsequent freezing of storage piles after mid-December.
“forced-air ventilation and subsequent freezing” brings up an important part of the beet pile story and our work, but first an important side story. (I love these little adventures off into the encyclopedia to learn something new)
The Skidsteer
Darting around the Piler, like pilot fish around a shark, is a Skidsteer. The Piler could not function properly without the Skidsteer.
This Cat Skidsteer is the same as the one at our piler
Time for the information from Wikipedia
A skid loader, skid-steer loader, or skidsteer, is a small, rigid-frame, engine-powered machine with lift arms used to attach a wide variety of labor-saving tools or attachments. Many manufacturers have their own versions of this vehicle, including Kubota, Bobcat, Terex, Case, Caterpillar, Gehl Company, Hyundai, JCB, JLG, John Deere, Komatsu, LiuGong, New Holland, Volvo, and Wacker Neuson.
Skid-steer loaders are typically four-wheel vehicles with the wheels mechanically locked in synchronization on each side so the left-side drive wheels can be driven independently of the right-side drive wheels. The wheels typically have no separate steering mechanism and hold a fixed straight alignment on the body of the machine. By operating the left and right wheel pairs at different speeds, the machine turns by skidding or dragging its fixed-orientation wheels across the ground. The extremely rigid frame and strong wheel bearings prevent the torsional forces caused by this dragging motion from damaging the machine. The skid-steering vehicle is turned by generating differential velocity at the opposite sides of the vehicle. Skid-steer loaders are capable of zero-radius, "pirouette" turning, which makes them extremely maneuverable and valuable for applications that require a compact, agile loader. Skid-steer loaders are sometimes equipped with tracks in lieu of the wheels and such a vehicle is known as a multi-terrain loader.
Unlike in a conventional front loader, the lift arms in these machines are alongside the driver with the pivot points behind the driver's shoulders. Modern skid loaders have fully enclosed cabs and other features to protect the operator. Like other front loaders, it can push material from one location to another, carry material in its bucket or load material into a truck or trailer.Wikipedia
“it can push material from one location to another, carry material in its bucket or load material into a truck or trailer” and that is what it does around a piler 24 hours a day.
The Skidsteer cleans up trash around the piler. From beets spilled from the hopper because the driver dumped too fast to debris from the tare dirt dump, there is an endless stream of trash accumulating around the piler. Especially behind the piler and ahead of the pile. If this debris is not removed frequently, it will be buried in the pile.
Beets spilled by the trucks as they dump are run over by the trucks that follow, quickly covering the concrete pad with a covering of mashed beets that becomes slippery and dangerous for both trucks and workers.
The most important job for the skidsteer, and the job requiring the most skill, is laying down the culvert piping for the forced-air ventilation system.
The Skidsteer uses this gadget to pick up pipe
The Skidsteer lays the pipe sections end to end in from each side of the pile but not completely across
The Skidsteer piles beets in front of the pipe to prevent rolling or sliding
As the pile advances, it fills in behind the culvert and buries it
The ends of the culvert pipe are connected to ventilating fans
As soon as the weather turns cold, the ventilating fans are turned on to chill then freeze the core of the pile.
Posts about the Sugar Beet Harvest
FIRST DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA
Hillsboro, North Dakota, we have arrived
GETTING READY FOR WORK
Some paperwork to get us started
ON THE JOB TRAINING
A trip to the Hillsboro factory for some OJT
TEN DAYS OF WORK
Notes and pictures on our ten days of work
THE CAMPAIGN
A quick summary of the annual campaign of sugar beet processing
THE SUGAR BEET
Bigger than a coconut, smaller than a football. Here is the story on the sugar beet
THE PILER
I was very impressed with the big machine we worked on. I thought you might like to learn more.
THE SUGAR BEET PILE
How big is a pile that contains 90,000 tons? Here are some pictures and figures
DOWN AND DIRTY: GIVING BACK THE TARE DIRT
Harvesting root crops produces dirt. How to handle and dispose of it is an interesting side story
A LOOK AT THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
A $20 billion industry with 142,000 jobs in 22 states. Take a look at the Sugar Beet Industry
AMERICAN CRYSTAL SUGAR COMPANY
Get a closer look at the company providing this workamping opportunity.
EXPRESS EMPLOYMENT PROFESSIONALS
If you are a workamper interested in short term hard work for big bucks, here’s the link
American Crystal Sugar Company
Hillsboro Processing Plant
Hillsboro, ND
GPS: 47.434612, -97.062921

Like an Octopus with tentacles everywhere, this behemoth scared the snap out of me when I first saw it. Pictures and videos did not do it justice. I had no idea what I was going to do to it or what it was going to do to me.
The dictionary says a Piler is “one that piles or heaps up; especially: one whose work is piling materials or products for storage, transportation, or processing”. Our Piler is not a person, but a huge piece of machinery used to receive truckload quantities of sugar beets delivered from the growers and pile these beets for future processing. Kringstad Ironworks manufactures these for American Crystal Sugar Company.

At the Hillsboro receiving station where we worked, there are six pilers.

In just a few minutes, a piler can digest a large truckload of beets. At a rate of about 250 tons an hour, this big guy can pile 5,000 to 6,000 tons of beets per day.

Part of the piler is a large cleaning device to carry out a secondary cleaning of the beets since the harvester has not cleaned all foreign materials from the beets in the field. The cleaning screen, known as the grab roll screen, is comprised of a slanting row of scrolled and smooth rolls. These rolls, perpendicular to the travel direction of the beets, turn at different speeds; scrolled rolls turn faster than smooth rolls. Beets are bounced and rolled through a water spray, being scrubbed clean as a result. Dirt and other foreign materials (known as Tare Dirt) fall through the rolls, are collected in a hopper, and returned to the delivery truck as the last step in the process.

The piler includes a mechanism for extracting buckets of samples from the stream of sugar beets and dropping them down a chute where we bagged them.

These samples are transported to the company laboratory in Grand Forks, ND and analyzed for sugar content. The result of this analysis becomes the basis for payment to the farmer.

Despite its size, this thing is actually a movable electric appliance. A power cord approximately 200 feet long supplies electricity at 440 volts. The operator moves the piler back as the pile builds up – typically a couple feet once every hour or so.

The crew for a piler is six (or seven) people:
** Operator
** Ass't Operator (operates the boom)
** Four Helpers (two on each side -- process trucks, collect samples, clean up)
** Skidsteer operator (usually shared by more than one piler)
This short (1:57) video was produced by Kringstad Ironworks, the piler manufacturer. It shows the piler throwing the beets to the pile, the beet truck dumping the beets into the piler, the cleaning process, the piler being moved, and finally the tare dirt being returned to the truck.
KII Sugar Beet Piler In Action
Now you know a little bit about Sugar Beet Pilers.
Posts about the Sugar Beet Harvest
FIRST DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA
Hillsboro, North Dakota, we have arrived
GETTING READY FOR WORK
Some paperwork to get us started
ON THE JOB TRAINING
A trip to the Hillsboro factory for some OJT
TEN DAYS OF WORK
Notes and pictures on our ten days of work
THE CAMPAIGN
A quick summary of the annual campaign of sugar beet processing
THE SUGAR BEET
Bigger than a coconut, smaller than a football. Here is the story on the sugar beet
THE PILER
I was very impressed with the big machine we worked on. I thought you might like to learn more.
THE SUGAR BEET PILE
How big is a pile that contains 90,000 tons? Here are some pictures and figures
DOWN AND DIRTY: GIVING BACK THE TARE DIRT
Harvesting root crops produces dirt. How to handle and dispose of it is an interesting side story
A LOOK AT THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
A $20 billion industry with 142,000 jobs in 22 states. Take a look at the Sugar Beet Industry
AMERICAN CRYSTAL SUGAR COMPANY
Get a closer look at the company providing this workamping opportunity.
EXPRESS EMPLOYMENT PROFESSIONALS
If you are a workamper interested in short term hard work for big bucks, here’s the link
American Crystal Sugar Company
Hillsboro Processing Plant
Hillsboro, ND
GPS: 47.434612, -97.062921
Profile of the Sugar Beet (Beta vulgaris)
Size between a coconut and a football
The sugar beet has a conical, white, fleshy root (a taproot) with a flat crown. The plant consists of a root and a rosette of leaves. Sugar is formed by photosynthesis in the leaves and is then stored in the root.
A sugar beet weighs between two and five pounds. The foliage has a rich, brilliant green color and grows to a height of about 14 inches. The leaves are numerous and broad and grow in a tuft from the beet crown, which is usually level with or just above the ground surface.
The beet root contains 75% water, about 20% sugar, and 5% pulp. The exact sugar contents can vary between 12% and 21% sugar, depending on the cultivar and growing conditions.
Sugar is the primary value of sugar beet as a cash crop. The pulp, insoluble in water and mainly composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and pectin, is used in animal feed. Sugar beet by-products, such as pulp and molasses, add another 10% to the value of the harvest.
Sugar beets grow exclusively in the temperate zone, in contrast to sugar cane, which grows exclusively in the tropical and subtropical zones. The sugar beet is a root crop that flourishes in temperate climates where the growing season is about five months long. Farms are found in California, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming.
Beets are planted in late March/early April and harvested in late September and October. When fully grown, a sugar beet is about a foot long, weighs two to five pounds, and is about 18% sucrose. They are processed at 23 factories located near the fields because beets are a perishable vegetable. Factories generally operate around the clock, seven days a week, from October through April. Beet sugar represents about 54% of domestically-produced sugar. There is no difference between beet and cane sugar.
Some beet sugar brands you might recognize are Crystal Sugar, Holly Sugar, Western Sugar, Big Chief Sugar, Pioneer Sugar, White Satin, and Spreckels Sugar.
In addition to processing pure beet sugar, sugar factories also produce a by-product known as dried beet pulp. The pulp is the dried fiber residue left after most of the sugar has been extracted from the sliced beets. Dried beet pulp can be produced and shipped in many forms: plain dried, molasses dried (which contains approximately 25 percent molasses) and pelleted.
This excellent feed is valued by dairy farmers to stimulate the cow’s milk flow and is widely used to feed cattle and sheep destined for market. In recent years, substantial quantities of pelleted dried beet pulp have been exported to Japan and Europe to assist their development of feeding programs and, in turn, help our country's balance of payments.
Another important by-product is beet molasses, produced in quantities ranging from 4 % to 5% by weight of the beet and containing about 50 percent sugars. Beet molasses is used for the production of yeast, chemicals, and even pharmaceuticals, as well as the production of mixed cattle feeds. It is one of the best mediums for liquid cattle feed.
Thanks to several public industry sources for the information above
Posts about the Sugar Beet Harvest
FIRST DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA
Hillsboro, North Dakota, we have arrived
GETTING READY FOR WORK
Some paperwork to get us started
ON THE JOB TRAINING
A trip to the Hillsboro factory for some OJT
TEN DAYS OF WORK
Notes and pictures on our ten days of work
THE CAMPAIGN
A quick summary of the annual campaign of sugar beet processing
THE SUGAR BEET
Bigger than a coconut, smaller than a football. Here is the story on the sugar beet
THE PILER
I was very impressed with the big machine we worked on. I thought you might like to learn more.
THE SUGAR BEET PILE
How big is a pile that contains 90,000 tons? Here are some pictures and figures
DOWN AND DIRTY: GIVING BACK THE TARE DIRT
Harvesting root crops produces dirt. How to handle and dispose of it is an interesting side story
A LOOK AT THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
A $20 billion industry with 142,000 jobs in 22 states. Take a look at the Sugar Beet Industry
AMERICAN CRYSTAL SUGAR COMPANY
Get a closer look at the company providing this workamping opportunity.
EXPRESS EMPLOYMENT PROFESSIONALS
If you are a workamper interested in short term hard work for big bucks, here’s the link
American Crystal Sugar Company
Hillsboro Processing Plant
Hillsboro, ND
GPS: 47.434612, -97.062921
As I was doing the research for this story, I noticed the word “campaign” was used often. Thinking about that, the word makes sense because the process is an annual agricultural thing. It may begin in the summer, but for sure it begins by 01 Oct at the start of harvest. I suspect it ends the following spring when all the beets are processed and the processing yards are empty and ready to start again. So how does the campaign get named? If named for the year of harvest, it would be “the 2015 campaign”. If named for the year when the process is complete and all the product is sold or for sale, it would be “the 2016 campaign”. I don’t know the answer?
My understanding is this. American Crystal Sugar Company is an agricultural cooperative. Every year they contract with each of their members to grow and deliver a certain amount of sugar beets. I suspect the unit of measure is acres, since the tons of beets or pounds/tons of sugar is determined by Mother Nature and is unknown until the campaign is in the books.
During the summer, company Agriculturalists visit the fields to check on the growing crops, advise the farmers, and predict what the harvest will look like.
Pre–pile harvest begins in early September. Harvest deliveries are limited and controlled due to the warm weather and poor storage conditions. This limited harvest allows growers to open roadways through fields in preparation for the main harvest, which begins October 1.
Growers deliver their sugar beets to a designated receiving station located throughout the growing area. Sugar beets are harvested with two primary pieces of equipment. The Defoliator removes the green leaves and slices a slab from the top of the sugar beet root. This removed slab is the growing point of the sugar beet and contains high levels of impurities, which impede the factories ability to extract the sugar from the remainder of the harvested root. The sugar beet root is then harvested with a Pinch Wheel Harvester, which pinches the root and lifts it from the soil. The sugar beet harvester also separates some soil and conveys the sugar beet into a truck to be transported to a receiving station.
A Sugar Beet Defoliator
A Pinch Wheel Harvester
Trucks hauling sugar beets to receiving stations are weighed and off loaded on sugar beet pilers. These machines also screen soil from the sugar beets and pile the sugar beets in large storage piles. Samples of sugar beets are taken upon delivery to be analyzed for sugar content, purity and tare.
Sample Bags Ready for Transport
Harvest is concluded in late October.
Throughout the winter, sugar beets are reloaded into rehaul trucks, which deliver the stored sugar beets to the factory for processing. Large front-end loaders load belly dump trailers which haul 27 tons per load. Piles are monitored for temperature during the storage term. Some piles are also passive ventilated or forced ventilated to enhance storage conditions and allow sugar beets to be stored for longer periods. Sugar beets can be stored in piles as long as mid-March when the slicing operations will be completed. Then, it is time to begin the process all over again.
A Belly Dump Trailer
Posts about the Sugar Beet Harvest
FIRST DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA
Hillsboro, North Dakota, we have arrived
GETTING READY FOR WORK
Some paperwork to get us started
ON THE JOB TRAINING
A trip to the Hillsboro factory for some OJT
TEN DAYS OF WORK
Notes and pictures on our ten days of work
THE CAMPAIGN
A quick summary of the annual campaign of sugar beet processing
THE SUGAR BEET
Bigger than a coconut, smaller than a football. Here is the story on the sugar beet
THE PILER
I was very impressed with the big machine we worked on. I thought you might like to learn more.
THE SUGAR BEET PILE
How big is a pile that contains 90,000 tons? Here are some pictures and figures
DOWN AND DIRTY: GIVING BACK THE TARE DIRT
Harvesting root crops produces dirt. How to handle and dispose of it is an interesting side story
A LOOK AT THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
A $20 billion industry with 142,000 jobs in 22 states. Take a look at the Sugar Beet Industry
AMERICAN CRYSTAL SUGAR COMPANY
Get a closer look at the company providing this workamping opportunity.
EXPRESS EMPLOYMENT PROFESSIONALS
If you are a workamper interested in short term hard work for big bucks, here’s the link
Hillsboro Campground
203 6th St SW
Hillsboro, ND 58045
GPS: 47.399616, -97.072165
Yesterday we did employment paperwork; today we went to the Hillsboro Processing Plant for a four-hour hands–on training session.
Our worksite, the Hillsboro Yard, was about a mile north of town
We got our hard hats, safety glasses, and vests, ...
... then we got to meet a real Sugar Beet Piler, ...
... and learn about our job.
We worked with a few trucks ...
... took some samples ...
... and got to be friends with our trainers
Michelle and Mary
Mary is a nursing student from Texas. She comes to the beet harvest every year to earn money for tuition. Many of these folks are second and third generation harvest workers.
This adventure will definitely be something we have never experienced before.
Posts about the Sugar Beet Harvest
FIRST DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA
Hillsboro, North Dakota, we have arrived
GETTING READY FOR WORK
Some paperwork to get us started
ON THE JOB TRAINING
A trip to the Hillsboro factory for some OJT
TEN DAYS OF WORK
Notes and pictures on our ten days of work
THE CAMPAIGN
A quick summary of the annual campaign of sugar beet processing
THE SUGAR BEET
Bigger than a coconut, smaller than a football. Here is the story on the sugar beet
THE PILER
I was very impressed with the big machine we worked on. I thought you might like to learn more.
THE SUGAR BEET PILE
How big is a pile that contains 90,000 tons? Here are some pictures and figures
DOWN AND DIRTY: GIVING BACK THE TARE DIRT
Harvesting root crops produces dirt. How to handle and dispose of it is an interesting side story
A LOOK AT THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
A $20 billion industry with 142,000 jobs in 22 states. Take a look at the Sugar Beet Industry
AMERICAN CRYSTAL SUGAR COMPANY
Get a closer look at the company providing this workamping opportunity.
EXPRESS EMPLOYMENT PROFESSIONALS
If you are a workamper interested in short term hard work for big bucks, here’s the link
Hillsboro Campground
203 6th St SW
Hillsboro, ND 58045
GPS: 47.399616, -97.072165
We are settled in at the Hillsboro Campground along with Herb and Pat Myers. They are directly across the street from us.
I suspect this was once a KOA Campground
The Hazletts – Site 23
The Myers – Site 28
Today, we spent a couple hours with the Express Employment Professionals representative at their campground "building" doing all the employment paperwork and watching safety videos.
Express Employment Campground location
From the outside, it looks like a jail. However, on the inside it is outfitted as a meeting room/training facility. I suspect in a former life it was a tool shed. It serves its current purpose quite well.
A little bit of background here. American Crystal Sugar Company (ACSC) is the primary employer in this adventure. They own and operate the facilities. Express Employment Professionals is a temporary help agency that recruits, hires, and processes all of the temporary help needed for the beet harvest. That's us.
Tomorrow we will report to the "yard" for four hours of "on–the–job–training". Then we will be off (no pay) until the harvest officially starts on Thursday, 01 Oct. Nothing like starting a job with eight days off. Although we won't be paid, our campsite is paid for.
Posts about the Sugar Beet Harvest
FIRST DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA
Hillsboro, North Dakota, we have arrived
GETTING READY FOR WORK
Some paperwork to get us started
ON THE JOB TRAINING
A trip to the Hillsboro factory for some OJT
TEN DAYS OF WORK
Notes and pictures on our ten days of work
THE CAMPAIGN
A quick summary of the annual campaign of sugar beet processing
THE SUGAR BEET
Bigger than a coconut, smaller than a football. Here is the story on the sugar beet
THE PILER
I was very impressed with the big machine we worked on. I thought you might like to learn more.
THE SUGAR BEET PILE
How big is a pile that contains 90,000 tons? Here are some pictures and figures
DOWN AND DIRTY: GIVING BACK THE TARE DIRT
Harvesting root crops produces dirt. How to handle and dispose of it is an interesting side story
A LOOK AT THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
A $20 billion industry with 142,000 jobs in 22 states. Take a look at the Sugar Beet Industry
AMERICAN CRYSTAL SUGAR COMPANY
Get a closer look at the company providing this workamping opportunity.
EXPRESS EMPLOYMENT PROFESSIONALS
If you are a workamper interested in short term hard work for big bucks, here’s the link
The Great Outdoors RV Resort, Titusville, FL
GPS: 28.550355, -80.861438
Several people have asked where we are going this summer of 2015. My response produces a glazed stare from most. So I decided to paint a picture, with websites to back me up, that will let everyone have a look at this year's adventure.
Our 2015 Summer: 7,100 miles and 200 days
Of course the trip begins from our new permanent home at The Great Outdoors RV Resort, Titusville, FL (point A on the map). We leave here on Friday, 01 May 2015
Our first destination is The Pioneer Store Museum, Chloride, NM (GPS: 33.338682, -107.681035; altitude 6,180ft; point B on the map). This leg is about 1,950 miles and I have allowed seven days to get there, with minimal sightseeing along the way.
Chloride was a silver mining town. It began in 1879 and enjoyed a boom from 1881 to 1893 with the population reaching about 3,000. In 1893 the price of silver collapsed and took Chloride down with it. All that remained was a little bit of lumbering and cattle ranching. The Pioneer Store hung on until 1923 when it finally closed.
Pioneer Store, Chloride, NM
Sometime in the 'recent' past, Don and Dona Edmund took over the town and have been working to restore it as a tourist attraction. I don't know the details of this part of the history. I'll be sure to learn all about it when I get there.
Chloride, NM
Chloride caught my attention a couple years back when Don posted a help wanted ad on one of the workamping websites. He and I have stayed in touch as I tried to work out a trip that would put us there for a couple months. Summer 2015 is it. My plan is to be there from 08 May to 08 July.
We enjoy this type of WorKamping/Volunteering. We get a full hookup site and some amenities for about 20 hours per week. No salary, no tax paperwork, no season long commitment; just an interlude helping good people do good things.
I think this will be much like our first workamping adventure in 2011 at the Panhandle Pioneer Settlement in Blountstown, FL.
We are into geocaching. So when I find an interesting location, I go to the Geocaching website and look for geocaches near that location. I put them on a watch list and track the log entries to learn more about the location. I found three near Chloride: GC1WNJF – Chloride Cache, GC270M8 – Directional Cache, GC45WZN – Spirit of Chloride. Here are a couple of the log entries that capture the atmosphere of Chloride.
Chloride Cache GC1WNJF
If you dig old mining towns (Ghost Towns), this is the cache to find. On your way to Chloride there are some points of interest and wonderful scenic vistas.
This town is owned by a family who have taken it upon themselves to bring it back to life through restoration. The General Store and Saloon/Gift Store can be seen during normal business hours through 4:00 pm. The owner is very knowledgeable in the town history and gives a wonderful presentation of town history. The museum operates on donations so give as you see fit.
Found this one easily after having lunch in the Chloride Bank Café and making a tour of the Pioneer Store Museum with Don Edmunds daughter. Seemed like he chased us down in his Cushman as we were pulling into town. Greeted us warmly and started giving us a history of the town and then his daughter took over. By the time we made it to the Saloon, dance hall, art gallery Dona, Mrs. Edmunds, was there and giving us more great information. Thanks for this hide.
Spirit of Chloride GC45WZN
This one is located on a hill off a steep, treacherous road overlooking the (sort of) ghost town of Chloride, once a booming Silver mining town. I learned about this cemetery from the 80 year old curator of the local museum, who recommended I come up to the cemetery for the best views of the canyon. Indeed, this area does not disappoint.
The Good Luck Duck (another blogger) visited Chloride and posted this nice item.
I'm looking forward to meeting Don and Dona Edmunds and spending time with them doing creative things in Chloride, NM.
After our time in Chloride, we head north to Highlands Ranch, CO (a southern suburb of Denver and point C on the map) for a few days with our son Adam, his wife Amy, and their three sons Andrew, Joshua, and Benjamin. Collectively I call them BANJO for short. I'm allowing two days to cover the 423 miles.
We'll have some good times there and I'll have pictures and stories about Chloride to share with the boys. All of the boys are into sports so I'm sure we will get to see them play at least once. I'm thinking that visit will be from 10 Jul to 15 Jul. We'll see.
From silver mining to gold mining, we continue north for three days and 835 miles to our next ghost town – Custer City, ID (GPS: 44.3874133, -114.6959118; altitude 6,469 ft; point D on the map). Land of Yankee Fork State Park has several interesting historical sites including the Challis Bison Kill site, the ghost towns of Custer, Bayhorse and Bonanza and the Yankee Fork Gold Dredge.
Land of the Yankee Fork State Park and Historic District
We will be volunteering at Custer City ghost town. We have been there before. In July 2010 on our first great adventure, we traveled to this area based on a magazine picture of the Sawtooth Mountains. It was love at first sight and I had to go there. During that trip we visited Custer City and met our first WorKampers. They told us about their jobs: Ma in the General Store (now a gift shop) and Pa in the school house telling stories about the town's history. They did that two days a week. They lived in their rig in a small campground specifically for workampers. As with most workamping situations, friendships developed that lasted way beyond the experience.
During our first visit, this was not yet a state park. It was a historic site maintained by a private organization. Look at the map and notice that the southern border of this park is the Salmon River – one of the finest trout fishing rivers in the nation. I don't think I will be bored during my time off. Also look at the mileage – the northern border is a road 44 miles long and the southern is 42 miles. This is not your everyday state park.
Here you are in "Lewis & Clark Territory". The area is covered with historic markers of the Lewis & Clark expedition. My thoughts fill with wonder trying to imagine what it was like for them to see this for the first time when I realized they saw very little of it! There were no highways with scenic overlooks. They had no way to get to a vantage point where they could appreciate the spectacle. Now there's a real bummer.
Yankee Fork Gold Dredge
Here are a few pictures of the Salmon River ...
... and some of the Sawtooth Mountains
I broke my rule "Don't do anything twice, until you have done everything once". It had to be broken for this place. We expect to be there from 17 Jul to 16 Sep.
As an aside. Sixty-two miles south, but still in the Sawtooth Mountains sits the famous Sun Valley resort. This first destination winter resort in the U.S. was developed by W. Averell Harriman, the chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad, primarily to increase ridership on U.P. passenger trains in the West.
Pioneering publicist Steve Hannigan, who had successfully promoted Miami Beach, Florida, was hired and named the resort "Sun Valley." The centerpiece of the new resort was the Sun Valley Lodge, which opened in December 1936. The region has been a seasonal home to the rich and famous since first being brought to public attention by Ernest Hemingway in the late 1930s. Averell Harriman had invited Hemingway and other celebrities, primarily from Hollywood, to the resort to help promote it. Gary Cooper was a frequent visitor and hunting/fishing partner, as were Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe, and several members of the Kennedy family. Hemingway was a part-time resident over the next twenty years.
It will be mid–September when we move on to the vicinity of Grand Forks, ND (GPS: 47.906074, -97.020117; altitude 805ft; point E on the map). This leg is 873 miles and 4 days. We are going there to participate in the 2015 Sugar Beet Harvest. Yes! That's what I said! I'm not going to repeat myself; you can read it again.
We learned about this from several of our workamping friends last summer at our job in Pennsylvania and then visited the employer's booth at the Tampa RV Show in January 2015. We signed up there along with two of our workamping friends Pat and Herb Myers. Pat and Herb are working this summer at Hyde-A-Way Bay Resort in Hackensack, MN, 163 miles and three hours southeast of Grand Forks. If we can fit it in, we will precede the harvest with a few days visit with them in Hackensack, then all head back to Grand Forks (or wherever the sugar company wants us).
This will be a real job for real money – enough to pay for the whole summer. The start date and the duration is determined by Mother Nature but for planning purposes I used 23 Sep for three weeks. Once the harvest starts, we work twelve hour shifts, seven days a week.
We will not know exactly where we will be working until we arrive. We will not be field hands picking beets. The jobs are equipment operators and lab technicians. Several of our workamping friends have signed up for the harvest and we are looking forward to seeing them again. This map gives you an idea of the territory involved.
Sugar Beet Harvest Area
This is what a Sugar Beet looks like ...
... and this is the process for extracting the sugar.
Sugar Extraction Process
American Crystal Sugar Company has an excellent website. Check it out and learn something you didn't know when you got up this morning.
Here is a quote from the website:
American Crystal Sugar Company is a Minnesota agricultural cooperative corporation owned by about 3,000 sugar beet growers in the Minnesota and North Dakota portions of the Red River Valley. It also owns Sidney Sugars, located in Sidney Montana. American Crystal is engaged primarily in the agricultural production, manufacturing and marketing of sugar from sugar beets.
American Crystal Sugar and Sidney Sugars hires over 1,300 workers stationed at 45 sugar beet receiving stations. These seasonal employees are an integral part of making yearly sugar production a great success. These short term positions offer excellent compensation and attract applicants from all over the United States and Canada. Locals and travelers alike come to make a hefty pay check while being able to enjoy various outdoor attractions and camp sites.
We're hoping for an unbeetable experience.
From silver mining to gold mining; now from sugar beets to pumpkins. It will be mid–October when we leave Grand Forks and head east, all the way to Dover, DE (1,564 miles, 6 days, point F on the map). Our next stop has been on my bucket list since I first learned about it several years ago through a TV special on the Discovery Channel.
The Punkin Chunkin Championship is held annually in Delaware approximately the first weekend in November. Wikipedia says:
Pumpkin Chucking, or for rhyming purposes Punkin Chunkin, is the sport of hurling or 'chucking' a pumpkin solely by mechanical means for distance. The devices used include slingshots, catapults, centrifugals, trebuchets, and pneumatic cannons.
Pumpkin chucking competitions, formal and informal, exist throughout the United States in the autumn, and often occur when pumpkins are harvested. World Championship Punkin Chunkin, held annually in November in Delaware by the World Championship Punkin Chunkin Association (WCPCA), is the oldest and largest annual competition. The event began in 1986, and in 2010 featured over 100 teams. A European Championship has been held in Bikschote, Belgium each year since 2004.
The Guinness world record shot is held by a pneumatic cannon dubbed "Big 10 Inch", at 5,545.43 feet (1,690.25 m), on September 9, 2010 in Moab, Utah. The shot received certification from Guinness World Records in early February 2011. It has also competed many times at the WCPC event in Delaware. The WCPCA World Record, which includes only shots made at the annual World Championship event, is held by Team American Chunker, captained by Brian Labrie of New Hampshire, at 4,694.68 feet (1,430.94 m) on November 1, 2013, in Bridgeville, Delaware, the longest shot in event history.
5,545 feet = 1.05 miles
Whenever I mention this event, I get scoffs and smirks from the unknowing. But for an engineer or techie, this event is Physics 101 made awesome and it draws a big crowd ...
Punkin Chunkin Championship, 2013
... and a little crowd
For our friends from Dayton, OH note that Wright State University has a competition team.
Participants compete in six categories:
Slingshots
Catapults
Couldn't find a good picture of a real one
Centrifugals
Trebuchets
Pneumatic Cannons
Theatrical
I haven't a clue what this is.
For many years the Championships were held at a farm in Bridgeville, DE. 2013 was the last year. They are trying to move the event to the grounds of the Dover International Speedway . They did not succeed in time for an event in 2014. All the press is optimistic about 2015 and they have announced the date as 6 – 8 Nov 2015. However, their website has not been updated in quite awhile and should be showing a lot more detailed information by now. I guess I do not share the optimism at this point. I'll watch to see what unfolds in the weeks ahead.
If we stay on schedule, we should arrive in Delaware about two weeks before the Championships. In that case we will try to find a Camp Host position at one of the Delaware State Parks.
From Delaware, we head south with the end of our summer in sight. 414 miles and two nights gets us to Fayetteville, NC and our daughter's house (point G on our map). We will just overnight there. Since we will return in just a couple weeks for our annual Nutcracker pilgrimage, we won't visit at this time. That should be 10 Nov.
535 miles and two more nights gets us home to Titusville, FL on 13 Nov. Back to point A on our map.
Everything in this post so far has been about destinations with nothing about travel. It sounds like we are tearing from place to place at breakneck speed and not stopping to smell the roses. Not quite so.
I have set very comfortable driving distances for each day of travel – never over 300 miles. I have put a couple tourist days in the travel plan. Last January, while at the Tampa RV Show, we signed up for Harvest Hosts and renewed our Passport America membership. Harvest Hosts is a website where you can find farms, wineries, and attractions that allow RVers to park overnight free. Etiquette says you should call ahead to see if they have space and buy some of their product before you leave. Click on their logo at the bottom of this page to go to their website and explore. They get points for every click, so you can help the cause if you like.
I will use several Harvest Hosts stops on this trip including the Texas Air Museum in San Antonio, TX and the RV Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN. So we will do a little sightseeing. Also, I have routed us to visit family and friends in Albuquerque, NM; Whitewater, WI; Port Clinton, OH; Lansdale, PA; and Baltimore, MD.
In addition to Harvest Host sites, we will use a few Passport America campgrounds, and some military campgrounds. So even though we are moving briskly there will be time to visit and see some sights.
