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View of the day-Getting serviced up for the last 100 acres of canola.
Friday was a day full of hope with a game plan...which turned into several, before the day was through.
Plan A-Get the combining done, which required cooperation from the weather...no sun and threat of rain would not make that easy. The guys were out warming up the machines in the morning, they got started, but it was super slow going. With only a hundred or so acres left to go, they just kept chugging along.
Marilyn had been enlisted to help her friend, Brenda, attend a quilt show in Carlyle, about 30 miles south of where we were combining. Part of Plan A was to get Al to the field, then wait for Brenda to call that she was on her way to Carlyle and passing the road to the farm...around 1 pm. Marilyn would meet her on the highway and follow her down to set up. However, Brenda got busy in the store at Yorkton and would be delayed a couple hours.
Plan B showed up when the guys were sure they would finish, even though it had sprinkled off and on. Al called to see if his trucker could make it down to haul the combine up to Canora for him. The trucker was also the same one used by one of the other custom guys that we were working with, so he needed a truck too. Fortunately, two trucks were dispatched to the farm to take care of both trips.
Marilyn's part of this second plan was to wait until she heard from Al that the truck was 40 miles away, then meet Al over at the straight header so we could load it on the high speed transport. While she was waiting for the call, she figured she might as well get the camper ready to move. She got everything disconnected and put away, then helped Al load the header, just as the trucks were pulling in.
Marilyn got the camper hooked up while the combines were getting loaded, then called Brenda. It was still busy in the store, which delayed her getting the trailer loaded to leave.
At this point we had Plan C arrive. Marilyn would move the camper to the farm at Canora, get it set up, then go back to Yorkton and hook the trailer up at the Colette's Sewing Machines Plus, where Brenda was waiting, then we would just take one truck to Carlyle.
Al had to pilot the truck hauling the combine, so we pretty much left at the same time. We got to the farm without incident, got the camper parked and plugged in. Got the combine unloaded, then Marilyn went back to Yorkton to get Brenda and the cargo trailer.
By this time, it was well after 6pm so we were way behind schedule. We had hoped to get to Carlyle early enough to set up for the 10am start on Saturday morning. We still had over two hours to drive, so we got the trailer hooked up and headed out of town.
While Al was relaxing at home, we were rolling down the highway and got about 10 miles south of Yorkton, when we went across a rough bridge, heard a noise coming from behind us. We looked in the rear view mirror to see sparks flying from the sides of the cargo trailer!
Marilyn though she had blown a tire and was riding on the rim, so she managed to get pulled well off the road, so she could safely inspect what the problem could be. By the time she stopped, and looked back, the trailer was about 30 feet behind the truck. Apparently when she flipped the lock handle down on the ball when she hooked up, the hitch had only been sitting on top of the ball, so it wasn't even hooked up.
The chains had done their job for as long as they could before the dragging of the hitch on the highway sheared them off. They were still hanging on the truck and the wires were all pulled out of the plug, but other than that, nothing was wrecked...we hoped.
We had been hauling about 20 brand new sewing machines along with various notions, material and displayers, which we hoped hadn't gotten destroyed in the chaos. We stood there in the dark, trying to assess what we should do...it was already so late...Brenda was leaning towards telling the organizers we wouldn't be able to make it. We had called Al and he was on his way out to give us a hand.
While Marilyn and Al are old hands at the trade show circuit, Brenda had not been to one for years. Add to that not knowing the venue or how we would be able to set up in the morning with only one hour and you can imaging the stress level. Brenda's sister, Colette, owns the store and is busy enough there without going on the road, but when the lady came in asking if she could please help them out, she agreed to attend...except that Colette and her husband were away touring Newfoundland. Brenda had to fill in and she is not a quilter.
So there we were on the side of the road, waiting for Al and calling the lady at the show to cancel. She was so concerned for our health and safety, that Brenda felt sorry for her and we decided to forge ahead to the show, then deal with the mayhem in the morning.
Brenda and Marilyn do a lot of set building for the theatre group and are used to the last minute pressures, because no matter how many months ahead of a production they start, you can always count on the fact that they will be putting the last touches on the set 30 minutes before curtain.
Al made it to the "wreck" and we unloaded about 10 of the machines...which were untouched...to lighten up the front end of the trailer so he could try and lift it back onto the ball of the hitch. Once Marilyn and Brenda were standing on the back of the trailer for ballast, he was able to swing the hitch into place and we were back in business. The only thing we were missing was the lights, but since the truck is so wide with the duals, the tail lights could be seen...and the traffic was pretty sparse by that time. We made it to Carlyle by 11:30, totally exhausted.
The rest of the weekend went fairly smooth, considering we were really just winging it.
There were some beautiful quilts on display and they bent over backwards to make sure we were helped with the unloading and anything else we could ask for.
Saturday night we went out to Marg and Kim's place to watch the Roughriders football game. We were able to park the truck and trailer in their shop to repair the wiring for the lights, then their son Gordie, who is a welder, put new brackets on the hitch and reinstalled the safety chains...and did an excellent job. Not like those Riders...they stunk the joint out.
Sunday the show went on and was over at 4pm. We had the tear down and load up done by 5pm and after a quick snack, were on the road home. We got back to Yorkton around 8pm, unloaded the trailer at the store and called it a night. What a crazy weekend.
Today was cloudy, misty and not conducive to combining. Al took the little Dodge in to get an oil change, then we went back down to the farm at Kipling to get our straight header moved down to Carlyle. Once we had it strapped down, we said our goodbyes to the farmers, while they were getting their seeding rig ready to go to work planting winter wheat.
We got to Carlyle, got the header parked, had a short visit, then headed for home.
Tomorrow, we are Canora bound...
View of the day-Juicing up the combine to make it through the night...or at least until it gets tough.
Another overcast day with high humidity, but fortunately, no precipitation. Al took the shop trailer out to the field to blow out the rads and filters. Marilyn came out later to do windows and by the time she finished, the combines were heading out to start picking up canola.
Once Al was finished with the shop trailer, Marilyn took it back to the camper and loaded the barbeque and a few other things into it...road trip time. We are hoping we won't be needing it...no jinx...so Marilyn would be taking it north of Canora to the farmers yard. We will be moving up there as soon as we are finished here and the trucker moves the combine.
After parking the shop trailer, Marilyn stopped at home to pick up some forgotten things from her last stay...she really needs to list things, so as not to forget them. A stop in town to get fuel and she was on the road back to the field.
Al was getting low on DEF fluid and fuel, so Marilyn brought the "fuel mule" over so he could at least have enough to finish the night...however late they decide to go. On the last 300 acres and there is rain forecast for the weekend.
Could be a late night...
View of the day-Another important job getting done. We don't often see the trucks up close, since the cart driver does the filling.
The start time was up in the air this morning, what with the low clouds, high humidity and threat of rain. We did get 35 drops on the camper, but it stayed away for the most part. Word came down the start time was to be noon...or maybe 1pm...they split the difference and cranked up at 12:30.
It was slow going to start, and the straw never did get dry...even with the wind that was blowing hard out of the east. With all five machines going again a lot of acres got covered...not as much as would have been if the sun would have shone and helped the dry down.
The half section got finished, then everyone moved over to the next field. Apparently the auto steer was not working on the swather...most of the time the line was off by 1ยบ, which doesn't seem like much, but over the half mile it makes a difference.
There was that, and the "beaver houses"...nasty big piles of canola, where God knows what was happening with the swather man. Al's theory is he must have been getting dumped by his woman...but there were way to many piles for that. It was an adventure, that's for sure.
The dust was a killer, too,but we went to 11pm just to finish the piece that we were on.
The end is in site...
View of the day-A hard wind helped to dry the canola down...more of the same.
The plan for today was to start by 10 am, so we went out earlier to do a major cleaning on the windows and seed saver. There was just enough rain to make a thick coating of crap on the glass. Add to that the wind coming up to dry the dust and goo...the fresh bucket of window water ain't so fresh anymore.
Marilyn had water issues to deal with at the camper. The rotten egg smell coming from the hot water was getting worse. We had even put in a brand new anode, which worked for a week, then it started up again. The fresh water tank got a good shot of bleach and then the hot water tank got purged and left to soak along with all the other lines in the camper. Once it got rinsed out, it was better than new...hopefully for more than a week.
There was a full fleet of five machines running today, so once again, the buggy man was hopping. They worked straight through until after 10 pm when it got too tough to put through the machines.
A long productive day...
View of the day-Another one from the drone.
It was Staples working weekend, hence the break in the blog. Al held down the fort for the weekend and had it pretty slack. There were enough sprinkles to put the brakes on combining and when it wasn't raining, the dew held things up.
The green ones are having a time of it with breakdowns, which has to be frustrating for them. A chopper, then some bearings and a few other assorted issues. At least they don't go down together...very often.
Today combining started around 10:30am...no thanks to the dew...it was slow going until late in the afternoon. This gave the combines some smooth sailing until around 10pm, when the rain started. They kept going until it started to run off the headers, then shut down.
Hopefully it is just a short shot and we won't have to wait too long to start tomorrow...
View of the day-Out the camper window...lots of action today, considering the bins each hold one and three quarters Super B's worth of canola. Lots of auger moving.
Another early day for Al as the guys went to finish off the last of the canola down south. Marilyn brought lunch out and rode around until the field was finished, then helped to get some of the trucks moved back to the yard.
The next field they moved to was just a mile from the yard, so it will be a short trip home at the end of the day.
Of course, that could also mean working later because it is so close...
View of the day-First thing this morning, everything looks so peaceful at the lineup.
Al had come home with bad news last night. He had picked up some fence wire and it had wrapped around the front of the rotor...seems to be an annual ritual. They were pretty much finished for the night so Al figured we would go out bright and early to clear it out in the daylight.
It had gotten down to freezing temperatures last night, so this morning was fresh, to say the least. With several layers on, we headed to the field to get the wire out of the rotor. With the header raised all the way and a piece of coroplast down on the ground to protect the knees from the canola stubble, Marilyn was able to get set to start.
Al helped get the trough underneath pried open and held that way with the four inch side of a 2X4. Not a lot of room to work with...but that's all we had. It took better than an hour, but eventually we got the four foot piece of barbed wire unwrapped and we were back in business.
Al started combining and Marilyn went back to the camper to make lunch and clean up after the dusty job under the combine. While she was in repair mode, she decided to take the motor off the rear stabilizer jacks on the camper, which had quit working late last year. God forbid we should have to crank manually when we have the technology to push a button and have the RV level itself on its own. All we needed now was to get the motor tested/repaired/replaced.
Marilyn took lunch out for Al and rode around a bit, then he decided to take the afternoon off and let Marilyn combine for a change...just in time to do the dance with the power poles. After checking his eyelids for cracks and getting caught up on some season premiere episodes on the DVR, he came back out to the field to swap out again.
Marilyn rode around a bit too long after he came out and got the drone out just after sunset. The wind had completely disappeared and it was all but impossible to see anything when all the combines were close together.
She had been hoping to get some aerial shots of all the dust, but just as she got it in the air, a whiff of wind started up...as did the mosquitoes, which made the flight even shorter.
Another cold night forecast...good thing the propane got topped up...
View of the day-Still dumping...this time it is the end of a field, so we can all move to the new one empty.
While doing the morning servicing, Al discovered a bolt was missing from the chain drive pulley on the pickup head. He called into Windthorst to see if they had the right bolt...they had one that would work...so he took a road trip in to pick it up. Once that was repaired, it was back to picking up canola swaths.
Marilyn had water work to do back at the camper. Even though the anode rod had been changed, she figured the hot water tank should have gotten rinsed out to get the crud out of the bottom...it was starting to smell again. She also wanted to regenerate the water softener, which requires a half a box of salt mixed with water. No salt in the camper meant a road trip to Kipling...we needed propane anyway.
After picking up the salt and a few groceries, she threw together a lunch on the road and headed down to Kennedy where the combines were working. Once Al had his lunch and she rode in the combine for a round or two, it was back to the camper to get the water refreshed.
With the softener filled with brine and soaking, the water heater got drained and the inside scoured out. Time to kill before filling everything backup again, so she decided to clean out the cargo hold. There was a lot of tools and water hose parts in tubs...an attempt at organizing. She brought along one of many empty toolboxes sitting around in the garage at home, hoping to at least get all the tools organized.
Once the cargo hold was organized...along with several "so that's where that was!" comments after finding the odd treasure, it was time to get the water running. Everything was fresh again, all tanks filled, the propane tank was back in it's spot, heating the water for the much needed showers later on.
Al had called in the middle of Marilyn's repairs to say the air filter alarm had gone off, so he cleaned it out as best he could in the field, but thought it was time for new filters. Marilyn was on the road again to Windthorst to get filters and bring them back to the field so we could install them. They had just finished the field and were making the move to the next one a mile down the road, so the timing was good.
Marilyn decided to use one of her many cooking gadgets to make some little tarts. She had picked up crust and pie filling and had everything all set to go when she opened up one of the cupboards...looking for the tart/cupcake machine...and discovered all the ziplock containers that she thought she had left at home. Another one of those-"so that's where those are...I knew I brought them!"...unfortunately, what she didn't bring was a can opener. Oh well, the tarts were delicious, made with fruit cocktail from two little lunch size containers she managed to find.
More of the same tomorrow...
View of the day-The view from Al's seat.
Early morning for Al today. A trip to Windthorst to get some disappearing fingers for the pickup head auger, then back to install them. Not all of them, though. A couple of the holes in the almost brand new auger were hammered up pretty bad from the "log" incident. There were enough in the auger to pull in the canola swaths, so now we have a couple extra backups.
We had been in a weather warning all afternoon and we could see the fluffs of clouds slowly building in the east. They eventually turned into large thunder heads, but stayed in the east, for our viewing pleasure. It's been a while since we had any bad weather and it was nice to see it pass us by...not so nice for the areas getting hit by it.
The drone came out for a short flight today. The wind has been really strong for the last couple of weeks, so it has been grounded. The wind was still pretty brisk, so it was a quick trip up, around and down.
Long day and more canola tomorrow...
View of the day-All lined up and waiting for servicing.
We were both up early today...AIS was 8 am. Marilyn wanted to get the windows cleaned for her afternoon shift and Al wanted to get the filters blown out. We got that done and Al started combining while Marilyn went back to the camper to get lunch together.
Al had a few issues with old stumps getting in and breaking a few disappearing fingers...in addition to the ones from yesterday. He also had issues with netting from the cow guys and their baling. The left over net that they would wrap the bales with would be bundled up and get caught in the pickup teeth, then start wrapping...it did not want to let go. Al got a knife out and made short work of it, but it still took time away from combining.
The field we are on is two sections, which is one mile wide by 2 miles long. The swaths run the mile long run, so as you can imagine, the buggy man has his work cut out for him. Not only is it a long trek back and forth to the trucks, he has to deal with the long swaths cutting him off from the five combines, which are on every other swath...and he can't drive over the swaths. Yes, he has to have a plan...and hope that everyone works along with it.
Al came back to the camper to watch the CFL football game between rivals, Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Marilyn got to drive combine while he was cheering on the Riders...it must have helped, they won. He came back out to the field after the game and switched out with Marilyn, until they shut down at 8 pm.
Weather looks promising for the next while...
View of the day-Change of crop, so a midday break to change headers, then fill DEF and fuel.
Big wind meant another early start to the day to finish off the last of the spring wheat. Everyone moved back to the yard around 2 pm to service and change headers from straight cut to pickup, then headed south to Kennedy to start picking up canola swaths.
We parked the straight head out in the field by the yard, then hooked up the shop trailer to take out and blow off the chaff and straw that had collected. At this point, we are done with it for the season...although, you never know.
Al started combining with the rest of the crew and Marilyn got the straight header all cleaned off, before bringing the shop trailer out to the field for radiator blowing tomorrow. Picking up swaths going east was quite a task with the wind blowing the dust and chaff to the front of the combine.
We had the header jam once and when Marilyn went out to pull out the crop to see what was in there, she got quite a surprise. there was a 6 ft half burned log that was about 8 inches across laying just under the auger in the header. She was able to pull it out and wrestle it to the ground...no camera handy for that performance. We ended up with a couple broken disappearing fingers, but were able to continue on.
The wind never slowed down after sunset, actually, it seemed like it had gotten stronger by the time we shut down just after 9 pm.
Lots more canola coming up...
