June 11, 2008

View of the day-The line up for the elevator in Cherokee...Oklahoma elevators...lotta unhappy farmers.

We decided to get the starter fixed on the Dodge...we had to pull start it in the morning. We stopped at the NAPA dealer and they had one on hand, so we took it back to the camper and proceeded to try and take the old one off...then we took it to the professionals. Our landlord gave us the keys to his service truck for us to use while the truck was getting fixed. We had an early lunch to kill some time, and when we were done, so was he...and it was worth the $50 to get them to put it in. We just have the A/C left to fix...that's the weekend job.

We got everything unloaded and started to move the combine south to Carmen. Once we got the combine and header to the field, we did a test and it was plenty dry enough...the field was another story.

We got a ride back to Cherokee with the farmer and Marilyn took the General while Al roaded the cart. Back in the field, Marilyn started picking out the higher ground so as not to get stuck. There had been a lot of rain in the area and even though the field had pretty good drainage, there were some real soft spots. This also meant she couldn't combine til the hopper was full since the extra weight would make the combine sink even more.

Al got to spend time in line...no change there...he did think about going to Cherokee, but when he heard how long the lines were, he decided to stay put. He only had to drive 6 miles to Carmen as opposed to 15 to Cherokee. Once Marilyn had the cart and combine full, she picked up the farmer from Al's grain truck in town and went back to Cherokee to get the Freightliner...yes, she actually had to drive the grain trucks. After that it was "shut up and drive", and she did that until it got too dark to see the wet spots, so they called it a night.

Sixty acres, not bad for a late start...