View of the day-Nope, not out of the archives...we actually combined today!! Jeff dumping in the cart as Marilyn finally gets to do some combining.We were up before the sun...that is not too hard these days, the way they are getting shorter. Sunrise is now at 7:50am...and we still have at least 6 weeks to go before the shortest day of the year.
We decided that combining was more important than going to Dyersville for the toy show...we actually are forecast to have at least four days of decent weather...above seasonal, if you can believe it. So this year we will pass on it and try to finish our harvest season at home...if that will ever happen. The phone has been ringing off the wall with farmers looking for harvesters...there is still so much crop out there...but we can only do so much.
We went into town early and had breakfast before going to the Case dealer to pick up a couple of clutch pads for the pickup head auger drive. Once we had those paid for...and had been given a couple of 25th anniversary hats...we left for Esterhazy.
We got out to the field, Jeff and Rudy were servicing their rigs, so we started on changing out the clutches...it went relatively easy...relatively being the key word. After several discussions on the best way to do it, the hammer finally came out and with a little persuasion it was apart, replaced and back together in no time at all. Since the humidity was still high...although, does that really matter at this point...the time it took to fix helped keep us out of the swaths and out of trouble...for a while. Once we got fueled up, Al went to dump the General at the bin and Marilyn started combining.
Al got to combine yesterday while Marilyn was away at Saskatoon attending the software course...which, by the way, was well worth it...we have only been utilizing 20% of what that software is capable of, so there will be lots of playing around with it now. Al had told Marilyn that he wasn't able to go much faster than 2mph since the straw was pretty tough...as you can see from what is left in the foreground of the view of the day. Marilyn got out and was being cautious...after all, with new clutches in the auger, that fail safe was eliminated...and sure enough, 0.47 acres into the field, the rotor plugged.
This was the first time the rotor has plugged on this machine, so it is was quite a shock...and the fingers started pointing as to who's fault it was. Was it the new clutches? Was it driving to fast...is 1.5mph to fast? Was it too early to start? Anyway, it didn't matter what the reason, the big wrench came out and once we dropped the concaves and Al started cranking the rotor back, we had it cleaned out and were back in the field within an hour. The canola was testing 16% moisture on the combine tester, and even though the sun was shining, the wind was blowing cold and it didn't seem like it was drying...like that matters at this point.
The rest of the field went without event, and once we got finished, the guys started out with the combines and the grain cart to move the 15 or so miles to the last canola field. Marilyn ran into Esterhazy to pick up a pizza that she had ordered earlier by phone. When she got to the station to pick it up, the lady told her it would be an extra 15 minutes...she had burnt the first one...but she was going to give Marilyn the new one for free! Should have bought a lottery ticket while she was there, although she wasn't so lucky with the rotor earlier in the day.
Back at the field, Jeff got it opened up and Al cleaned up around the bins he will be dumping in tomorrow. These swaths were only 25ft, so the productivity will be a bit better and they don't seem to be packed down so tightly which mean they aren't as wet underneath. Once the grain cart was full, we shut it down and gave Rudy and Jeff a ride back to their trucks, then headed back to Yorkton. We got there in time for Al to take in the hockey game...they lost...again. He got a ride home with the neighbor so Marilyn got to go home and get some work done.
We might even finish the canola tomorrow...
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