October 21, 2019

View of the day-It is, actually today and the end is somewhat in site.

There was not a lot of harvesting done after the snow, we went back to Yorkton for, what we hoped, was a few days. We got a few things winterized and parked away for the season and Marilyn went back to work at Staples until the weather turned around.

Thursday, Oct 2, Al had gotten a letter from a toy collector that was wanting to get rid his collection. After checking over the items on the list, Al decided it would be a good investment. It worked out that we still had to wait on the weather, so we made a road trip to Altona, Manitoba to pick up the collection...just a 1000+km round trip.

Friday, October 3, Al had hopes of combining, so he went back to Kipling. He had picked up an aeration fan in Yorkton for his brother-in-law, Kim from Carlyle. He met up with him to make the drop and by the time he got back to the field, it started to drizzle. No harvesting again.

Saturday, October 5, The next day was another cold and windy day with no combining. Since we weren't going to be using the straight header any more, Al got it all cleaned up...but not washed.


Sunday, October 6, they finally got going and had a pretty good day in the canola. Marilyn was still in Yorkton working, thinking about going back to the camper, if the weather held.


Monday, October 7, the guys were hard at it combining as much as they could again. Back in Yorkton, Marilyn got a phone call from her sister, Marg, that their youngest brother, Brian, had passed away suddenly from heart failure. He had just turned 55 in June and had no history of heart problems. It was a shock.

Tuesday, October 8, more combining, but this time they were trying to get ahead of the weather that was forecast to be on the way.


Wednesday, October 9, we woke up to snow and wind...pretty much blizzard conditions. We were going to have a few more days off, that's what 6 inches of snow will do...not what anyone wanted.

Thursday, October 10, Al and his toy buddy, Mike, took some of the toys he had bought to meet a buyer in Indian Head...already there was a turn around for the collection. Marilyn was back at Staples, since we were at home.

Friday, October 11 with more snow in Kipling, and not even an estimate of when we could get combining again, Al decided to get our hauler to take the combine up to Canora, 200km north of Yorkton. They didn't get near the moisture that we had in Kipling and we had worked up there in the past, so we had to do something to keep going.

Saturday, October 12, the Canora crew were able to combine and covered a lot of acres. With three New Hollands, one John Deere and Big Red, there was lots of horsepower, but no grain cart here. No matter, the truck driver would chase over to the combine and pick up on the go.

Marilyn and her sister drove to Moose Jaw to have a Thanksgiving lunch with their mom and dad. Their oldest brother, Tim and his wife, Naomi had come from Calgary and brought their brother Brian's wife, Christine. It was a day of being with family and realizing just how short life can be. Brian lived every day to the fullest and his sense of humor and amazing guitar skills will be greatly missed.

Sunday, October 13, more Canora combining. With the camper still at the farm in Kipling, the 45 minute drive from Yorkton cuts into the productivity...not that you could get an early start anyway.

Monday, October 14, Al was having air filter problems...having to stop and blow it out more times than he would like to. It rained in the evening, shutting down the machines around 8:30pm. 

Tuesday, October 15, we picked up a couple of new air filters, hoping that would solve the problem. Al had talked to one of the service guys at the dealership and he suggested we take a look at one of the exhaust pipes to see if it was plugged. We did just that when we got out there and boy...was that the problem. After cleaning it out, there was never another issue with it.

Wednesday, October 16, a bit of rain put the kibosh on combining, so Al had time to put the dozer blade on the tractor...it went back on a lot easier than it came off. 

He also went to do something that he had watched a lot of customers do over the past 30 years of harvesting. 


He went to watch our land renters combine our canola.

Thursday, October 17, the guys got going around 1pm and after a long day, whittled it down to one more day to finish.

Friday, October 18, Marilyn drove Al to Canora for the last day of combining. They finished in the early afternoon, then Al started roading the combine back to Yorkton. The plan was to have it hauled back down to Kipling, but the trucker was busy hauling other equipment, so couldn't do it.

Saturday, October 19, a day off as the trucker was still busy. They did manage to get the combine loaded just at dark, ready for an early start on the road on Sunday.

Sunday, October 20, got the combine hauled to Kipling and started right in. Had a pretty good day, considering one of the combines had not showed up. Marilyn had to work at Staples and decided to wait until Monday morning to drive back to Kipling.

Monday, October 21, the crew got started combining early, then Marilyn showed up early afternoon with lunch for Al. Another long productive day...and another combine showed up. A Versatile, no less. 

It's dang cold in the camper, the water freezes up...but, there is light at the end of the tunnel..