August 24

View of the day-The parade passes us by. The local school band gives us a bit of entertainment at coffee time this morning.

The morning started out with heavy fog, so we got to sleep in for a bit. We went into Kenmare and had Chinese buffet for lunch...a nice change from pizza.

After lunch we went across the street and checked out the windmill that is in the centre of the park. It was open and we got to go inside and upstairs to see how the thing worked. It was an actual working mill in the old days...quite amazing.

We went out to see how the mechanic was making out with the grain truck, he showed us what had broken on it and said he would have it done later in the day. We stopped to get the slip tank filled with fuel for the combine and then went back to Bowbells. Al hadn't even tipped the recliner back when the phone rang, it was the mechanic...the truck was ready. It was back to Kenmare to pick it up and bring it back to the field.

We finally got going around 4pm, it was still a bit tough but the farmer had air bins, so we just "shut up and drove". We were working together in the same field, Al was driving the farmer's grain cart when he called me on the radio to tell me that flames were coming out of the farmer's combines engine compartment. He got out of the field in a hurry and was able to get it out with a fire extinguisher, but not before the A/C blew out. From what they could figure out, the chaff had built up on the manifold and there had been the remnants from an earlier diesel fuel leak, so one thing led to another and...poof.

We were still able to continue combining to finish the field and move over to the next piece, where we combined until 10:30pm. No more fires or breakdowns, and we covered a lot of ground considering we didn't start til late in the day.

Looks dry for the next little while...