September 14, 2011

View of the day-Marilyn avoids the organized chaos during the opening of the field of canola.

We woke up to everything covered in a thick coat of frost. It was white outside and had been since we got back to the camper last night. We had to move the combines over to a field near the yard and at about 11:00 AM the combines started rolling in the canola.

Al had to unload the General from the wheat field from the day before, then it was put at the wheat field where the big new Massey combine was coming for a demo. It showed up late in the afternoon, but Bob didn’t get to drive it right away…he was given a 3 hour course on running all the technology it has available. Glenn, who brought the combine from White’s Ag Sales, needed a trailer to haul the pickup header back to Whitewood to exchange it, so he borrowed ours.

Al was kept busy unloading the semi, which was parked at the bin in the yard and since we were combining right next to the yard, the cart would come in to unload right onto the semi. The bin was the one right next to the camper…we are actually using the aeration fan plug in for power to the camper…and since Marilyn finally aimed the dish, Al got to watch some TV in between loads.

Al, meanwhile, called one of our customers from southwest Oklahoma while he was waiting and he said it is still very dry there. They have not had a rain of more than ½ an inch since Oct.11, 2010 in fact he told Al they had one stretch through June and July this year where it was a 110ºF or higher for 41 days in a row and also the wind was at 40 MPH for those days! He still has not planted his 2012 winter wheat waiting for rain. So like farming it seems custom harvesting is next year country.

Phil, Howie and Marilyn continued combining until just after 11pm with Blaine running the grain cart…quite a task in the heavy dust created from the combines. We had to be extra diligent to make sure we didn’t back into one another when we turned around on some of the shorter swaths.

Tomorrow, hopefully, we will get to see the big new Massey that made an appearance…