Move 'Em Out

     It's time to ship out the onions here in Owyhee County. That means I get to share a fancy new implement with you.

     Here are a couple such implements along with a semi-truck and it's trailer. They're Onion Loaders and they load onions, obviously. They have to lift the onions off the ground (not so easy as it sounds when you're a machine) and lift them high enough to get them into a truck without smashing them.

     Here is the simpler of the two machines. On the left is where the onions are picked up. Using the same paddle wheel as the onion topper to push the onions onto a conveyor chain. From there the chain carries the onions over the wheels (the wheels turn so that you can make tight corners) to the elevator in the rear. That's the tall standing part on the right and it lifts the onions up high enough to get over the wall of a truck's bed.

     Here you see the rear of the more complex machine. It's elevator is square and sideways because this machine is also an onion topper. It blows the cut leaves out through the middle of the square, as I'm sure you can see. After that, it's just a matter of using the boom to drop the onions in. It can be raised up and down so that you don't drop the onions too far.

     These are both very complicated machines, so they take a pretty talented driver to run them. On the machine itself, there are platforms where people can stand and sort out rejectamenta such as: rocks, clods, bad onions, and onions that are the wrong variety. Three ladies manned this loader, one is on the ground at the moment this picture was taking. The ground person's job was to move any onions that would otherwise be run over, and to pick up any that were missed.

     It's a job that requires good senses and concentration. The idea is to get every onion, and to not get anything else. Every hour of every day that it's dry enough to load onions, this crew will be busy for quite some time. I hope that the weather holds out for them.