June 23

View of the day-Getting ready to clean the combine and header by our camper.

Well we are officially finished the harvest in Oklahoma, although the harvest is far from finished for a lot of farmers.

We finished the last 25 acres and then moved everything back to town. We were only about 5 miles south,so it didn't take long to get the equipment moved, especially with the help of the farmers. Once the combine and header were in our "yard", Marilyn got the pleasant task of cleaning the chaff and dust off the machine, inside and out, and then pressure washing the whole thing. The worst part of blowing the chaff off with the air compressor, is that most of the time, the wind just blows the crap back on you, and with the hot sun and high humidity, one ends up with sort of a "mud pack", which really gets you scratching. It doesn't deter the mosquitoes, though.

Once the combine and header was dusted off, out came the pressure washer. This is a lot less unpleasant, since, once you get wet, it tends to cool you off. Of course, if you haven't blown all the chaff off, you end up with a whirlwind that sticks all the chaff to the newly washed surfaces...sigh...more work. Because of all the moisture and heat, the grain that was piled up in the hopper had sprouted, an interesting smell to say the least, but it cleans up faster when it is in clumps. After all was said and done, the end result was an almost new looking combine and header, which made all the work worthwhile.

We finished cleaning just after it started to sprinkle. A lot of nasty looking clouds had developed, and the daily, late afternoon storms had kicked up, fortunately they split over us, so it didn't last long. We moved everything back to the field where the trailers and trucks were, and got things loaded and tied down. The ground was a bit spongy from all the rain, and when we tried to use the lifts on the trailers, they just pushed the steel plates they were sitting on in to the ground. It took a bit of ingenuity to get them high enough to hook up, but once we did, we went looking for the "easy button".

After an much needed cleanup, we went out for a late supper to the Smoke Shak, at Ingersol, about 6 miles from town, with John and Peggy, our farmers. Always a great meal, and we closed the place down.

Tomorrow we take the General with the combine and header to Great Bend, Kansas, where we will leave it at the Case IH dealer to have an o-ring replaced on the hydraulic pump. It was rebuilt in the spring and they figure the o-ring must have been pinched when in was put back in. Or, there is a possibility that something might have happened during the "stuck in the mud" episode. Either way, it will get fixed. The ProHarvest brigade will be moving up to Great Bend from Fairview, OK on Tuesday, so it looks like they have to move where the harvesters have congregated, and not wait for the harvest to finish where they are at.

We will drop the rig off and turn around and come back to get the Freightliner load and the camper and hopefully get everything moved up in one day. Out Kansas farmer called to tell us they were getting a downpour this afternoon, so we do have a bit of a reprieve.

But, that never lasts long in Kansas...