Oral History Interviews

It's been a little over a year since I last wrote something on this blog, which means it hasn't really been a blog. I am on an excursion right now to record oral histories of current and retired custom harvesters in the Great Plains. Heather is traveling with me on this trip. We're in Sisseton, South Dakota this morning after an oral history interview last night in the area. I got some great insight and things to think about. One person thinks the southern Plains is twenty years ahead (or we might say behind) parts of North Dakota and western Minnesota in economic/business decline in the small towns. But such a comparison doesn't include eastern Montana. I was also told that weather patterns have changed over a period of years in that they get more rain in the southern Plains, meaning there is a lot more sitting and less long runs of cutting days upon end. Oh, and finding help is still a big problem.