September 5, 2013

View of the day-Al fueling up the combine after we finished the barley. Here in Canada, the farmer supplies the fuel, so we make sure we are full when we arrive and they fill us when we leave for the next field...and we were moving on to Kim's dad's field next.

It was a much earlier start...just as we had hoped...to finish the last of the barley, which the truckers were ecstatic about. Once we got done, we went back to the yard to fuel and clean off the barley straw and chaff that was on the combines. 

Marilyn went across the road to Bob's canola to run a test, then we brought it back to Kim's where he checked it out for moisture and green count. With the canola, 100 seeds are laid out on a piece of masking tape and rolled out flat. If there are more than 2 green seeds in the 100, it won't be a #1. We waited for Bob to show up to see if he thought we should go, but since the test Marilyn had combined was from the outside round, he suggested going back and taking one from about three rounds in. 

With the new test and once we figured out the correct way to read the chart, we discovered that it was plenty dry and we were good to go. Al picked Marilyn up with his ride...Kim's Pete...then we were off to the field. 

The birds nest was in the side of the barn where the testing station was...they find the darnedest places to build.

Bob had a lot of issues with his 9600 JD, it kept quitting on him and even though the service man had been out the last 3 days and some spendy computer parts had been ordered, he couldn't seem to get anymore than a couple of rounds before it quit.

Marilyn had a header issue later on in the day. It had started making a noise, so she called Al over and we figured there was a part of one of the disappearing fingers on the auger jammed up somewhere. We tried to get the inspection holes on the auger opened up, but wouldn't you know it, two of the clips that held the bolts on were stripped and we had a hell of a time getting them off. Then we discovered it was the auger that was the problem and it had to be adjusted. There also was a bolt that had broken, but we managed to use one of the locking nuts to hold it together until we can get a new one. 

Once we got that remedied, we were making dust once again and the fix-it job held until we got Bob's field of canola done, then parked for the night.

After all, it is the NFL season opener...