September 3, 2010

View of the day-Al on the phone while he fuels up the combine at Kisbey.

We weren't holding out any hope that we would combine today...in the wheat at least. Al had talked to the farmer at Kisbey and he was pretty sure we wouldn't be combining at all this weekend since the wheat wasn't really fit before the rains came.

We were planning on taking a road trip to Weyburn to have a look at some campers...looking, being the operative word. We took the header trailer over to Kisbey with the intention of getting the straight header loaded so we could take it up to Whitewood to get the knife reverser put on at some point in time. Since Kisbey was on the way to Weyburn, we figured we would get the combine ready to move back to Carlyle to help another farmer out with some canola, then we could road it over on our way back from Weyburn.

We got the header off and the pickup head back on the combine, then Marilyn drove it over to the yard to get it fueled up. We parked over by the bins, then we thought we might as well road it back to Carlyle, then go to Weyburn after, that way everything would be there waiting for us when we got back. So Marilyn started driving the combine the 20 miles back.

The field of canola was on the way to the farm and the farmer was just doing a test as we got there...wouldn't you know it, it was testing 11%moisture and we were good to start combining. So much for camper browsing.

Marilyn started in combining right away and Al was able to recruit Kim's nephew, Matthew, who was visiting from Alberta and helping out with the harvest, to help move the cart and General over to the field. While they were moving things over, Marilyn was having issues with the feeder plugging...it would appear to be a slip clutch issue, because it was plugging with next to nothing in it.

Marilyn just kept combining, taking it easy so she wouldn't have to stop and unplug all the time. It seemed to get better as time went on...maybe is was getting dryer. The farmers wife brought supper out to the field and we stopped to eat, then got right back at it. After the sun went down it started to get tougher again, so we filled the truck, then quit for the night.

There must have been another ghost in the machine because the header started lifting on it's own at random times and when we quit for the night, it kept lifting up and down to different heights when the front end was running...and Marilyn didn't have her hand on the control stick...more things to check on tomorrow.

Well, at least we got to combine today...