September 2

View of the day-Working together picking up oats. Too far apart for a "natural" picture.

The day started out sunny, but in the SW there were clouds that carried the threat of rain if they came our way. We went out to the barley field and after servicing the combine, blowing out the rad and air filters, started in to finish up the last 30 acres that were left. It kept trying to rain, always just enough to make a mess of the windows on the combine, but not enough to stop the combining.

Once the barley was done, Marilyn drove back to Kim and Marg's yard to blow off the combine again and change from the straight header to the pickup head. After changing a few settings, it was time to head south to help finish a field of swathed oats. Everything was running fine, except for the pickup belt we had intended on changing on a "rainy day"...like we didn't have a few of them. Of the seven belts, the one next to the centre one was missing about 8 inches of the lacing that hold the ends together. The missing lace was on the outside edge of the belt making it flap around a bit. It wasn't affecting the pickup work so Marilyn kept a close eye on it to make sure it didn't break all the way and go flying.

Everything was going fine, the oats was running around 90 bu/ac which meant the trucks were busy filling a ring that was set up in one of the fields about two miles away. The cart driver was kept busy and we eventually had to wait after everything at the field was full. Marilyn decided to take some unintentional time off to let them catch up. The combine had been picking up the swaths perfectly, no signs of slugging the rotor with a big wad of grain, when all of a sudden there was a quick growling noise and the rotor alarm went off.

Marilyn stopped immediately and was boggled by what could have happened...the swath wasn't big enough to plug things up. Once she lifted the header up, it was obvious what the noise was from. A quick trip down the ladder and out to the back of the combine and the mystery was revealed...the centre pickup belt had split and went right through the machine and was sitting in the field. It was minus a few pickup teeth and had a few gashes from going through the chopper, but the combine was fine.

Al came back to the field and we put on the backup belt we had purchased in SD, and found some extra wire to make a "mickey mouse" fix on the flapping belt. Marilyn went back out into the field and had no trouble finishing the field. We moved the combine back to the yard to blow it off again so it is clean to go into some canola tomorrow. We have a line on someone who will might be able to re-lace the flapping belt...no mean feat considering tomorrow is Labor Day.

Not a bad day, all things considered...