October 11, 2010

View of the day-The last load to leave Carlyle. Al gets the safety chains hooked up on the shop trailer while Kim supervises.

We were up early to get the camper ready for the road trip north, after 45 days it tends to need a bit of organization to get everything tucked away. We had everything hooked up and after saying our goodbyes, started on our way.

The trip was once again, uneventful, and we made it out to the field where the combine was parked, two hours ahead of Al's schedule. Marilyn went on ahead to the 'campground' at Eugene's yard and unhooked the shop trailer and camper...just plugging in the power and leaving the rest for later...there was combining to be done.

Al was just unhooking the trailer from the Freightliner when Marilyn got back to the field and we got the tractor unloaded and ready for action before taking the Freightliner back to the yard...it's work was done for a while. We went into town to get subs for lunch, then went back to the field to see what kind of damage we could do.

We have combined this field several times and it is a half section that is usually swathed east to west, so we have nice long runs with minimal turning. Normally there aren't a lot of sloughs or potholes, but this year was really different...they are everywhere, which made swathing it a creative endeavour. There probably isn't one swath that runs the full length of the field. Add to that the fact that the seeder that was being demoed missed one full pass across the field and there is total kaos out there.

There were three headlands, so we tried to get those done first, just to get a feel for how wet the field was going to be...so far so good. Marilyn let Al make the first truckload and she got to slum it in the grain cart until the truck was full, then she took over combining. We found that the ground had dried out quite a bit and that the ruts where the swather had plowed through were pretty solid...in most places so far, at least.

We had about 15 different rain showers go through and every time it seemed like we might have to quit, but using the old gauge for quitting in the rain...you don't quit until it is running off the header...we kept on going.

Al sent Marilyn back to the camper just after dark to get it set up while he filled the grain cart and General. Marilyn got the dish aimed, water hooked up and the internet rolling, while Al combined until he almost got stuck...then he decided we would not be combining that field in the dark...especially since we have no idea how it was swathed.

Thank goodness for mapping...