Happy Canada Day! July 1, 2009

View of the day-Al fuels from the temporary fuel truck.

We were up early to take the fuel tank down to the welder to see if he would be able to repair the break, but before that we went to Orchelin's to see how much a new fuel tank would cost. Only about $350 for a new one, so we got an estimate from Randy's Repair Shop to see what the damage would be from him...around $100...well, that settled that. Now we had to take the 5th wheel hitch out and get the tank unloaded...a task in itself but fortunately he had a forklift to take it from the back of the truck to the shop.

After grabbing a few groceries we headed out to the field to finish up, but once Marilyn got combining she notice the fuel gauge was only at half tank, so Al borrowed the farmers truck to get some fuel.

We have sympathy pains for the other harvester that is working for this farmer...he is running a new John Deere 9770 (that's not what the sympathy is for) and last night while waiting for it to cool down before shutting it off he noticed smoke in the cab and quickly ran in and shut it down. The JD mechanic told him if he hadn't shut it down when he did it would have gone up in flames...the wiring in the cab had fried and they would have to wait to get a new one installed. When he went to get another combine to use in the meanwhile...another JD 9770...he discovered oil coming out of the breather tube...not a good day for the man. We have been there on several occasions and it is frustrating...not with new combines though...mind you, they are green...not that there's anything wrong with that.

Because the JD's were out of commission, we moved over to one of the fields they had left to do, to help get the farmer finished. This field had a bit of green wheat in it so there was some "blending" going on in the cart with some dry and some green wheat. The first load was over 15% moisture...just a bit high, but the second one was just over 13%, so we found the right mix. Once it got dark, we just called it quits because the green straw was getting pretty tough.

Hope it doesn't rain tonight...