July 18, 2011

View of the day-The local gang prowling the streets of Hamill.

We went out early to the combine to finish taking apart the pickup drum, so we could see exactly what we needed for repairs. We were able to get the combine lined up to give us some shade, because it was already close to 90º and we didn't want to fry to soon into the repair job...taking it apart is the easy stage.

After deciding what we needed, we got on the phone with a couple of parts lists for guidance, unfortunately we were coming up short with our search. MacDon didn't have any of the parts, CaseIH had a few of the parts and the one we really needed was in Minnisota...time for 'Plan B'.

We took a road trip up to Highmore, about 75 miles north, to the CaseIH dealer who had the most parts available of all the dealers we talked to. On the way we had to cross the Big Bend Dam over the Missouri River at Fort Thompson. The campground was a little submerged and the overflow was boiling...not sure if it was on the way up or starting to subside, but it was definitely churning up a foam.

At the CaseIH store, they had four of the six dissappearing fingers that we needed and a couple of the finger guides that needed replacing, but they didn't have the 13 inch square tube for the reverser, so we took the old one and got the local welder to fabricate us a new one. While we were there, we got him to straighten a few of the slightly bent fingers that we had salvaged from the wreck.

By the time we got back to Hamill, Al got the General started to take out to the field and Marilyn loaded up the water jugs with ice, then we went out to commence, commencin'. We were able to get just enough shade by parking the combine stratigically and it didn't take too much time before we had everything put back into place...with no leftovers, except the loss of an allen wrench.

We both took the inaugural run to see that everything was going to stay together...it was running a lot quieter than it had been before the big wreck...and the reverser was working as it was supposed to, as well. Al continued combining while Marilyn went back to the camper to have a Skype meeting with her theatre group.

The semi hadn't been dropped off at the new field, so Al got a load on the General and had the cart filled before he had to quit. He called the elevator and they told him they would wait for him if he left right away, so off he went to Winner with another load. When he got back to the camper Marilyn was still on her conference call.

At least we got going today...