Fog this morning, so the humidity was pretty much at 100%. The state of the straw yesterday when we quit was bad enough, but fog meant a late start. For sure.
We decided to have lunch at the cafe...it was Sunday brunch time and that was all they offered...no menu items. It was yummy, just the same and the joint was hopping, so we ate and ran. We got out to the field just around noon and Marilyn went out to do a test...plenty dry and the straw was breaking up just perfectly, so it was hammer down and go.
We only had 40 acres left on this field...the last winter wheat we would do this year...and we were finished by 3pm. We had a short wait when we first started for an empty truck, but after that, there was no stopping until the last stalk of wheat was whacked.
We got the header into transport, hooked it to the pickup, then went to get the General unhooked from the combine trailer back at the yard, then went back for the combine and header and started moving 10 miles to the next field. We got there with no incident, got the header on and Marilyn was just pulling into the field to start, when Al called her on the radio...the other straw spreader had fallen off. This time what was left of the bolt was sitting on the spreader on the ground, so we put the stub back in to hold the spreader on until we could get to the other end of the field.
Marilyn got the first pass along the road done and cut a patch to park everything, then we went back with Dave, the farmer's son to get the grain cart and General. Yep...Al had to start hauling grain from this field. Marilyn got to move the tractor and grain cart, while Al got dropped of at the General to bring it over to the new field and start combining.
By the time Marilyn got over with the tractor and cart, there were drops appearing on the tractor windows...then it started coming down a bit heavier. Al had quit combining and was rushing to get back to the trucks before the deluge hit, while Marilyn got wet getting the cart tarped, then ran over to close the tarp on the General after Al finished dumping the combine. Then it really started coming down.
The wipers would not keep the water off the windshield and Marilyn tried to get a couple of pictures to show how much rain was falling. The first picture, you can barely see the elevator that is 3/4 mile away. When we went back after the rain to check the gauge on the combine, Marilyn took another picture at the same spot the first one was taken so you can see how far away the elevator was.
There was just under 1/2" in the gauge, but there was more trouble on the horizon, so we quickly got the tractor lined up with the rest of the crew, then laid a sticky-trap line for the mouse/mice that had chewed up the roll of blue paper towels in the cab.
Once we had our trap laid, we took off back for town just as it was starting to sprinkle again...looked like that was going to be the norm for the next few hours.
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