August 2, 2012

View of the day-Clayton from ProHarvest pays us a visit to see if he can figure out why those spreader bolts keep breaking.


We got out to the field around 10:30am and started to get organized...get the header on, do some greasing, fueling, get the hopper camera mounted and, of course, wash the windows.  While we were working on setting up, Clayton from ProHarvest stopped out before heading out with the rest of the crew from their stop at the CaseIH dealer in Bismarck to the next one in Dickinson, ND. He couldn't figure it out either, but he did leave us with two new bolts...just in case.


We got moved out to the field, then Marilyn cut a patch to park everything before making a pass around the whole field to set the boundary.  It took some getting used to...this spring wheat was a lot shorter than the South Dakota wheat we had just come of of, but that didn't seem to affect the yield...it was still going close to 50 bu/ac.


Al was kept busy driving the two miles around the block to the bins to dump the truck.  Marilyn never had to wait, so he was keeping up with the trucking...he was only able to drive out to the combine a couple of times with the cart, but most of the time he spent in the tractor was just dumping into the General so he could get to the bins and back.  After cutting around a couple of sloughs, it didn't take long before Marilyn had the swath straightened out and could dump at the east end of the field every round.

We had weather warnings start up in the afternoon and the sky was threatening to dump at any time, but you know the rule, we don't stop...not until the water is running off the header. The picture really doesn't do the black sky justice...the price of taking pictures through the combine windshield. The biggest issue with this warning was the strong winds that were supposed to hit and about 100 yards from the end of the field and the grain cart, it hit.  The wind was coming from behind the combine and blowing the chaff and dust so bad that Marilyn couldn't see the edge of the swath to keep the row straight.


Al called on the radio and told Marilyn to get dumped right away, so she made it to the grain cart, dumped, then tried to get the cart tarped in the wind.  Getting it rolled was the first task, but having both of the straps that normally drop down so she can grab them and wind them on the ratchet handles was another story all together.  

She got the back strap to come down and get strapped in, but the other one was blown under the tarp by the wind and it was only 10 ft off the ground to reach it.  Marilyn ended up parking the combine header close to the cart, lifting the header all the way up, then walked down the length of the header to fish the strap out from under the tarp...success.  Just as the rain was really starting to fall.

Roger gave Al a ride out to the Dodge, which was by the now parked combine, picked Marilyn up and went back to the bin site to move the General.  He had been in a hurry to get Marilyn out of the field before the deluge hit, that he left it by the shed and had to do some rearranging.  Once that was done, we got fuel in the slip tank, so we would be ready for the morning, then headed for the camper.


The windows really had to be washed, surely that didn't bring the rain...