August 21

View of the day-Picking up the first canola swaths of the season at Bowbells, ND.

Well, we finally had a good day...sort of. The phone man was here in the morning and got us hooked up, so we didn't need to go into Kenmare to upload today's entry. Again, who would have thought dial-up internet would feel so good?

We went out to do a test on the canola around 12:30pm and it was plenty dry, so we started right in on it. There weren't a lot of swaths, but the field was a mile long which meant not a lot of turning...and no hills...ahhhh. On Al's second load, the range shifter quit working and that left him with only the first five of ten gears to drive in. Fortunately we were only four miles from town, so the fact that he could only go 20 mph top speed wasn't really an issue.

If you watched Ice Road Truckers on the History channel, this was the same thing that happened to Hugh in the early episodes, only our air line isn't frozen. It will however mean getting in to the transmission to repair the linkage (or so we were told over the phone). Al called around to a few mechanics and we might be able to get it in to a repair shop in Kenmare, if he will be able to squeeze it in during this, his busy time of year. If we can't get it fixed down here, we will limp it home to Canada and get it looked after there. We still have the Freightliner for backup.

We finished the canola, which ran close to 30 bu/ac and moved over to a small piece of durum wheat. Al was having to wait in line at the elevator, they were really busy with everyone anxious after the rain, so Marilyn just filled the grain cart and called it a night. The wheat will all be binned and the auger is really fast, so there shouldn't be too much of a delay getting back to the field.

Since starting this entry tonight, there have been four trains go through town. Marilyn lied about the two tracks 50 ft from the camper...there are three and the campground is right between two track signal intersections. That means every train that goes through, sets off the bells and has to blow it's horn at all the intersections!

A 90 acre day...feels pretty good...