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View of the day-It's been a long week of due to rain by the look of this growth on the header.
We did get the weekend off...and then some. Marilyn ended up staying in Yorkton until yesterday and Al came up for a couple of days, to do a few "rainy day" jobs. While we ended up with 1.5" of rain at the combine, some places were at the 4"+ range.
While Marilyn was at home, she decided to do a job that had been needing to get done for several years. Al has a lot of toys that belong in his collection stored in various closets and cupboards around the house. We have no basement, so storage space is at a premium.
The front hall double closet's top shelf has a short opening that requires the items to be lifted up and the new items put underneath for them to fit. This shelf was jam packed and Marilyn had no idea what was in the back, or at the top for that matter. We had also been wanting to catalogue all his toys, so with the days off, this was the perfect chance.
It took some doing to get them all out and set up in the dining room. This picture is all the items from the closet, with the exception of the two 1/16 Big Roys on the chairs and the gold Steiger on the top of the cabinet.
After opening each box, taking the tractor out, taking a picture, then repacking, Marilyn "restocked" the closet shelf. This time she decided to put the Big Roys all together by adding the 1/16 set with the 1/32 and 1/64. Everything was back where it belonged...since we don't have an extra room for displaying them properly.
Next on the toy extravaganza was to make a display with some of the Versatile tractors, which are the main style that Al collects. Marilyn had cleaned out the china cabinet in one of her "purge" sessions, so there was now some room to put them. The only problem now, was that she realized the Big Roys were the main ones she had earmarked a couple of shelves for...and they were packed at the back and bottom of the closet shelf.
Fortunately, the stacking job had been done in such a way that it only took a short time to dig them back out and replace them with toys from other cupboards in the house. After a few hours of figuring out where all the tractors that she had found were going to sit, her work was done. Sort of. Al will have to group them according to series, style, etc. Marilyn went by color and decal style.
This shelf had a a few Versatiles already, but the rest of the non ones got moved to make space for the Versatiles scattered on other shelves around the house.
This one has all Al's CaseIH and IH combines and Case related items...belt buckles, badges, notepads, etc. And his MacDon sign.
This is the main cabinet that has the Big Roys and a couple of other older Versatile tractors that he had spent time re-collecting after selling his complete collection a few years back.
It's true...it's not the "having", it's the "getting". Marilyn always jokes that whatever Al spends on toys, she gets the equal amount to spend on her "stuff". Al complains that she spends too much on her sewing/embroidery machines. Marilyn is pretty sure she has some catching up to do.
So that gets us to today. We finally got going in the barley and it was reasonably dry. At least dry enough for the farmer, so it was full speed ahead. We cut until dark, which was when the humidity was high enough to make it tough going and we quit for the night. Another factor in shutting down was there were a lot of hills on this land and we didn't want to take any chances on a wrong turn in the dark.
There is a threat of some rain again, but it is the weekend and you know what those weather reports are worth...
View of the day-Courtesy of Al's new flip phone, the last dump of the day, thanks to the rain.
After finishing yesterday, we knew we would have a week or so off while the canola swathing got underway.
Al made a phone call over to Langbank to see if the farmers we had cut for in the past and anything to combine before the predicted rain was supposed to hit. They did, so Al and Markus moved two combines over to the field...a short 10 mile or so drive. Marilyn went to pick them up and bring them back for their vehicles, so they would have a way to get back home.
After the guys got started combining, Marilyn went back to the camper to get a few things together to go back to Yorkton for the weekend. It was time for her bi-weekly shift at Staples and this time it was timed with the rain...which it did at the camper while she was getting loaded up.
It didn't rain out at the field, although it was threatening and we hadn't seen the sun all day. However, after a couple of hours of combining, it finally hit with a downpour...we won't know how much until we check the gauge on the combine...and the guys shut down and went home.
It sounds like this means the weekend off for Al...unless the sun shines and the wind blows...
View of the day-Time to get rid of all that itchy barley chaff.
Another early-ish start to the day. This one was courtesy of warm temps and a strong SE wind. We all got going around 11 and while there wasn't a lot left for five machines, what remained was scattered, so there was a lot of driving.
We finished around 3pm, then waited to see if the winter wheat was going to be dry enough to attempt cutting. While we waited, we had the shop trailer out in the field, so Al blew out the rads and engine compartment...the wind helped quite a bit with that.
We got word from the farmer the moisture in the wheat was way too high, so our day was done. After finishing the short cleanup, we headed back to the yard with the combine.
Now we wait to see if the rain misses us...
View of the day-All that barley dust makes for a very itchy day.
Got somewhat of and early start to the day...at least we had gotten the servicing done early. Al discovered a small leak in one of the fuel lines on the engine, so we attempted to repair it with some special "Rescue Tape". It was a return line, so there wasn't a lot of pressure, but with the diesel soaked chaff that managed to find its way between the wraps, it didn't hold very long...as a matter of fact, it was spraying onto the muffler, so combining stopped.
Al called over to Young's Equipment to see if they had the part and after they sent over a picture for confirmation, Marilyn was ready to hit the road to Windthorst to pick it up. However, the road trip was not necessary because the service man was on his way out to work on the 8240's diesel exhaust fluid(DEF) system, so he brought it with him. How often does that happen?
We got the hose changed, which cured the problem and were back in business. Shortly after we got rolling, the 8120 showed up at the field, then the 8240, all fixed up, made it back in the rotation, along with the John Deere, which had a late start as well.
The rest of the day was uneventful, as far as breakdowns go, and it was an early shut down around 8:30pm. We wouldn't get finished tonight and it was getting tough as the sun disappeared, so there was no sense in wrecking something.
Tomorrow the barley should get done and it will be before the rain hits...no jinx...
View of the day-Busy day in the field today.
We got started before noon on the winter wheat, having a good strong wind helped out quite a bit. We still had to do a lot of patching out of the green stuff, so once we had caught up to the worst of it, the pin got pulled and we moved back to the barley.
The barley was a LOT drier than it was a couple days ago, it was smooth sailing for most of the day...no patching out needed. No breakdowns to speak of either, which was pretty nice for everyone involved. This year there are three CaseIH combines, an 8010, an 8230, an 8240, plus a John Deere S670. Tomorrow there will be another CaseIH 8010 joining the crew.
After the sun set, the situation changed fairly rapidly and by 9:30, it was time to shut down for the night.
With rain in the forecast for Thursday night, it will be an early start and a long day tomorrow...
View of the day-Not often they all line up so nice with little or no wind blowing.
We got an earlier start to the day, but not in the barley. The decision was made to move down to Kennedy to try the winter wheat and see if it was any better. The farmer went first to do a test...no sense in moving all machines if we couldn't start...but after a look, they felt it was good enough to go.
Everyone got moved down and started in on the first field. Most of the time there was dust, however there was still a lot of green in various patches, so the hope was that it would blend off in the big cart. So we kept going.
Things went good for most of the day...except for the patching out of the green spots, which slowed productivity. Then about 6ish, Al hit a green spot and plugged the rotor. The hardest part about getting it slugged out was trying to remember the steps to cough it out. We lost about 45 minutes and did a bit of cursing at the level of tightening the service guys at Rocky Mountain used to bolt the concaves in.
We went until dark...which is coming earlier all the time, it seems...the shut down for the night.
The weather was perfect for harvesting today. Let's hope it stays that way for a while...
View of the day-It's a later start this year, but we are finally getting the rust off the cutterbar.
We have been parked at the farm at Kipling for a couple days now, but the combine had been hauled down last weekend. We worked on it, getting the settings tweaked, ready to jump right to work once we got the go ahead, but the weather refused to cooperate. So we waited.
Finally, it seemed like we were going to have a productive day, the sun was out and there was a strong wind blowing. We got started just after lunch and were able to get a few hoppers before the brakes got put on...a backup at the bins due to an auger issue gave us a mid afternoon break.
The barley is in various stages of ripening, so the moisture is still all over the place, this, combined with the high yield, would have had us backed up anyway.
There are four combines running and one 2000bu grain cart to fill the two super B grain trailers...thankfully it is only a couple miles back to the bin site.
After the auger was repaired and the trucks emptied, we all went back out to do a little more. Since it had clouded over and the grain was not getting any better moisture wise, we had to shut down for the day.
Back to the camper for an early night and more waiting...
