As most of you may have heard by now, it was pretty wet in the northern end of the Red River Valley this fall.

To say that this fall’s harvest
   Was quite a bit too wet
Would be an understatement,
   As bad as you can get.
 
We splashed around in water,
   We pulled the trucks through muck.
We spent so much time in the swamp
   I felt just like a duck. 

I needed someone new this year
   To drive one of my trucks.
I put an ad into The Forum;
   It cost me just three bucks.

To hire a new man in the fall
   Is always pretty tough.
You never know if training
  Will be smooth or pretty rough.

And then you always wonder,
   Will the new guy bring good luck?
Or will it seem the mud looks for
   The new guy to get stuck?

This fall a guy named Noah
   Responded to my ad.
Said he was bright and willing
   To do any job I had.

He showed up there in my yard,
   A large man with a beard.
I asked him where he got his name,
  It seemed a little weird.

He said he got that nickname
   When he was only two,
And playing in the water
   Was his favorite thing to do.

He’s never overcome it,
   Now he loves to work on boats.
Or mess around the shoreline
   With anything that floats.

Quick of mind and quick of hand,
   And he was very nice.
He learned it all the first time through;
   I never showed him twice.

He told us that he could work
   Forty days and forty nights.
After that he’d have to leave,
   His schedule was too tight.

Something seemed a little strange,
   Coincidence or not.
Ever since the new guy came,
   It rained an awful lot.

The guys made jokes about Noah
   At first behind his back.
I said the weather’s not his fault,
   Give the guy some slack.

Beet season dragged so very long,
   We watched the rain come down.
We worked to get the harvest done,
   We tried hard not to drown.

Your mind can do some strange things
   Working under that grey sky.
When weather turns against you
   You start to wonder why.

I’m not a superstitious man,
   But it must be more than luck.
Noah was the only driver
   Who never did get stuck.