June 14, 2013

View of the day-An obstacle to work around in the canola.

Al was up early to get his load of canola hauled in to Alva.  John picked him up at 8:30am to give him a ride to the General in town so Marilyn would have the Dodge to go out to the field.

After getting lunches made, Marilyn went out to the field, got the combine fueled and greased and was ready to start right on schedule...one minute early, actually...10:30am.  The stalks were a bit chewy to start with, but with the sun beating down and the healthy wind blowing, that didn't last too long.

Al was kept hopping, he would just get back from Alva and Marilyn would have a load for the truck.  He had a 60 mile round trip for each load, so he was doing pretty good...and it helped that he didn't have to deal with line ups at the elevator.

He did notice a lot of combines in the fields along the highway and figured that about 30% of the fields that he could see along the way had been cut.  He saw a lot of familiar faces but had no time to stop if he didn't want Marilyn waiting.

To start with, he was able to run the tractor to pick up "on the go" from the combine...something that was made a lot easier this year with the power shift on the new tractor.  As the day wore on, however, Marilyn would end up topping off the General with the combine to get him on his way.

Marilyn stayed in the combine going up and down the field and did have a couple of visitors ride along, which broke up the day. It was a bit of a task stopping for "rest breaks" with all that tall canola stubble...really hard on the legs, and stuff...looks like it might be a jeans day tomorrow, even if it is a sweltering day.

We kept going until the field was finished, leaving Al with a full truck and grain cart to dump in the morning.  After fueling the combine with the remains in the slip tank, it was in to town to the elevator to park the General again for the night and fill the slip tank for the morning.

A big 140 acre day today...