View of the day-Our neighbours
across the way…one crew of several that started to move across the landscape.
Al wanted to get out to the field and start combining by 11am, so he called for AIS at 10:15. We hadn’t had time to get any groceries, so we made a stop at the United Food Store to pick up some necessities for lunches and late suppers. We knew we would be getting in too late to dine out and Marilyn has to use the library for the blog, so we did a short load of grub to do us until the big Wal-Mart run over to Alva.
Once we got the groceries put away and lunch packed, we were on our way…right on schedule. After fueling the combine, Al took last night’s load into town and Marilyn started combining…5 minutes AOS(ahead of schedule). The wind was blowing pretty good out of the south, so there was no problem with the moisture…it was full steam ahead.
We finished the 80 acre patch that
we were on, then Marilyn moved a half mile to the next field and cleaned off a
spot to park the rigs, then Al picked her up and we got the rest of the stuff
moved over. This new field is 260 acres
and flat as a table, so the ¾ mile run on each swath is fabulous…just over 2
acres picked up one way...up and back once and there is a hopper full for the cart. It’s nice to
start the season with the easy pickup work and the long flat runs make it that
much nicer. Marilyn will enjoy it while
she can.
Just as we got finished the first field, a crew was pulling in across the road to start in on a wheat field. It must have been plenty dry because the semis pulled in and the dust was flying. All during the day we could see combines moving down the roads pulling their headers behind them to different fields…it is really cranking up here. Al has been seeing more and more trucks at the elevator, too…although he is dumping in the one set up for canola.
Al came back to the field at one point to get another load…he had nine in total today…and after dumping the cart load in, he noticed a dribble of canola coming out of the back door. The kid that dumped him had not fully latched the door and it was only being held by the latch handle and not the top and bottom hooks…he wasn’t very happy.
Marilyn came to dump in the cart, then went over to lend a hand trying to truss it up so he could get to the elevator and do some ‘clueing in’. We found several ratchet straps and duct tape, so with a bit of weaving and connecting, we hoped we had it cased. Marilyn didn’t dare take the camera out. Al made it to town without incident and had his ‘chat’ with the young fellow and a couple loads later the kid apologized for his error. Lesson learned by all.
We shut down around 10pm, put the last of the fuel in the combine, tarped everything and headed for the camper. Al went to get fuel in the slip tank…it is absolute chaos at the pumps if you wait until morning. At night, the only thing you have to fight is the insects.
It was a productive day, 115 acres covered and the canola was averaging close to 45 bu/ac with some places hitting over 60!
Tomorrow we hope to finish the field which will mean an early start and a late finish…
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