September 11, 2014

View of the day-The sunset took the edge, off an edgy day out in the field.

What a day we had today. Al was out the door early to get the truck unloaded and Marilyn had a visit from Lucille, the farmer's wife, who brought over an apple pie. We had been invited in for coffee the other day, but were on the "tractor rim mission", so had to pass.  We missed the banana bread, but the pie was mighty fine.

Once we got out to the field, it was quite the job trying to find someplace that wouldn't be too soft to combine. At this point the moisture isn't an issue...the average has never gotten down below 16% and with the cool cloudy weather, it hasn't gotten much lower than 18% moisture. 


We knew there would be issues when we got started and there was the tractor with duals, planted pretty deep...not a good sign at all. Marilyn managed to stay away from the bad spots until we had as much done in the field as we could get. Time to move to a new field.

We got moved a few miles south east of where we were and started in.  It looked like a field that was a lot drier...looks can be so deceiving. Halfway up on the opening round, the wheel dropped on the right side of the combine. Marilyn got the rope into position and waited for the quadtrac to come do its work. He was able to hook on and pull the combine out of the sticky mess. The combine with the tracks was able to come in and clean up the rest of the wheat right up to where Marilyn got stuck.

There was no "ladies first" or "first come, first served" or "finder's keepers". It was time to stick to the high ground, but every time Marilyn found a "sweet spot" to combine, the guy in the tracked combine would come over and cut in. Al had talked to him and he found out that this was his first day driving the combine. That was all well and fine, but he had the technology to hit the soft spots!! 

Shut up and drive.

So Marilyn proceeded in search of the high spots, but even in those, she managed to drop in. Fortunately we had the quad close at hand and by the time he got to the combine, Marilyn had the rope ready and it was a tug, and out.

That lasted for a couple of hours, then it was time to find something on the other side of the field...unfortunately, it was the same thing...down she went again. That was it. Three strikes and you're out.

The sun was starting to set and the other two machines were all but running into each other, so she waited for the pull, the called it a night. 

Al rode out with the quad driver, and helped to get the combine out, then rode back in the combine to get the General, which was now loaded.

After moving the combine back over to the other side of the field...via the road, no way she was taking another chance on getting stuck...she grabbed Al's lunch kit from the tractor and headed for the camper.

Al was unloading at the bins when she got back to the yard and once the General parked for the night, it was camper time.

One thing about getting stuck...the ladder of the deck of the combine has been revamped. Looking down from the top, normally it is completely vertical, but now with the bend in it, it is more like stairs.

"Granny" stairs, Marilyn likes to call them...