September 4, 2010

View of the day-What we like to call a beaver house...a pile of canola that the swather man leaves. You really have to sneak up on them or things end up getting plugged.

We were up early today with the hopes of getting a good day of combining in. Al went into town and got the slip tank filled so the tractor could get fueled up, then grabbed a quick breakfast at A&W before coming back to the camper to pick up Marilyn.

We got the combine serviced and the new air filter put in, the proceeded to tighten the springs on the feeder clutch to see if that would improve the feeding. We got started making dust...and there was lots of it...before 10:30am, and although the stalks were tough, Marilyn could already see the improvements in feeding. But it wasn't perfect.

The field was a mile and a half long, which meant there wasn't a lot of turning to take up time. The farmer worked the south half of the swaths from the middle of the field and had his own truck to haul for him, which left Marilyn doing the north half, with Al picking up on the go with the grain cart. The farmer had a small breakdown and was out for about an hour, but by the time he got back, there were only 6 swaths left and that took no time at all to lick up.

Marilyn had to stop once during the day to swap out the new filter for the old one that Al had blown out last night...the dang thing plugged solid again. This time when we changed it we brought the duct tape and taped the gap around the lid that seemed to be where the dust was coming in. We had tried a new seal and even doubled the seal with the old one to see if that would work...no chancy. We will check under the duct tape tomorrow and see the results.

We finished just after dark, got the truck unloaded and the combine parked in the yard, then headed back for the farm. Al blew the new air filter out before getting cleaned up then stopped to check on how Kim had made out with his canola combining. Al had stopped in the yard during the day and Kim was working on the roller of his pickup head, so Al gave him a hand getting the chain and sprocket back on. A little bit of welding will hold the sprocket on until the bearing goes and the cursing will start when the have to take it off.

But at least he was running...and we covered 110 acres, what a great day...