August 17, 2016 Happy Birthday Al!

View of the day-Super B picking up on the go...we don't see that often.

Yesterday we finished the winter wheat before lunch and moved back to the yard. We now have a week or so to wait before the oats will be ready, so Al gave the combine a quick clean off with the air hose, then we cleaned up and headed for Yorkton.

Marilyn had a theatre group meeting at 6pm, so we went out to the farm and picked up a few things that we needed then went back into town for supper. While Marilyn was at her meeting, Al was able to get some visiting in while she was occupied and when it was all over, we headed back to the camper. It was a late night for us.

We thought we could sleep in this morning, but Al's phone rang and it was a farmer from Wapella, about 30 miles NE of where we were. Al had called him last night...he had gotten his number from one of the guys who had worked for us years ago and who lived in the area. The farmer had some barley to cut, so we drove over to talk to him and see if he needed any help.

We found the farm and after chatting with the farmer, came back to get the combine ready to drive over. Marilyn pulled the header and led the way as Al pulled up the rear. We got there around 1:30, got the combine set for barley...another learning curve...then started cutting.

We didn't know how hard to push the combine, but we found out soon enough...Al plugged the rotor. This machine has a rotor reverser that is hydraulic, so there was no pulling required, but it did take a lot of page flipping in the manual to clarify the procedure. We got it unplugged, then carried on cutting...not an easy task with the way it was lodged and lying every which way.

We combined next to a New Holland 970 and across the field were a couple of John Deere 690's working their magic. 

We had a very competent cart driver, as well...same tractor, different cart. He was always on the run between all four combines and they never had to wait. The barley was running over 80 bushels per acre, so having three super B trucks was a necessity. It didn't hurt that the bins were only a half mile away, either. 

We were going great guns...not at breakneck speed, mind you...when it started to cloud over and sprinkle a bit. We were working around a slough, when we heard a pop, and then we could hear the turbo whining real loud. Great. Here we go again, we thought.

After taking a look to see if there were turbo pieces everywhere...there weren't...we called back to our man at Rocky Mountain Equipment and he told us to check all the pipes and clamps, since it was not blowing black like it had done before. We found the problem in the engine compartment where one of the air intake pipes had popped out of the rubber connector. Marilyn was able to fit in the compartment(which is a lot smaller than the one in the last combine)to get it back together, re-clamped, all while the lightning was starting to get closer. We finally got back to combining after that.

For about 15 minutes, before it started raining. We all rushed to the trucks to dump and get parked before coming back to the camper. We just made it to the yard when it started raining here and although it was only looking like one rogue cloud that was going to dump, it has been a couple of hours and it's still raining.

Of course, we have hopes that it only rained a tenth at the combine...