November 21, 2009

View of the day-The Qu'Appelle River runs through the last field that Al combined...he made a point of taking pictures today.

Al was up early this morning and Marilyn got to lay in...for a change. Al left for the field around 8:30am and was able to start combining right after servicing and doing the windows. He finished the straight flax and there were a few canola swaths left in one of the fields, so he switched up the headers and made short work of them...he had to change headers anyway, before coming home.

Marilyn was up at Ebenezer for the afternoon, rehearsing and set building until dark...which is at 4:53 this time of year, which makes for a short day. After having a productive rehearsal, it was time to head back to the farm, meeting Al on his way into town for the hockey game. We stopped on the road and got caught up on the day, then went our separate ways...what a difference from being together 24/7 all summer...

So, now it is officially, official...we are done combining for the season. We still have to clean things up and tuck them away for the winter...if that ever shows up.

November 20, 2009

View of the day-Nope, not out of the archives and not getting ready for storage...we, or rather, Al is still combining!

Just when we thought it was all over...

Yesterday Al got a ride down to Grayson to bring the combine home...he was going to road it the 45 miles rather that get the trailer from its winter storage. Al had roped in Brenda to help him out by driving our pickup back to Yorkton...which she started doing as soon as she dropped Al off at the combine. While he was getting fueled up by the farmer, another neighbor came over and asked if he would be able to stay and do a couple of quarters of straight flax...what the heck...and besides, Marilyn has a sewing machine fund that needs a little help. Of course this meant he had to call Brenda to come back to pick him up and by this time she was only 10 miles from Yorkton...she wasn't getting much done, but she did manage to see the countryside courtesy of Al's directions...and that's all we'll say about that.

The weather has continued to be unseasonably warm and dry, so he thought he would give it a whirl...the cutters the farmer had before blew out the wobble box on their header, so Al was a bit concerned that the same thing might happen to ours. He needn't have worried, it was plenty dead and cut like a dream, so with the farmer supplying the trucks and another neighbor joining him in the field with his combine...today turned out to be quite productive.

Marilyn on the other hand was still spending the day working at Staples, then getting home in time to change, eat and head north to Ebenezer for rehearsal for The Wild Guys. We are still three weeks ahead of our first performance, but it will be here before you know it and we will be gone to Edmonton for the Association of Canadian Custom Harvesters annual convention the first week of December so that only leaves two weeks to doll things up for the cast and crew...no problem...to quote a harvester we used to work for a long time ago..."as long as it looks good"...and it will...you'll see.

Here's hoping Al gets a few more pictures tomorrow...

November 17, 2009

View of the day-Well, not today...but wouldn't it be nice to be back in this again?

Last official day of harvesting for the 2009 harvest season, and what a day it was record setting high temps. 15ºC/60ºF. It is sort of a sad, yet sweet day when you finish the harvest season.

Al picked up the last swath at 6:03 PM Tuesday November 17th. The farmer was happy to have his harvest done as well. His bins were full and a semi came out and picked up a load from the combine and the farmers truck was full when the field was done. There was still about 500 acres of flax in the area where Al was working he called the farmers but they thought they could finish it up on their own. It is deer hunting season here and the back roads by the fields were quite busy so it gave Al something extra to see.

On Wed. Al put away the grain cart and then he came back home and even with the gorgeous weather, he figured he should put the dozer blade on the tractor because at some point in time we will need it this winter and from past years experience it is far easier to put it on the tractor when you don't have to dig it out of a 2 foot snowbank.

Well as this may be our last entry for a while we would like to say thanks to all of our readers from all over the world and we hope that you enjoyed our daily updates.

God willing we will be back at the harvesting next year. Tentative start of 2010 harvest is May 20 only 183 days away.

But wait...there could be more...

November 14, 2009

View of the day-The combine tries to get warmed up in the morning sun before heading into the flax.

It was a frosty morning so there would be no harvesting until at least after lunch. Al got a call in the AM from a former employee who had worked for us on the harvest run in the mid 90's. He was coming into Yorkton and was wondering if we could have coffee and catch up so Al met him in the Mall.

Marilyn also was in the Mall selling tickets for the dinner theater for Paper Bag Players upcoming performance, so after about an hour or two of gabbing and getting caught up with what was going on in Bucky's world, Al headed out to Dubuc to try the flax...turns out there is 275 acres of it in 30' swaths.

He got their about 1:00 PM and after letting the combine warm up, they made a round...it was testing 10.2%...almost dry, but good enough to keep going. He had to leave the outside swath on the north side of the field it still had frost covering it well into the afternoon...in fact it didn't melt all day. It will be picked up Monday when temps get up to 8ºC/50ºF.

After 50 acres it was time to call it a short day and head back home watch some hockey and call it a night.

November 13, 2009

View of the day-A new ride for the combine.

An early morning for both of us, Al was heading out to Balcarress to drive truck again and Marilyn off to Staples to work. Just as Al was heading out the door the phone rang it was a call from a farmer who had some harvesting still needing to be done, he had a local harvester who said he would do it but with the crappy weather through October he didn't get to it and is still working for another farmer. It was near Dubuc about an hour south of Yorkton.

The registration on the combine trailer and the General had expired but the farmer said he could haul the grain so Al decided to take the job and he would road the combine the 50 miles. However before driving the combine Al called his former employer Kardynal Transport to see if he could haul the combine for him fortunately his truck wasn't busy that day so with the help of Al's friend Danny, they loaded the combine and strapped it down and headed out to Dubuc around 2:00 PM got there unloaded and back in Yorkton and before dark which is quite an accomplishment considering it gets dark at 5:30 these days.

Tomorrow we combine flax...

November 12, 2009

View of the day-Action over at Balcarres, about 60 miles SW of Yorkton.

Al made a couple of more calls looking for work, one was to a farmer we had worked for in the past he said he had plenty of help with his harvest but could use truck drivers. He has 3 Massey 9895 combines and his neighbour came over with 2 Deere's.

So Al was off to Balcarres to drive truck for the day, hauling canola to Terminal 22 along with 3 other drivers and using 5 trucks.

It was a busy day, things got rolling at about 11:00 AM, the canola was dry except for one "rogue" load he hauled in which was 14% moisture...10 is considered dry, anything over that is wet. Things went well into the evening until all the trucks and combines were full...total acres for the day were just short of 500.

There was all sorts of harvesting going on in the area, also some swathing was still going on in some fields, with combines picking up the swaths right behind. Also in some places there still was snow in the ditches from the snowfall almost 3 weeks earlier.

And Marilyn was still at work...

November 11, 2009

View of the day-Al took a tour around the countryside and found this NW of Yorkton.

Marilyn goes to work in the dark and comes home in the dark, so pictures are hard to come by...Al doesn't think to take the camera with him, so...no blog.

Marilyn was at work yesterday while Al finished combining the flax. He was able to keep going all day with out having to dump once he started with everything empty. When he finished the field he was on, he moved across the creek to help the neighbor finish his last field.

After Marilyn got home from work, she took Al out to the field so he could dump the truck and cart, then bring the General home and park it...not necessarily for the year, but for the next little while, anyway. We will probably use it to haul the dismantled deck from the back yard...once it gets dismantled.

Marilyn went to work today...didn't have to go in until 11am since it was Remembrance Day. Al decided to take a tour around the countryside to see if he could find any more combining. He did see LOTS of combining going on, but didn't get any extra work...he's not too heartbroken about that...but we haven't washed the combine just yet. He might sub his services out and go drive truck for a farmer out by Balcarres...the one who had the snow on his swaths in one of the earlier posts.

So, perhaps the season is over...we'll see...