May 27, 2010

View of the day-There was a good crowd at the harvest kickoff breakfast in Frederick, OK this morning. And some might fine biscuits and gravy.

We really had to get up early to beat the rush for the breakfast...up at 6am for the start of the breakfast at 7. It was foggy until the sun came up and burned everything off and with the lack of wind, it turned out to be a very muggy day.

There was a good crowd...probably 175-200, which meant our chances of winning something in the door prize draws was going to be poor...in fact we didn't win a thing out of probably 40 things that were given away. We did get nice hats and Al purchased his annual ProHarvest belt buckle...this is the 25th year for the ProHarvest brigade and the 18th year for the kickoff breakfast.

We got to see the usual safety films...it's always amusing to see the guys that are there for the first year watch the gruesome film right after breakfast. After the videos and the draws everyone split up into three groups...one for the precision harvesting, one for the combine and one for the draper head. Each group spent about 20 minutes in each session before moving on to the next station.

We went to the precision session first and although Marilyn had a good grasp on the software, Al watched as long as he could before bolting for the combine group, leaving Marilyn to watch the end of the auto steer calibration session...not that she was able to talk Al into that option on the combine...but wouldn't it be nice...

Al had gone out to see the combine, but his main interest was to talk to the MacDon guys about the header. He was getting info on things to look for and what they would have to do for the update that was mentioned earlier at the meeting. We didn't stay too long with them as MacDon will be having their own kickoff breakfast tomorrow in Vernon, TX...which we will be attending, for sure.

After the meeting was over, we stopped for lunch, then headed back to Davidson to start working on the combine and grain truck. Marilyn got the 2 way radio and XM radio installed...and working...then we had to drill a hole to mount the rear view mirror in the cab. The last combine didn't have a rear view mirror like the one before it and it really came in hand to see what was in the grain tank, but at least the last model had a hole pre-drilled to mount one on your own. This year, not even a hole...

Al worked on trying to find out if his circuit breaker was the issue with his lights...still not sure...they worked for an hour before kicking off, so we are still confused about that one. He also got a new elastic cable for the rollover tarp on the General...the last one split after the cargo trailer runaway incident last week.

Marilyn had to go back to the camper because the cable man showed up to install high speed internet and phone service. It took a while because someone had clipped the wire of ours that they had left from previous years...but eventually it was installed and now there is no 'blogging on the streets' of Davidson for Marilyn...although it was only a half block away for service.

After getting everything on the list done for the day, we went back to the camper to cool off and rest up for another early morning of information. Marilyn finished getting the wiring for the dish rerouted and once she gets the hole saw from the shop trailer she will be able to get the last of it done tomorrow.

We don't have to worry about any bad weather until Monday...at least according to the forecast...and that is the day that Al figured we might take a test. The crops are really turning color noticeably even since we have arrived so it is possible, barring any rain that we could do a test Monday.

But now, it's time for sleep...