June 25

View of the day-What a change, good yielding, standing wheat!

We started out the day moving the Freightliner load and the shop trailer out to the farm, about 20 miles west of Great Bend. Once we got out there, we unloaded the tractor and cart, and then came back to Great Bend to get the combine from the doctor's office. They claimed it was fixed, but it still looked like there was a leak, but since it was a small one, we thought we would roll until the low fluid alarms went off. We were just ready to leave the lot, when Al got an air leak in the cab of the truck, so we lost 45 minutes getting that rectified. We finally rolled out at the crack of noon, got to the field and unloaded the combine on the road, and commenced to cutting..

What a pleasant surprise the field was, all standing straight and looking like it was going to yield fairly well...Marilyn though she had died and gone to heaven...till the knife broke. It didn't take long to fix and we made dust till the humidity got too high around 10pm. It is very unusual to have such high humidity in this area, usually it is 95-100 degrees with about 15% humidity. Today it topped out at 84 and the humidity never got below 45%. The crop is yielding around 40 bushels/acre and the test weight is 60 lbs (the norm). Our farmer said this field was the one hit the worst with the last frost, they didn't think it would amount to much, and are really surprised (and pleased, of course). Their other fields should do alot better, as long as the weather holds.

It was amazing the number of fields getting combined between Great Bend and where we are just south of Albert (that's the town name where Al is hauling). It doesn't appear that any of the combines out cutting are custom crews, they all seem to be local farmers. Everybody is going like mad, and the farm reports on the local radio are talking about how there are no cutters around, which is going to slow down the harvest.

Beautiful weather, gorgeous views-everything is so green this year, great crop...Al is putting the rope away again...