We had a visit from a local friend first thing in the morning...apparently he doesn't know the 8am rule. We went for breakfast to Miss Dotties, then went out to start the task of unloading everything...in some hot and humid temps...with no wind to speak of...not very pleasant.
We unhooked the combine trailer then drove 15 miles up to Burlington to use the ramp to unload the shop trailer out of the back of the General. Once we got back to the lot, we unloaded the cart then serviced everything and while Al got the combine fueled up, Marilyn hooked up the header and went out to the field to wait for Al and the combine. We got the header attached and Al proceeded to cut a sample...it was looking pretty good and since there were combines making dust everywhere you looked, we were quite sure that it was plenty dry. Having the temps in the mid 90's didn't hurt either...we are a couple of beets today.
Marilyn started combining and had an alarm go off...it was for a "non-critical" error. After searching throught the 1.5 inch manual to find out what it meant, we discovered it was something to do with the engine...fairly vague. We changed out the fuel filters thinking that would make it stop, but fat chance that would work...funny how a small extremely hot engine compartment can take the fun out of things. It wouldn't have been so bad if there was an alarm silencer like there is for the tailings/rotor/header stuff...no, this thing just kept beeping, and not with any regularity...sometimes long, sometimes short and plenty...just plain irritating.
We called ProHarvest and Ray told us he would try to make it out to hook up his computer to find out what the code meant. What is a normal farmer supposed to do? Like Al says, "It wasn't like that in the old days"...an alarm meant business, not "maybe you want to have a look". Marilyn found some paper towel and duct tape and silenced...sort of...the infernal beeping and continued on.
We finished the first small patch and moved over to start on the second field. So much for the joy of the new scale at the elevator...we are combining one mile from the elevator and it took over an hour to get weighed and unloaded...never mind the waiting in line.
Ray showed up with his computer only to find out that since we had moved to the next field, the alarm had quit going off...he claimed his program would be able to tell what had gone wrong...except that it wouldn't recognize the combine. He will come back tomorrow with something new and improved and get to the bottom of things.
And now it's time to drive for the internet...
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