July 17, 2008

View of the day-The combine waits for the grain to dry down with the Hamill buttes in the background.

We heard rain in the early morning hours but by the time we got up all that remained were clouds and just a trace of rain. The humidity never did get down to where it had been earlier in the week which meant the chances of combining were pretty thin.

We needed to pick up a cab filter for the tractor and of course there was the ever present laundry to get done, so we went in to Winner for the afternoon. Once we had lunch, got the laundry done and picked up some parts, we went back to Hamill.

The farmer thought we could move to the next field and give it a try around 5pm, which we did. It was borderline around 13.5% moisture, but Al figured at that moisture, when you get a load it will almost always be a point higher. We tried a test in a few different spots thinking we would be able to finish off one hopper of the semi, but it just wasn't meant to happen. Marilyn even managed to plug the return and pop the connecting link on the chain from the moist grain and the cheat grass. The cheat was a double edged sword, on one side it brought the moisture down and on the other it made for slow going...and plugging issues.

It seemed such a shame we couldn't cut...the clouds had cleared off and the wind was blowing, but the humidity and the fact that the crop is just not quite ready...it wasn't going to work. Finally we decided to just park everything and leave it for the day. Before we left the field we took the alternator off the tractor to take into town tomorrow...Al is finding that boosting the tractor every time he needs to dump the combine is getting old.

Let's hope that's the only problem...