August 3, 2009

View of the day-The rain that hit Gettysburg today...that's not fog...it's solid rain.

Al got up early and emptied the rye at the elevator then came back to wait for the farmer to show up with his grain truck so we could go back to the field for his seed rye. He didn't show up, so we drove out to his place and watched him finish shoveling out the seed wheat that was left in it. He met us at the sale barn for lunch, then we finally left for the field.

Once the grain cart was emptied in to the farmers truck and the General, Al brought the truck in to dump and Marilyn took the grain cart out to the next field. We went back out to the field to get the header put on the trailer then did a bit of fixing before moving over to the grain cart.

The field had a few 'headstones'...not just rocks...huge boulders that lay in wait for an unsuspecting header to cross over and knock out a guard or two. It wouldn't have been so bad if we would have had the usual spares in the tool box on the combine...so we found the 'best bad one' and used it to finish off the field. We had to change the guards out once we found some 'better bad ones' to use until we could get some new ones.

We did a test and took it in to the elevator...13.8%...and 14% was as wet as they would take it. They said if we did a load it would probably be over 14 and they couldn't do anything with it. Now...we are the only ones that bring rye in...we brought in 1500 bushels that were 12.5% or less...so there would have been lots to mix it with...and we only have 40 acres left to do. They still wouldn't let us go...so we resigned ourselves to going back to the camper and call it a day...at 4:30pm.

It was kind of a weird day...foggy in the morning and it never really burned off, there was always a haze and it was really sticky although the humidity wasn't really high. We decided to go to the Firehouse for their harvester appreciation supper just after 5pm. About 5:45 we heard sirens and decided to check out the weather and see where the fire was so we drove out of town a way. The town is in kind of a dip, so we really don't see weather that is coming from the NW very well.

We drove north of town and headed west to where the smoke seemed to be coming from...then we hit a dead end and decided to turn around because we could see the dust kicking up and the hills were disappearing fast. About a half mile from the highway the rain hit and we were able to get to the highway during the downpour...and did it come down! It only lasted about 20 minutes, but it was a complete wall of water.

We went back into town while it had let up a bit, it was still coming down and their were branches and leaves all over the streets...no hail, but heavy rain and wind took the weak ones down. We went to the Firehouse for our steak...and they decided to have pork loin instead...it was alright, but when you are psyched for beef, it was a letdown, however, we passed on the free beer.

So now we definitely have tomorrow off...a road trip, perhaps...