August 6

View of the day-A couple named Al & Marilyn found in a flower bed at Pingree, ND. Honestly named that in honor(?) of Al's impression on the owner.

Marilyn's shopping excursion lasted until 2:30am so when the alarm went off at 8am, getting the eyes open was a bit tough. The sound of rain and thunder was also a wake up call, one that seemed to be coming a regular event.

We went to Sterling to meet fellow harvesters Lynn and Gerry Prevost for breakfast and get caught up on the happenings throughout the season so far. All the while we were there the rain came down, so we made short work of a few pots of coffee.

We left Sterling to go to Pingree, which should have been about 90 miles, but we had to make a couple of slight detours, to see the farmer at our next stop, and pick up some parts at two different CaseIH dealers. We checked things out at Tuttle, which was 25 miles north of Sterling. There we have150 acres of barley to cut straight, but it had rained so we had a bit of grace to get a few things fixed on the combine.

We headed north from Tuttle to the Case IH dealer in Harvey, about 45 miles, to pick up the replacement strut from the engine hood, that had fallen into the engine fan. We carried on from there to Fessenden, another 18 miles, to the CaseIH dealer to pick up the engine fan and some filters. From there we continued on to Pingree another 55 miles, making the trip about 30 miles longer than if we had gone straight from Tuttle.

We did get to see what the rain had done around the Fessenden area, where they had gotten over six inches of rain on Friday night...get the canoe out. We got to have a good visit with friends there, and got the heads up on what our fall harvest there would be like. We have sunflowers to combine in October, so this blog will be going on for a while yet!

After stopping for supper at the 281 Stop, and talking to another harvester from Canada, we started back to Menoken. After checking out our namesakes in the flower garden and getting a few veggies out of the garden (with permission, of course).

The day had one interesting coincidence...Lynn and Marilyn were discussing a history book they were trying to put together, and Marilyn had taken out a book from the library several years ago Custom Combining on the Great Plains. The book had been published by the Western Producer in Canada, and was about 30 years old. Marilyn had searched the internet to get a copy for her own library, without any luck, even doing a search of the author to try and get some more information. She did have the library copy of the book and gave it to Lynn at breakfast, to use to get some information for the book.

We stopped at Carrington to purchase some much needed sunglasses, and after Marilyn came out of the Dollar store with a bag of them(we won't be squinting again), Al said there was a message at home from someone who was doing a story on custom combining. The message said he was working on the Canadian harvester chapter he was planning to include, and wanted to speak with us. Marilyn listened to the message and when the gentleman spelled his name...

...it was the author of the original book!!!!!!!

What a rush!! He is planning on coming out to talk to some of the Canadian harvesters in the area in the next week. There will be more in the blog later. For now, it's back out to the rest stop to upload this entry.

Then back to finish the laundry...