October 26, 2016

View of the day-The combine waits to finally get the straight canola done...almost a month after we left it.

Well it has been a while since we had an update but when it is raining you don't do much harvesting and there's not a lot to tell. 

The last entry had us finishing the hard red spring wheat, which left us with a 135 acres of Canada Prairie Spring wheat...but once again the weather decided when we would harvest it. 

We hung out at Carlyle for couple of days...there was no improvement on the weather...the farmer tried it and the wheat was 20.2% moisture.  We decided to head back to Yorkton on Tuesday the 18th and wouldn't you know it...the next day we got the call that the wheat was at 19%, close enough. With more rain predicted for the upcoming weekend it was go time. 

With both combines and Al driving the cart we got the last of the wheat done by 10:30 Wednesday night on the 19th.  This left us with 45 acres of standing canola for the next day.  

The farmer still had 375 acres of canola left, which was in swaths, but a neighbour had come over to help him get that picked up.  We finished the standing canola about 5:00 Thursday the 20th. 

We thought we were finally done...however, we got the call from the farmer that they could use our help picking the canola swaths. We changed headers and moved over to where they were working. 

It was a late night with the 3 combines and we managed to get it down to about 200 acres left for the next day. But, once again, about 6:00am on Friday morning a small rain shower went through the area. Fortunately the sun came out and we had a strong wind so at 2:00 we got going the canola was 12.8% but it was close enough because the forecast was not good. 

Again, with the 3 combines and Al running the cart, things went well. At 8:00pm we finished the half section and moved to the last field...it was a section but the farmer had most of it done.  The problem was we were not sure where the swaths started or stopped and the dust was incredible from the 3 combines. At 11:00pm we got the call from the farmer that we had gotten all the swaths picked up and it was a wrap.

Done. Good thing. The next day, Saturday the 21st it rained almost 2 inches!  Back to Yorkton for good.

On Monday we went back down to Kipling from Yorkton to clean up the header. We brought the General and shop trailer home to park them for the season. The next day, Tuesday, we got another inch of rain. 

The combine should be coming home Thursday and then the header gets put away at Kim's at Carlyle...where it usually winters.  This year it will be travelling down without the high speed transport trailer...Al has decided to finally get a different style. Not that it has to make the 2000 mile run like the old days.

There is still so much crop out, but the weather just won't cooperate and with all the rain, field travel with the equipment is continuing to be a real problem.  We have gotten so many calls from people looking for help, but being this late and with conditions the way they are, Al thinks we are done for the 2016 harvest.

So now we work getting the house ready for the winter season...the eaves need cleaning badly but the grass looks pretty good considering Al likes cutting it now with the riding mower. We still have a couple of trees that refuse to let go of their leaves and they are the ones that fill the eaves the worst, so that job is on the back burner.

We had satellite dish issues the last few days at the camper at Kipling and it continued when we tried to set it up at home. A bad time of year, especially with the baseball playoffs and NFL in full swing. We finally ended up buying a dish to mount on the house, instead of the auto one that had LNB problems. 

We had to jury-rig a mount, but it worked out fine and even after being out of the dish-aiming game for so many years, Marilyn got it aimed in time for the World Series. We did have to do a bit of tree trimming to get the best signal, which prompted Al to say…on several occasions throughout the effort…“why do I keep thinking this will be shown on “The Science of Stupid” show?” A ladder in the box of the pickup with an electric sawzall…what could go wrong? And for a change…nothing did.

Marilyn is going back to Staples next week for a few days, then we are on a toy show run. There is a one day show at Tisdale on Nov. 5, which should be interesting...Al has so many toys jammed into the new trailer and we only have so many tables to set up...for one day only! Pretty sure there will be some colorful words thrown around.

From there, we will be driving to Red Deer, Alberta for the Agritrade show. This one is four days long and we are going two days early, so the set up will be leisurely and we might even get to look around a bit. Once we get back, Al will be back at the grind at H&R Block, so harvest will be officially over.

We still have the dreaded job of cleaning the combine...