After a couple of tries between rains, we finally were able to officially start the 2007 harvest season on May 28. Al was given the honor of doing the first couple of rounds, firstly because he is the boss, and secondly to take his mind off purchasing a rope to throw over the auger to hang himself. All the sitting around waiting for the rains to stop, then more waiting until the moisture of the grain was low enough for the elevator, tends to give a person a lot of thinking time.The ground along and near the Red River, where we combine, is very sandy, so any moisture that had fallen, soaked up and left the fields reasonably solid for cutting. So far, no one is buying the beer for the summer, which used to be the deal when we had hired employees. The first one to get stuck had to buy beer, for the crew, for the summer. Since Al doesn't drink, and Marilyn doesn't drink alone (or much at all...except for theatre cast parties), it's not much incentive to stay out of the mud. Of course, with the rain this year that might not matter at all.
We got rolling and it was like old times. All the time spent preparing for the harvest season, all the weather, the travelling with it's pitfalls, the repairs, and most of all the waiting, all melt away once you are in the combine seat, looking at a field of ripe golden wheat. It looks like it will take forever with only one machine, but as you go around in circles, or back and forth, the field gets smaller and smaller until it is finally finished. Once you look back at what was accomplished over a matter of hours, it doesn't seem as big as when you started.
The days start out cloudy, but then clear off later in the day which means a lot of ground doesn't get covered when you don't start til 4 or 5 pm. Things seemed to be rolling along fairly well until Marilyn called about smelling smoke, when going with the wind. After stopping, it was plain to see the smoke coming out of the back of the combine, but a search of the innards came up short. We found the embers glowing in the rotor gear case up in the engine compartment, and with the fire extinguisher handy, we put it out. We still can't figure out what started it in the first place.
The low clouds and high humidity kept us from getting on a roll, but we did manage to squeeze in another laundry day. There was a bit of a wait, as a lot of the other crews around were doing the same thing. You always get some interesting conversation from other
workers, especially regarding their experiences so far.
We finished off May by getting another 25 acres done before the storms started up again. Fortunately we didn't get anything nasty, and no hail or tornadoes (so far...).
The days start out cloudy, but then clear off later in the day which means a lot of ground doesn't get covered when you don't start til 4 or 5 pm. Things seemed to be rolling along fairly well until Marilyn called about smelling smoke, when going with the wind. After stopping, it was plain to see the smoke coming out of the back of the combine, but a search of the innards came up short. We found the embers glowing in the rotor gear case up in the engine compartment, and with the fire extinguisher handy, we put it out. We still can't figure out what started it in the first place.
The low clouds and high humidity kept us from getting on a roll, but we did manage to squeeze in another laundry day. There was a bit of a wait, as a lot of the other crews around were doing the same thing. You always get some interesting conversation from other
workers, especially regarding their experiences so far.We finished off May by getting another 25 acres done before the storms started up again. Fortunately we didn't get anything nasty, and no hail or tornadoes (so far...).
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