View of the day-Biscuits 'n Gravy at the ProHarvest 2008 Kickoff Breakfast.
We were up early and in Frederick by 6:45am to take advantage of the biscuits and gravy courtesy of the FFA, CaseIH, and local Frederick businesses. It was a overflowing house as they had to set up tables in the hall to accommodate all the harvesters that had shown up. Three things bring a good crowd to these things...rain, free food and free hats! There was over 200 for the breakfast and presentation, we didn't win any door prizes, but we did get our annual ProHarvest hats and Al got his belt buckle for his collection.
After breakfast, the proharvest "red shirts" were introduced...they are the ones from the various factories that show up for the breakfast then scamper back to their jobs. Then we met the men who work on the front lines with the harvesters all along the harvest run. The guys who bring parts and expertise out to the field and make sure you are up and running...at no charge!! Well, not for their labor...the parts you pay for...but still...
Cam and Ed are two of the vets that have been on the run since it started and always
have a story and some good advice to keep everyone rolling. They aren't afraid of technology...ahem, you know who I'm talking to...that's right...
After a couple of videos, one of which was the usual gruesome and sobering safety video, we were sent out to get a lesson on setting the 8010...didn't affect us, and the MacDon guys were there talking about their draper header...again, didn't affect us since we own neither. Marilyn was looking for the usual session on the Advanced Farming System, dealing with the yield and moisture and GPS mapping system and software. Well...thank you very much for coming out...they didn't have anything this year, and Marilyn has a brand new system to
learn about before we start combining for real. While these sessions were going on, we caught up with a lot of the harvesters we have come to call our friends and got updated on their past season. A shocking discovery was that of all the harvesters at the breakfast...we were the only Canadians!
Al was mentioning to one of the older harvesters we know, that this was going to be his 20th harvest. Our friend informed us that this was his 67th! He started going on harvest with his dad and started in this very county, riding in the hopper of the pull type Gleaner-Baldwin, leveling out the grain as they combined so they could get the full 40 bushels that the hopper would hold...a far cry 300+ bushels today's combines hold.
After the gab session, we headed over to the laundromat...as did a lot of other harvesters. All the machines were busy, so we went to see the Rad King to see about getting a new rad ordered. Once we were able to shoehorn ourselves into a few machines at the laundromat, we sat around outside and had another gab session with the crews doing laundry. It was getting sunny, hot and humid and although it was cooler inside the laundromat, there were also four children about 3-4 years old, practicing their fighting and screaming...ouch.
We went back to Davidson and finished up the combine, then Al fueled it up...double ouch...and Marilyn drove it the 10 miles out to the farmers yard. The rain will set things back a bit, but the wheat is a day or two off anyway, so we can do some more fixing...
Yay...
We were up early and in Frederick by 6:45am to take advantage of the biscuits and gravy courtesy of the FFA, CaseIH, and local Frederick businesses. It was a overflowing house as they had to set up tables in the hall to accommodate all the harvesters that had shown up. Three things bring a good crowd to these things...rain, free food and free hats! There was over 200 for the breakfast and presentation, we didn't win any door prizes, but we did get our annual ProHarvest hats and Al got his belt buckle for his collection.
After breakfast, the proharvest "red shirts" were introduced...they are the ones from the various factories that show up for the breakfast then scamper back to their jobs. Then we met the men who work on the front lines with the harvesters all along the harvest run. The guys who bring parts and expertise out to the field and make sure you are up and running...at no charge!! Well, not for their labor...the parts you pay for...but still...
Cam and Ed are two of the vets that have been on the run since it started and always
have a story and some good advice to keep everyone rolling. They aren't afraid of technology...ahem, you know who I'm talking to...that's right...After a couple of videos, one of which was the usual gruesome and sobering safety video, we were sent out to get a lesson on setting the 8010...didn't affect us, and the MacDon guys were there talking about their draper header...again, didn't affect us since we own neither. Marilyn was looking for the usual session on the Advanced Farming System, dealing with the yield and moisture and GPS mapping system and software. Well...thank you very much for coming out...they didn't have anything this year, and Marilyn has a brand new system to
learn about before we start combining for real. While these sessions were going on, we caught up with a lot of the harvesters we have come to call our friends and got updated on their past season. A shocking discovery was that of all the harvesters at the breakfast...we were the only Canadians!Al was mentioning to one of the older harvesters we know, that this was going to be his 20th harvest. Our friend informed us that this was his 67th! He started going on harvest with his dad and started in this very county, riding in the hopper of the pull type Gleaner-Baldwin, leveling out the grain as they combined so they could get the full 40 bushels that the hopper would hold...a far cry 300+ bushels today's combines hold.
After the gab session, we headed over to the laundromat...as did a lot of other harvesters. All the machines were busy, so we went to see the Rad King to see about getting a new rad ordered. Once we were able to shoehorn ourselves into a few machines at the laundromat, we sat around outside and had another gab session with the crews doing laundry. It was getting sunny, hot and humid and although it was cooler inside the laundromat, there were also four children about 3-4 years old, practicing their fighting and screaming...ouch.
We went back to Davidson and finished up the combine, then Al fueled it up...double ouch...and Marilyn drove it the 10 miles out to the farmers yard. The rain will set things back a bit, but the wheat is a day or two off anyway, so we can do some more fixing...Yay...
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