June 8, 2012

View of the day-Kansas drought, huh...


We started the day by taking a leisurely drive 20 miles over to the field where we had left the General last night.  Al led the way with the tractor and cart, while Marilyn followed with the combine pulling the header.  The drive over was uneventful...traveling at 18mph gives you a chance to be ready for anything that might jump out at you.

We made it over to the field, and after getting the header on the combine and cutting a patch to park, Al got a ride back to the other field to get the Dodge.  Marilyn made a couple of passes on one side of the field...it was running well over 50 bu/ac...then decided to open up the field.  

There were combines and trucks running all  around us...Gleaners, New Holland, CaseIH, JD...everything but Masseys,  Across the road from us was a crew of John Deere combines that were getting close to finishing the field.  Just as Marilyn rounded the north end of the field and was getting ready to cut around the water way, the combine stopped...stuck.  How could that be? All we heard about was the drought in this area...Marilyn should have realized the washouts across the roads meant that there was water here sometime recently.

Al was stuck in line at the elevator, and the line was not moving very fast at all.  Marilyn got a ride with one of the neighbors, who had passed by in their pickup, to go to the other end of the field and get the tractor and cart, so she could empty the combine of the 130 bushels that were weighing it down.

With the help of the neighbor...she didn't get anyone's name...Marilyn got the cart lined up under the combines auger.  This was no easy job with the auger side of the combine precariously low.  After getting the combine empty, it was time to see if the combine would move.  With the farmer guiding the forward and backward rocking of the combine, Marilyn got a couple wheels on solid ground, but it still wouldn't back all the way out.

Al had returned by this time, so we unhooked the cart from the tractor and lined it up to try and give the combine a pull.  No chains. We were able to get a couple of chains from the neighbors, one was 5/16" which Al figured was too small...it was bound to break...the other was a 3/8" chain that had a lot of ready links patching it together.  But we had no choice.

We got hooked up and Al tried several times, each time the chain would break we would move the hook, until it was just too short to use.  We were hoping we wouldn't have to drive the 30 miles back to get the chains from the combine trailer...but we needed chains, so we did what we should have done from the start.  We went into LaCrosse and bought a 20 ft length of chain...and a big blue tow rope.

When we got back to the field, we got hooked up, lined up and after two tugs, we were out.  We got the cart hooked back up to the tractor and Marilyn went back to combining...staying well away from the water way. 

Today was only a 55 acre day, but considering the big move and the mud break, nothing to complain about...