September 27

View of the day-A lovely stand of oats…well…it’s standing in most places anyway, yielding over 75 bu/ac.

Oh, the nightmare that was getting yesterday’s blog entry uploaded… The farmer wondered where the blog was today and when Al told him it was too late to go anywhere, he told him the house was open to use his dialup. Marilyn got lunch ready then when into the house to “quickly” upload the entry. First, the laptop wouldn’t recognize the modem, so that meant a restart. This wouldn’t be so bad if the laptop wasn’t loaded with programs and such-stuff that slows it down…and when Al is waiting somewhat patiently in the pickup to leave for the field (AIS is 10:30…A** In Seat) it seems to take twice as long.

The laptop restarts, recognizes the dialer and gets online. We use two different browsers and neither one of them wanted to find the blogger very fast, but after another unbearable wait they finally got to the upload page. Getting the text portion wasn’t a problem, but the view of the day…that was a different story.

Because the resolution is higher on our pictures, of course it’s going to take longer to upload…usually about five minutes or more on dialup. Already Marilyn has been in the house for over 30 minutes…with no power adapter…yep, just as the picture is getting close to done, the laptop goes into hibernation because the battery needs charging!

What a colossal waste of time…

Oh well, off to Balcarres we go in search of fuel for the combine and wireless…surely during the day someone has some spare signal for a weary traveler. We used the wifi finder without much luck, then decided to just hit the convenience store, get some coffee for the road and head out to the field…Al said you could handle not getting the morning fix.

Al went into the restaurant and got coffee, while Marilyn asked in the convenience store if they knew of anyplace to get wireless in town…no clue…didn’t even own a computer, but check with the girls at the restaurant. Marilyn went over and they said maybe at the town office so she asked them to phone over for her to find out. The manager came out of the office and said “just sit at that table, there’s a plug-in right there and you can use our wireless.

HAL-E-FRICKEN-LOOLIA!!!

Got that done, then went out to the field, fueled, serviced and got right in combining just before noon. What a beautiful day…the sun was extra shiny, the wind was just right, it was warm…oh…it was just a super day. Al finished filling the bin in the first field, then moved the truck to the new field, got it filled up and got to take his first load to an elevator in Canada! He was able to get a load into Balcarres with the semi before they closed at 6:00…WHAT?! It’s harvest time for heaven’s sake…they’ve had enough time off due to rain and crappy weather…we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. That’s probably why the farmer has over 100 bins…

Marilyn had filled the General by the time Al returned from the elevator, so he took over combining so she could get the blog done out in the field. This way it gets uploaded early to make up for yesterdays. They are open until 9pm, and Al will be leaving the loaded truck there tonight, so we can stop for eggs in the morning on the way to the field. We are camped 7 miles east of Balcarres, and the field we are working on is 12 miles north of Balcarres on the “highway to hell”. We don’t want to travel that road anymore that we have to, and for some reason, there aren’t any “back roads” to avoid the mess.

Marilyn is famous for her “short cuts”…