June 30, 2013

View of the day-Breakfast for the combine before we start our last day of cutting here at Great Bend.

Sunday and the elevator does not open until noon, this had Marilyn hoping we could take in the omelet bar for breakfast. Nope. The closest thing to an egg for breakfast was an order of chicken strips from Arby's...apparently they don't have a breakfast menu.  We did get lovely sandwiches for lunch, though.

Out at the field, it was almost the same routine. Since Al had to wait for the elevator to open, he offered to do the greasing for Marilyn before we moved over to the next field.  After the move was made, Marilyn started combining and was just finishing up the 17 ac patch as Al got back from the elevator.  The yield was not so good on this patch, but it had to be kept separate from the next field, so Al had a light run into the elevator.

We moved across the road and Al figured Marilyn would be done with this 14 acre piece before he got back.  Unfortunately, Marilyn broke a knife section and had to change it out, so Al was back in time to take over the combining so Marilyn could get some pictures and video on this field.

There are a lot of terraces on this little piece and it seems like we are always turning around...which we are.  While Al was chasing himself on the terraces, Marilyn moved the tractor and pickup down the road to the next field with the help of Ken.  

Once Al had the field finished, we moved over to the last 100 ac that we had to do.

This last field was a bit of a crap shoot.  Ken and Kevin weren't sure if it should even be combined, it was so poor.  It had been hit hard by the frost and while it looked not to bad, there wasn't anything in the heads. Marilyn made a couple of rounds...this one had a lot of terraces in it. Steep ones, which made cutting even worse because the wheat was so short, it had to be almost mowed.

After cutting almost 50 acres, she didn't even have a hopper full...this was not going good.  Ken jumped in for a ride to see how it looked up at the top of the field and when we could see that it was struggling to even make 3 bu/ac, Ken said "time to pull out".  So we were done.

We moved the combine and tractor up to the bins, then Ken gave us a ride back for the General and the pickup. Al went to the elevator and Marilyn got the shop trailer from the yard and moved it up to the bins and started blowing off the header, killing time until Al got back with the General.

On the way back to Great Bend, Al wanted to stop and take a couple of pictures of a 510 Massey near the elevator that had taken a test while he was unloading. It must have been too tough, because it was sitting when we went through town.  It looks like it has been kept in pretty good shape.

On one of her pit stops along the field, Marilyn came across a patch of, *ahem*..."weeds".  They are actually scattered all around the area.

Gives new meaning to the term "potty" break...

June 29, 2013

View of the day-The combine casts a long shadow.

There was a heavy dew this morning, so we didn't rush right out to the field.  We stopped at Burger King for a "quick" breakfast...it turned out to be, anything but.

We ordered our sandwiches, got our beverage cups to fill, and got our order number.  We had ordered a bag of ice too and after a couple minutes, we got the ice and Marilyn went out to put in the water cooler.  She waited...and waited...and waited for Al...it was only two sandwiches, what could be taking so long.  She was soon to find out.

Al stood in line and watched as new people came in, got their orders and left...all the while waiting for those two sandwiches. Finally he lost it and asked where our food was and why everyone was getting served ahead of him.  They couldn't see his order up on the screen, so he gave them the receipt he had been given..."oh, that one has gone out already".  WHAT??  Al proceeded to tell them he wanted his sandwiches NOW or he wanted his money back...they told him...and you won't believe this..."but there are people waiting for their orders"!

We got our sandwiches and there was no bloodshed. Too bad they kept the receipt with the "how are we doing, use this code to tell us".

We got out to the field, got serviced and started combining.  Marilyn had riders for a while today, Maitland, Maddy and Macy came for their annual combine ride and filled her in on their past years activities.  Other than that, except for the couple of times she got out to "check the combine over", it was straight on combining.

Al was kept busy hauling grain and shuttling the cart further down the field. Marilyn decided to finish the field, even though it meant quitting later than usual. Getting just over 150 acres today was well worth it, though.

By the way, the heat wave is over for a few days...

June 28, 2013

View of the day-Well, the view from yesterday...a lot of puddles around Great Bend from the rain.

We got to sleep in, it rained .30 out at the field, which meant a later start...if at all.

We had an early lunch at Pizza Hut, then stopped at the elevator to pay the fuel bill, then went out to see about getting a new antenna for the two way radio on the tractor.  Too bad they were closed over lunch.

We went out to the field and Marilyn started work on the new camera for the combine hopper. After she got it mounted and hooked up, it was time to take a test of the wheat.  The temps were only in the mid 90's, so it should have dried down some.

And it did.  It was down to 11.5% moisture, so we were able to get going...at 5pm.  We finished the field we were on then moved across the road to the next field.  This one wasn't going as good as the last one, so Al had some down time waiting for a truck load. 

With good weather in the forecast and cooler temps, we should be able to get rolling early tomorrow.

Highs are only supposed to be in the 80's...a nice change...

June 27, 2013

View of the day-Al gets to the yard just as the big wind hits and the dust flies.

We were out at the field, serviced and rolling by 10am.  The forecast was for 105º and there wasn't much of a wind.  We finished last nights field, then moved over to the next 70 ac patch.

Marilyn got started, while Ken and Kevin helped him get the tractor and pickup moved over.  This field was going over 50 bu/ac and Al had a farther haul, so he was kept hopping...he had to keep moving or the 108º temps that showed up later in the day would have melted him.

Marilyn forged on and kept an eye to the sky.   There were weather warnings out and she could see the clouds starting to build all around the area. Al would get back to the field in time to get a short reprieve from the heat by unloading the cart and waiting for the last 50 or so bushels that were short of a load.

Around 3:30pm while Al was at the elevator, Marilyn had a full hopper and headed over to the cart to dump...BIG drops were starting to fall.  After dumping in the cart, she got out and tarped it...just in case.  The drops that had fallen had already dried up, so she went back out and started combining, but decided to only do enough so that there was room to fold the hopper down with grain in the tank.

After calling Al on the radio and finding out that he was driving back through a deluge of rain, she decided that was it, and headed over to the pickup to shut down for the day.  She was just getting out of the combine cab, when the big wind hit.  She made it to the pickup just as Al was pulling back into the yard.

We drove out to the tractor to get Al's lunch bag, then stopped to talk to Ken who was out on his 4 wheeler. He was hoping to get some rain out of the storm, but was afraid all that was going to happen was some rearranging of the land from the wind.

We drove back into Great Bend and stopped at the CaseIH dealer to pick up a new camera for the combine hopper...the old one had broken cable issues and she had wanted one that was permanent on the combine.  When we move, the camera from the hopper goes in the combine cab so Al can see what is going on behind him when hauling.  Then, when we get back to combining, everything has to be put back...cables and all.  With all the moving around, it's no wonder the cable gave out.

We went back to the camper, cleaned up, then went out for Chinese Buffet. The rain had passed through and was headed SE...likely to Cherokee.

We have no word how much it rained out at the farm...

June 26, 2013

View of the day-Yes, it was “warm enough for ya”…this can not even be put in the same class as “warm”.  At least there was no wind to speak of.

We got out to the field, got serviced and start in combining right away.  This field was not doing near as good as the first one, it was struggling to get close to the double digits, pretty much hanging around the 7 bu/ac mark.  And it was short…reminded Marilyn of Bert’s barley at Esterhazy, it pretty much was mowed right to the ground.  At least she didn’t have to worry about “stubble bites” on the shins.

It took quite a while to get a hopper off this field, so Al got to drive combine for a while to keep Marilyn company and suck up some of the air conditioning.  It was still early and we knew it was going to be an unbearable day with a forecast high of 103ºF…so we shut up and drive…you can’t change the weather.

We moved a few miles down the road and Marilyn started in on the next 75 acre patch.  What a difference! This field was averaging over 50 bu/ac and there was lots of straw…this made for slower going, but it was a nice trade off.  The test weight was 61 lbs which was another bonus.

Al hauled a couple of loads a half mile to the bins for seed, then started hauling to the elevator again.  Marilyn never had to wait, but there was always a load for Al when he got back from the elevator.  With the first patch done, Marilyn moved across the waterway to start on the other end of the field.  This time Al followed her around with the tractor because he knew if it was yielding as good as the other side, she wouldn’t make it around the whole patch before getting full. He was right.  Once he got the truck topped off, he took his last load into the elevator.

We shut down just after dark…the straw was getting really raggy as the humidity went up, so we emptied the slip tank into the combine and headed for town.  Al dropped Marilyn off at Walmart to grab a few things while he went to get fuel, then we were camper bound for the night.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for 108ºF…oh, joy…

June 25, 2013

View of the day-Someone ended up with a thunderstorm to the SE of us. Pictures just can't do these massive clouds justice.

Al went out early to grab some breakfast for the road, while Marilyn made lunches, then it was go time.  We started out to the bins to get the shop trailer and take it out to the field...Marilyn needed her grease gun and possibly the compressor to blow the rads out.

Al took last nights load into the elevator and Marilyn fought the strong wind again, trying to get the mess off the windows from last nights weather. Al only had 5 miles to drive to the elevator, so he was back in plenty of time to run the cart, besides, Marilyn was just getting started on the three acres left from last night.

The wind was wreaking havoc with the air screen sweeper again.  Marilyn had to stop every 75 ft or so to turn around and let the wind clean it off.  She decided when she crossed the road to the other half of the field, she would cut it N-S instead of the E-W direction so she would always have the wind keeping it clean. That worked like a charm.

We got that field finished...it went 50 bu/ac, which was nice.  Kevin informed us that it was their best field and it would only go down hill from there.  We got moved to the next field and Marilyn got started on that one...Kevin was right, the yield was half of the first field.

Al kept busy hauling and walking to the tractor and cart to move them closer to the combine.  There were water ways that prevented him from using the Dodge to get to the tractor, so he spent the afternoon strolling in the 102ºF(38.8ºC) heat...not a nice day, although the wind finally died down at the end of the day.

Marilyn had an issue on the second round of the field when the knife stopped on the header and the reverser wouldn't work to move the knife, either.  After backing up the combine to get on flat ground, she could see what the problem was...the PTO shaft collar hadn't been snapped back and it worked its way off the feederhouse shaft and fell of the combine. Al came out to the combine and between the two of us, we got it back together and Marilyn was back in business.

We combined until dark, then shut it down for the night.  Back in town, Al went for fuel again...the combine holds much more than the 100 gallons that the slip tank holds.

More of the same tomorrow...

June 24, 2013

View of the day-Al’s turn to drive on to the trailer as he lines up the tractor.

We were up early and not looking forward to loading and driving again, especially if it was going to be as hot as it was yesterday.  There were clouds in the sky, so we at least had that and it wasn’t really hot, but that south wind was as strong as ever.

We got the camper all closed up and ready for hookup while the Freightliner was airing up. We got out to the trailer and Al drove the tractor on the trailer, we chained it down, then got the Freight flanged in and that load was ready for moving.  Thankfully the clouds stayed for the better part of the day, keeping the heat down to the upper 80’s.

Al parked the Freight on the street and we went back to the farm to get the camper, then it was go time. We had a few sprinkles here and there along the way, but the wind and clouds made Al pretty happy…well, as happy as he can be driving the Freight in the summer. 

We got to Great Bend, left the Freight in a parking lot and went to get the camper set up at the RV park. There was only 30amp power at the usual spot we stay at, but Leo had 50amp along the east side of his shop a half a block away, so we decided that would be just fine. Once the camper was set up, we went for breakfast…at 2:30pm…we had no time to stop and eat this morning.

We got moved out to the bins, unloaded the tractor and cart, then found out where our first field was.  We had to drive about 10 miles, so Al drove the combine with the header and Marilyn followed in the tractor.  We got to the field as Ken and Kevin showed up with their semi and pickup, so Al went back with them to get the General and Ken drove our pickup back to the field.  Marilyn started combining and kept an eye on the sky…it was getting really dark to the SE and the wind was getting wilder all the time.

She was working on a 45 acre patch and Al was hauling to a bin back in Ken’s yard, but the wind got so crazy, it wasn’t save to have the auger set up, so unloading was out of the question for the night.  It tried to rain quite a few times and along with the blowing dust, the combine windows were a nasty mess…the squeegee will have it’s work cut out for it tomorrow.  Marilyn got the cart filled, then we quit for the night.

We got back to Great Bend and had to get some groceries and fuel for the combine, so Al left Marilyn at Walmart, while he went for fuel.  We were going to stop at Arby’s for a late snack but they were closed already, so it was a Sonic malt for supper.  We have to stockpile because once we leave southern Nebraska, we won’t see another Sonic.

Back at the camper, we checked the weather and it looked like we managed to miss the heavy stuff, it was all to the south of us.  Tomorrow will be an early start as we don’t have the luxury of walking out the door and being in the field…it’s about a 20 mile drive to the field.

At least we are back in the high speed internet zone…

June 23, 2013

View of the day-Al re-spotting the combine trailer using the combine to move it into place on level ground.

Al was up early to entertain…well, actually to settle up with a few guys, then we had to go get the combine and tractor from the field at Carmen.  John came by to pick us up from where we had left the Dodge, at the combine trailer, and give us a ride out to the rigs.

We got settled up with the Mott brothers, Ron and Darole, who complained that we never seem to have the farmer’s name any where in the blog. Marilyn explained that some folks don’t like to have their names out for all the world to see…but now with this NSA deal, they likely don’t have a choice.  Anyway, they are in this time.

After saying our goodbyes, we headed back for Cherokee at 18 mph, now it was time to load.  The sky was fairly dark from a rogue thunderstorm that was passing through, so the clouds were giving us a bit of shade…but that didn’t last long and it looked like Cherokee had a shower, so there was humidity to add to the high temps. Ideal conditions for loading…that was sarcasm. 

Marilyn ordered a pizza to pick up and we had lunch at the combine before getting down to work.

Al moved the combine trailer over and got it hooked up to the shop trailer…it is a lot easier for him to see what he is doing without the combine on the trailer.  We got it hooked up, then it was time to drive the combine on and chain it down. That went quick and we got the General hooked up, hosed up and the backup camera mounted so he could see behind him.  Marilyn went ahead and hooked up the header trailer that had been left parked on the street, and we were off.

The trip up was hot and windy…south windy, which was a blessing.  There were a lot of other crews moving north and we met a lot of semis with empty trailers making their back hauls for more equipment. We stopped once to check the load, then stopped in Great Bend to fuel the Dodge and fill the slip tank for the combine.

We got out to the bin site and started to get unloaded.  Even with the high temps, being at the top of the hill with the wind blowing helped to cool us down…well, not cool, but perhaps, ‘less uncomfortable’.  We got the header on the combine, lined everything up, then started back for Cherokee.

Marilyn got a call from a fellow harvester, Lee Petersen, wondering if he would be able to use our pickup head for some swathed wheat down around El Reno, OK. It just so happens that it is available and he will be able to get it moved north for us…a little way, at least.

Al’s not looking forward to the Freightliner move tomorrow…

June 22, 2013

View of the day-The MacDon guys make another trip out to the combine to work their magic.

We had high hopes of getting done early today, but we might have known nothing ever goes as planned.  We both had to leave at the same time, but were cranked up and ready to cut before 10:30am.  Al had a load to take in to Carmen, while Marilyn started on a load for seed wheat. It was another hot, windy day…really windy…so windy that the straw piled up so thick on the outside of the radiator cover, that it stopped the sweeper arm that is supposed to keep it clear.  Then the alarms started, but once Al brought the General over and we hooked the air hose up to it and blew out the rad on the combine…we were back on track.

There seemed to be an issue with the knife on the header, it was really slow to engage and the feeder would stop randomly…or so Marilyn thought. When Al got back out to the field with the tractor and cart, he checked things over…the belt was tight and everything else seemed in order. Time to call in the pros.  We were only 15 miles from Fairview, where the support van was, so the guys were out in under 30 minutes. Now that’s service!

The guys looked things over, then hooked up some hoses to see what the pressure was like to the header.   Marilyn started the combine and got the feeder running, it ran for a bit, then stalled out and after checking a bit more, we discovered a bearing had gone out of the tightener pulley and it was just sitting on the belt.  One of the MacDon guys had worked with CaseIH for several years, so he was a great help. We didn’t need the MacDon support, we needed the ProHarvest support.

The MacDon guys left and so did we, after getting the arm off that the pulley needed to be pressed on to.  We drove into Fairview and the shop told us it would take about an hour to get the part pressed in, since they were so busy.  We had time to kill, so we went to Sonic for a malt…what’s new?

After getting the part and heading back to the field, we managed to remember how to get it back together and Marilyn was up and running again…we only lost three hours.  No chance to get everything moved back today…but we were still able to get done before the sun went down.

While Marilyn was finishing up the last part of the field, she saw this desk sitting in the pasture and thought…now there’s an office with a view!

After getting the header loaded on to the high speed transport trailer, Marilyn started back for the camper with it and Al took the General in to unload the last load of Oklahoma wheat this year.  Marilyn got back to the camper, got the header cleaned off, and waited for Al to get back before finishing up some bookwork.

And yet another beautiful Oklahoma sunset…

June 21, 2013

View of the day-Fighting a strong south wind, Al dumps the last load off John's field.

We got started at the same time today...well, Al did.  Marilyn got lunches ready while he combined enough to finish last night's load.  After Marilyn showed up with the fuel, Al took the load into town while she serviced the combine, then got back to work.

We got the field done, then put the header into transport mode and figured out how we were going to make the move to the field at Carmen.  After Al got directions, we decided to take the combine and tractor first, which meant the combine was going to have to pull its own header. The roads were way to narrow to move with it on and it was about 15 miles.

We got to the farm, put the header on and Marilyn started cutting a patch until Ron and Leoti showed up to give us a ride back for the pickup and General.  While Al took the General to Cherokee to dump, Marilyn went back to the field and started combining again.

Al got back with the General and had a short wait until Marilyn had enough for a load, then hauled it into Carmen. He got back with the General and ran back in with the pickup to get fuel for the combine...the low fuel alarm had just gone off.

Marilyn filled the General one last time before shutting down to fuel up and call it a night.  The wind was still blowing, but it had cooled off to a balmy 88ºF...and it's the first day of summer. Depressing that the days will now be getting shorter.

Tomorrow we might just be done combining in Oklahoma...

June 20, 2013

View of the day-Al gets enough to fill the first load of the day.

Al was out at the field early to get the cart empty and combine enough to fill the truck.  Marilyn got out to the field just as he was topping off the cart and while he took the load to town, she fueled and serviced the combine…then took over in the cab.

We got that field finished, then moved SW to the next small patch, got it done, then moved to the east end of the field for another small piece.  John and Peggy helped us with the many moves during the day and finally we ended up on the last field for John.  At least this one was over 100 acres and wouldn’t require a move until at least tomorrow.

We had a hot and really windy day, which makes for a tough job of tarping the truck, but Al has it down to a science…but he still hates the wind. He was kept busy hauling and the elevator was pretty busy, so there was some waiting in line for him.  A couple of loads from the third field had moisture issues, so he was sent to another bin…and almost packing, until he assured them that this was the last load from that patch.

Al came home after dumping the last load of the night, while Marilyn combined enough for a truckload in the morning, then fueled the slip tank and came home.  Al had called on the radio when he got home to say there was a bigger line up going into our yard than there was at the elevator.  He counted 9 semis lined up down the road waiting to fill at the water pump next to the camper.  They were coming and going all last night so between that, the water pump and the air conditioner in the camper, this is a noisy spot.

We’re too tired to notice…

June 19, 2013

View of the day-up close proof that Al does get to drive the combine every once in a while.

We woke up to a cloudy, humid day, so we figured it wouldn't be an early start.  Al had a load to haul to the elevator and by the time he got back, Marilyn was getting the last of the servicing done on the combine.

Al took the first shift, then Marilyn came out with the grain cart...but it was all going to fit in the truck, so she was going to jump in and ride along.  Al had called earlier to let her know that the header height gauge was not working and the header was lifting really slow, so before she jumped in the combine, she had a look at the feeder house...not good.  It actually looked like the feeder house was coming off, but it was just that a bolt had come out and the top plate was shifted.  When that happened, it pulled the arm out of the potentiometer which fed the info on the header height to the combine.  Looks like we had some fixing to do.

Fortunately, all we had to do was find a couple of bolts to get the plate back where it belonged and we were up and running again.  So much for the "uptime inspection" that was done over the winter.

While Marilyn was getting the last couple of laps done on the field, Al took a drive to the next field to see if we could move the combine with the 35ft header on...he saw no obstacles, so once Marilyn had dumped the last of the wheat on the General, we locked up the header and she started off.

Al was ahead in the tractor and when he got to the two mile mark, he called back...there were now some pipeline crews with a ditch witch on the side of the road and he nearly didn't make it through.  Marilyn was near an oil well site, so she pulled in and started getting the header into transport mode just as John and Al showed up.  We got the header hooked to John's pickup and carried on the next two miles to the field.

When we got there, the guys from MacDon support were waiting for us.  Al had called them to have a look at the header, and after a quick look to confirm it all looked good, Paul jumped in the combine with Marilyn to make a round.  Probably because he was along, Marilyn managed to plug up one of the draper belts...a first for her.  Fortunately, even though he is "up there" in the MacDon chain of command, Paul was not afraid to get his hands dirty and thanks to him we were up and running again.

After Paul left, Jim, the farmer jumped in for a ride...and to point out the new trenches the oil guys had run pipe through.  Marilyn was finding them quite by surprise with the combine. This wheat was running close to 37 bu/ac and the test weight was 59 and it was plenty dry.

So we carried on for the rest of the day, managing to get 85 acres done, even with the breakdown and move.  The forecasted rain looks like a bust for us, the west looks clear tonight.

Let's hope the humidity doesn't hold us up...

June 18, 2013

View of the day-It was the view out the camper window…walking distance from the field as we finally start in on some wheat.

Today we planned on testing the wheat right outside our door, but when we woke up to a heavy fog, we knew that wouldn’t happen to early.  Al got a call first thing from Jack Dawes the ag announcer at 98.5 TheRock, a local radio station in Yorkton, for an interview on how the harvest was coming.  He was going to talk to Marilyn, as well, but she was checking her eyelids for cracks and wouldn’t have been too coherent.

Once Marilyn was mobile, we decided to take a road trip to Fairview to see the ProHarvest guys who were now parked there.  Al had to pick up his stash of ProHarvest belt buckles and hats, since we missed the guys at the kickoff breakfast in Frederick, OK at the end of May. Al wanted to get a couple of hydraulic filters for the tractor while we were there, too.

After gabbing a bit, we went for lunch at GB’s Lounge & Grill in Fairview and had a couple of pretty healthy sized burgers.  It’s great to find these kinds of eateries along the run.  Marilyn had to stop at Dollar General to pick up some much needed fly swatters…she managed to forget the two electric shockers at home.  Once that was accomplished, we stopped at Sonic for the usual and headed back to Cherokee.  Marilyn made Al stop to take a picture at a wrecker along the way.  She had seen this truck at Bud’s Salvage when we went down to Fairview last week, but forgot to stop on the way back. It gave us a chuckle.

Marilyn went back to working on the satellite dish…it just would not do what it was supposed to, so she called Winegard for tech support.  After walking her through a few tests, they came to the conclusion that the turret had more problems than could be fixed over the phone.  They are sending out a new one that should be here Friday. Marilyn has high hopes, especially since Al is claiming that he gets to say “I told you so” for the next several years.  He doesn’t believe it will work...Marilyn knows otherwise and keeps telling him, “getting to say I told you so is no big deal…I get to do it all the time”.

Around 4pm, it was time to do a test. Marilyn had made all the changes to the combine, so it was just a matter of cranking up and cutting a patch.  Al took the sample in to Cherokee to test…12.5% moisture and we were cleared to go.  Marilyn let Al do the combining and she drove the cart, but since we were so close to the field, she was able to run back to the camper to get the dish folded up for the return.  

Al had to fill John’s truck with seed wheat…always a fun task with a small truck box…but he never has a problem doing it.

Once that truck was full, he worked on filling the General, then Marilyn took over combining.  That didn’t last too long as the sun went down, the humidity went up and the straw was getting real tough, so that was that, for that. Al came back and dumped the cart, then went in to town to fill the slip tank while Marilyn made supper…and waited forever for the pictures to upload.

At least we don’t have far to go to service tomorrow…

June 17, 2013

View of the day-Al was pretty excited when he saw this sign in the Bumper to Bumper in Cherokee.  He’s claiming Marilyn won’t let him buy a ticket…she wonders how he would get it across the border.

We had an inch of rain last night and lots of wind, so today was a fix it kind of day…there were certainly no combines in the field today.  We figured we would start by putting the pickup head on the trailer and strapping it down for the move, then picked up the straight head and worked on getting it in shape to start.

The header had been stored inside all winter, but the knife was rusty, so we sprayed some diesel fuel on it to lube it up a bit.  After latching it on and hooking up the hoses and cables, we started it up to get the knife moving.  Al got Marilyn to move the reels ahead and back, but they wouldn’t move…and there was hydraulic oil spraying all over the side of the header.  Time to do some repairs.

We discovered that one of the hoses had blown a hole in it so we needed to take it to town to get a new end put on.  We also needed to come up with a way to hold the reel end while we worked on the hose, so we brought the tractor over to use as an anchor and put a ratchet strap around the reel tube and back to the tractor axle.  This hose was a long one that had to thread through the main pipe on the back of the header, so we tied a wire to the end of the hose so it would be easy to re thread it when we got it fixed.

We went in to Bumper to Bumper and the man there had us a new end on the hose in less than 5 minutes and we were on our way back out to the farm to put everything back together.  If we could remember how.  Fortunately, Marilyn had taken a picture, so we had something for guidance. After assembly, we gave it a whirl and it worked like a charm. Now the wheat has to dry up a bit so we can start using it.

Al did some servicing and Marilyn was on a mission to get the new dish mounted.  She had a plan in mind and went to the lumber yard to get a piece of plywood for the base, then went found a wheeler that seemed to be exactly what she needed to mount the whole works on to make it easily moved for storage.  After getting the holes drilled and the apparatus mounted, she started testing it out, but gave up when the flies got to be too much. It was getting dark anyway.

Al was tied up with a hockey game on TV…which didn’t end the way he wanted.  He is hoping the Chicago Blackhawks win the Cup, but with tonight’s loss they are down 2-1 in the series.

Slight chance of rain tonight…

June 16, 2013

View of the day-Getting serviced and set up for the last day of canola combining…in Oklahoma, at least.

Wow, did the harvest ever crank up around Cherokee!  We had nicely gotten started on the canola, when three JD combined pulled in next door and started cutting wheat.  From our field, we could see plumes of dust dotting the horizon all around us and the trucks were rolling down the roads to town. Harvest is in high gear.

Al was hauling to Carmen now, so he was getting back to the field in plenty of time…until he was leaving with a load and noticed one of his inside back duals was flat.  He called in to Cherokee…there was someone at the tire shop(take note, on a Sunday) but since he wasn’t hauling to that elevator, they called over to their branch at Carmen and they had someone come over to help him out. On a Sunday!

Al got his tire fixed and was back at the field, just as Marilyn had enough for a load, so she met him out at the gate with the combine…this was the closest thing to a “wait” that she had.  Al was doing the old “ride and tie” trick, where he would leave the cart out by the swaths…since Marilyn was getting farther and farther away…then when he would get back with the empty General, he would leave it at the gate, take the Dodge out to the cart to bring it back to dump in the General, leaving the Dodge in the field.  Once the cart was empty, he would come back out to the field to wait for the last dab to top off the truck…only this time Marilyn met him with the “dab”.

Once the tire was fixed, he managed to get back on schedule and there was no more waiting. 

We finished the field by 6pm, then Marilyn drove the combine back to the farmyard and Al picked her up from there with the Dodge.  After giving him a ride back to the General, Marilyn went back to the farm to fire up the air compressor and blow off the canola remains so the combine would be clean to go into the wheat.  Al got back with the General, then Marilyn took him back out to the field to get the tractor and cart.

When Al got back to the camper with the cart, we took a road trip to Alva to get a Sonic malt and some supper.  There were combines everywhere!  It looks like most of the wheat along the highway to Alva was either cut already or in the process of being cut. Now, this is action.

The clouds had been threatening all day, mostly just to the SE of us, but they were building all around us…it was like we were under a sunshine dome in the field.  As the day wore on we could see there were more large banks of clouds moving in from the west and we are now in a thunderstorm warning…and the rain is falling.

Tomorrow the pickup head gets loaded back on the trailer and, depending on the rain fall tonight, perhaps a road trip will be in our future…

June

June 15, 2013

View of the day-A couple of buzzards waiting for breakfast…or perhaps, digesting breakfast.

Up early to get the truck unloaded, this time Marilyn had to drive Al over to the General in town before going back to the camper to get lunches ready.  It was cloudy and it looked like there might be a chance of rain…at least it was a LOT cooler than what we had been experiencing.

Al got the load in to Alva, then went back to the field to get the cart emptied and moved over to the next farmer’s canola.  Marilyn got out to the next field, picked Al up and went back to get the combine, then made one last trip over to get the General…good thing the field was only a mile away.  We did a quick test and took the sample in to Cherokee…7.5% moisture…good to go.  On the way back to the field, it was raining, but by the time we got to the combine it had quit and we could see clear skies to the west.  And you know the rule…”don’t quit combining until the water is running off the header”. Al took the last load over to Alva while Marilyn started in on the canola.

This field wasn’t as flat as the last one, there were a couple of waterways that cut through it, but it was only 80 acres, so it was “shut up and drive” once again.  The swatherman had left a few “beaver houses”…piles of canola…and had only made two rounds around the waterways where it was fairly steep.  This made it rather tricky to get the big combine turned around on those slopes without stomping on the swaths…took her back to combining in Esterhazy.  At least here, she didn’t have to worry about the combine auger possibly hitting the bushes when she turned.

We got that field finished and moved across the road to the last quarter of canola.  Marilyn was making the first round and for some reason the return plugged, so Al came over to check things out.  He discovered one of the belts that had been replaced during the winter warranty check and stretched and needed to be tightened.  Once that was fixed and the sieves tweaked, Marilyn was off and running again.

This field seemed to be running a lot better and Marilyn had to slow down quite a bit…partly due to the heavier swath and partly due to travelling “against the grain” of the seed rows.

There were ridges running down the east-west rows from the no-till air drill that the canola was planted with and because of the prevailing southerly winds, it was swathed north-south...the poor swatherman.  At one point Al thought we were dealing with 30ft swaths instead of the 25ft swaths of the last three fields…that would explain the heavier swath.  After calling to find out for sure…it was confirmed.  Now Marilyn’s mapping was all out of whack because she had 25ft put in for header width, which would make the yield and area calculations out.

We combined until the General was full, then quit around 10:30pm.  We had missed all the weather, but could see heavy lightning to the north in Kansas…we got lucky, this time.

The combine showed 125 acres for the day, but remember, the calculations were out, so it would have been more than that…