July 21, 2011

View of the day-Tight squeeze under the interstate at Reliance...no paint removed.

Up early to get the last 30 acres done, Al got a ride from Callie over to the General so he could get it unloaded. He got that done while Marilyn was getting the combine serviced and ready to roll.

There were only two small strips left to cut and it didn't take that long to get them done, then it was time to organize for the load out. Marilyn was able to find one of the guys from the crew that was blocking our trailers and they said they would clear a path to our trailers, so that was a relief.

Once the last of the wheat was in the bin, we took a lunch break...with fresh home made bread...made by Marilyn. Seriously. Well, the bread machine did most of the work...but Marilyn had to put it together...tasty no matter how it was made. After the dishes were done, we went over to get the header trailer hooked up and moved out to the field to load.

We got the header loaded and Al moved it over to the lot while Marilyn roaded the combine over to the trailer. The temperature was a little cooler,but the humidity and lack of wind made loading rather uncomfortable...what's new? After the combine was loaded and the trailer hooked up to the General, we got the shop trailer caboose hooked on, then decided we might as well move the load up to Gettysburg.

The trip up was fairly uneventful...a few crews on the move and a lot more combines in the field making dust. We got to Gettysburg then drove a few miles north to park out at the farmers yard...normally we just park in town, but with the changes around the "Burg", the parking spots for machinery are getting fewer and far between.

After parking the rigs, we got a quick chat in with the farmer who was dumping a truckload of wheat at his bins...he was cutting winter wheat already! We went back into Gettysburg to check out the camping situation...our "best spot in the campground" would not work for this new camper...the trees are way low to clear the roof, so decided on a new spot...hopefully it will still be available tomorrow when we get there.

After fueling up and grabbing a snack, we forged back to Hamill. The skies were filling with clouds and there were weather warnings for our neck of the woods...there was a lot of lightning flashing in the SW.

We took a short stop in Highmore to visit with Taff, our harvester friend from Great Bend, KS. They had just arrived in town and were ready to start combining in the area. He took us over to have a look at his MacDon header to show us what we should be looking for when we got back to our header...there are a lot of wear spots showing up on the feeder pan and it could be serious.

Once again we drove right into the eye of the storm...sort of...it was just a thin band of severe weather, but by the time we hit the interstate, it was just passing over. As we went through Reliance, the road was covered with little frogs...or toads...not really sure...didn't get out and don't know the difference, and by the time we got home to Hamill, the dust was flying...but somebody was getting it.

Tomorrow...load #2...