View of the day-The combine waits across the road for the trip into town to get some work done. The canola blooming makes for a beautiful view every morning.
We got ready for our trip to Killarney, Manitoba for their Pioneer Days, taking the camper on it's first trip of the season. We got everything hooked up and ready to go directly after work, so we could make some time and get parked before dark. We made it to Brandon, which left just over 60 miles for the next days drive.
Since it was a short drive and we couldn't get in to set up before 2pm, we didn't rush to get out of Brandon at the crack of dawn. Good thing, too, since that happens pretty early at this time of year. We got to Killarney, parked the camper and got the A/C blasting, then went over to start setting up. The empty table always look so daunting at the start of the show.
The building was relatively cool, but the humidity was so high, the load in made it seem like a sauna. There was a lot of discussion as to whether it was more uncomfortable to be setting up in 35ºC/95ºF or -35ºC/-31ºF...while neither is pleasant, you can always add more clothes as it gets colder. At least there is no worry about blizzards in the summer.
We got everything set up and ready for the morning, then went back to the camper to cool off. Roger and Linda Miller had come to set up for the show just across the aisle from us and they were camped right next door, so when the evening cooled off, we were able to visit outside. 
The next day, it was action time, with people coming to check out the old machinery that was in the field next to the building where we were set up. 
Marilyn took a stroll around to see what kind of things were demonstrating...watching the setup in the sawmill was pretty neat, as was the several unsuccessful attempts to get the belt to stay on the thrashing machine.
There were a lot of well maintained or restored old tractors and watching the Minneapolis-Moline double tractor was another head-scratcher. 
The weekend was a success and by Sunday afternoon, we were ready to head for home...but first it was load up time in even more sultry conditions.
There were weather warning all day and we did have a couple of nasty systems go through on Saturday, but we kept our eyes to the sky and loaded like mad as soon as the doors were closed.
We had just headed out of town with our load, when we ran into some heavy rain and when we were about 10 miles north of town, we heard an alarm on the radio that a tornado was funneling down, just 6 miles north of Killarney. No damage from that one, but we were glad to get out of the area before it hit. We managed to stay ahead of the heavier rain all the way back to Yorkton.
We were able to attend the combine clinic put on by the CaseIH dealership in Yorkton. After hearing all the new changes to the next series of combines coming down the line, we thought maybe, rather than looking for a newer series used combine, we should wait until next year to check out the latest and greatest.
The likelihood is neither.
We got to take the golf cart on an outing last weekend, to the Drag Races out at the airport. It was a "bring your own lawn chair" event, so we did. Al's boss, Curtis, was racing, so we got to see a lot of jazzed up cars making some pretty good time down the track. It seemed like some of the street legal ones that we had thought were pretty fast during some of the trial runs, looked like they were crawling after the ones that topped out at 150 mph in 1/8 mile. It was an entertaining day, even with the strong north wind and while the cloud threatened to dump at anytime, we made it home just before the downpour hit.
It's getting closer to harvest time for us...finally. We got the header tuned up and ready for action, then took it down to the farm at Kipling where we will start in a few weeks. The combine is getting a few things repaired before the big rush is on. The bearings went on one of the augers in the auger bed below the rotor and although we could have done it, it just seemed more sensible to let the pros do it, since we are both still working full time...and it is a tight spot to get into.
Al was out to check on the canola that is planted on our land...the blooms are dropping and the pods are filling out.
Things will start changing in a hurry, now...
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