August 2, 2011

View of the day-Marilyn gets the new clearance lights installed on the General.

We had high hopes for today, Al was up extra early to get fuel for the combine and get into the 'zone'. Marilyn got to sleep in after cooking yesterday.

The A/C doctor was out at the combine bright and early, too. He discovered the A/C belt needed to get tightened...it was so loose that he thought it could have slipped right over the pulley. When Marilyn went to check things over yesterday, she had the combine shut off when she went into the engine compartment and the belt looked okay, but she didn't check to see if it was loose...she knows for next time.

So with the call that the combine was ready for action, we got our lunch together, then went out to the farm. If it didn't go, we had our to-do list to keep us busy...and it didn't go, one field was 16.9% and the other was 16.1% and since it is getting binned, we have to wait.

First on the list was getting the new LED signal light on the right fender...that was the easy fix, then we figured now was the time to get the new clearance lights put on the General. This entailed taking off the old ones...not an easy task with the screws holding them to the roof all rusty and seized so bad we almost couldn't tell what kind of screwdriver to use. We got the drill out to make short work of those screws, then discovered the new lights had the screw holes going side to side instead of front to back, so the drill got used to make new holes...but what would we use to hold them in?

We went into the Ace Hardware and found some clips that would slide over the edge of the 1" hole on either side to act as a nut that would lock the screws down...this meant cutting the hole bigger so the clips would be further apart to match up with the holes on the lights. It was ugly, but with a lot of silicone and the foam bases, they sealed quite nicely and now Al has some mighty snazzy LED clearance lights to go with the new signal lights. Another job done.

Next on the list was the headlights on the tractor which was still on the trailer in the other farm yard, so we moved over with the shop trailer to get them working. That was an easy fix...the cables had come unplugged when the hood had been up the last time. Once they were plugged in, they were blindingly bright...well, as bright as they could be in the daylight.

Once we were done with that, we left the shop trailer at the farm, then went in to the Rock for supper. A good day even if we didn't do any combining, and the best part was that the temperature was only around 87º and there was a nice NW wind, which kept the mosquitoes away. Perfect.

A lot of combines were running all over the countryside...all winter wheat and we are done with that now and are waiting on the spring wheat. With everything serviced and ready for action, we can start anytime.

And, we still have a few things left on the list...