October 12, 2010

View of the day-The swatherman must have had quite a time of it as there were a lot of swaths that looked like this. It was dried up enough to get over...once, at least.

Al was up early to go get fuel for the tractor and to unload the General, then he serviced the combined and started making dust. Marilyn went into town to run some errands before coming back and taking over the combining.

The day was fairly productive...relatively speaking...we did have to pussy foot around some of the soft spots and it was going good, Marilyn did have to lift up in some spots, but she did manage to get most of the swaths. Al was in the the cart, picking up from the combine every 150 bushels, which helped out quite a bit.

As we got closer to the highway the ground was unpredictable...there would be deep ruts that we could drive through and the next time it was flat as a pancake and you could feel the combine starting to sink...but it never did...for the longest time, at least.

Around 5pm, Al came out and waited with the cart until Marilyn had just about finished the last few swaths by the highway. After picking up the load from the combine, he drove away and was glad he hadn't waited for the last couple of swaths because the ground felt spongy as he drove to the fence line to get back to the General at the other end of the field. Marilyn had avoided making sharp turns because the tires would start to carve out the soft ground, so when she was on the straight away to those last swaths...probably over the very spot Al had softened up on his way to the fence...the left big wheel just sank. There was no easy out for this one...it dug straight down.

Al came back with the grain cart after he had unloaded into the General and was able to get close enough to the combine and just clear the auger to unload what little bit was in the grain tank. He took it back to the Dodge, which was in the middle of the field and went to get some gear to pull the combine out. The farmer came over with his front wheel assist White tractor and we got everything hooked up and attempted a pull...not even a budge. About the only thing we managed to do was fill all the lugs on the tire up...on to Plan B.

Al had noticed a 4WD Steiger parked on one of the fields we had combined last year for Dale Leftwich. He had been having issues getting stuck as well, so the tractor was sitting ready by the field...but when Al called him, they had already moved it north to pull out one of their tandem trucks that had gotten stuck in the field. It was out, so Dale said we could use it, so off we went.

We were right across the highway from the farmers yard and he had left the fence down so he could get in easily with the White tractor that we tried first. We left the field the same way, down through the ditch and on to the highway. After we got the Steiger and Al figured out how to lift the big dozer blade that was on it and find the right gears, we went back to the combine.

Marilyn decided to go through the ditch on the way back and didn't quite make it up the ridge to the fence line, so after trying a couple of times, she backed up...letting the front wheels drop into the hole that she had dug with the duels...now that was stuck too. She got out to walk over to the combine and stepped ankle deep in water...cold, wet and the only pair of shoes left in the camper...could it get any better?

Al went all the way to the end of the field and came in the long way. We got the tractor hooked up and gave a couple of pretty good tugs, before it started digging in like the front wheel assist did. All we managed to do was move the combine back about 8 feet by piling up the mud behind the big wheel. Time for Plan C.

Eugene called the backhoe man, Sheldon...from Triple G Enterprises, to try and dig some of the mud out from behind the wheel...that was the plan. While we waited for him to show up, we took the Steiger back to Dale's field...he needed it to pull out the tandem again...but first we had to get the Dodge pulled out. Al got around it through the ditch, but almost got stuck himself when the severity of the grade made the dozer blade dig in and carve out some dirt, then he had to deal with the highway traffic. But we managed to get it out and return the tractor.

Back at the combine, Sheldon had showed up and was digging out the mud with the backhoe as Eugene supervised. He did a heck of a job cleaning out the mud pack and even did a little tweaking on the high side. We couldn't get the big tractor back to try and pull again, so we gave Sheldon a ride back home and left the combine for the night. Eugene has lined up a big STX 4WD for the morning and Sheldon left his backhoe just in case we need to reach China.

Al's old boss Roy Johnstone once told him when they had to leave a stuck combine overnight..."tie a ribbon to the muffler so we can find it in the morning"

Let's hope that is not needed...