March 5, 2011

View of the day-Al checks out the view from the new Gleaner at the US Custom Harvesters Convention.

What a couple of days with informational meetings, trade shows and the auction. We were able to catch up with a lot of harvesters that we knew and we met a lot of new friends...there is quite a crowd that attends these conventions.

We had waited all day for the auction and the hundreds of items that were up for bid and we actually got to put our hand up on a couple...without much success. Our Canadian Custom Harvesters association had donated a copy of our harvesting book to go towards their scholarship fund and then there was the big item...the 1/4 scale 7088 combine from CaseIH...both went close to the end of the list.

Al decided what his limit was for the combine so when it came time to bid, he did...and we won! What an awesome job they did of building this combine...13.5hp motor, hydrostatic drive, the unloading auger swings out, the header lifts and lowers and it even comes with a header transport! More stats and pictures later...when we finally get it home...not sure how that will happen, it's too big to put in the back of the pickup.

We left Grand Island around 10am and drove without incident straight through to Bismarck, ND where we are spending the night before making it the rest of the way home tomorrow.

Of course there is a cargo trailer full of toys and tires to pick up on the way...