August 5

View of the day-The combine waits along sunflowers for the wheat to get dry.

Once again we were roused to the sound of thunder, rain and very dense fog. Just what we didn't need with only 35 acres left to go. We talked to a couple of other harvesters who were over at Sterling, and made plans to meet for coffee after church.

Al and the farmer took the loads from the night before into the elevator, while Marilyn fueled and serviced the combine, then cut a sample to see how long the wait would be. The sun was trying to break out, but the wind was pretty much non-existent, which really doesn't help the drying down. It was testing 14.5% moisture, so it was surprisingly close, but the elevator wouldn't take it that wet.

We tried it again around 2:00 and it was close enough to start and with only 35 acres left to go, everyone was getting antsy. The last swath was cut by 6:30 and that field was a wrap. While Al was hauling his last load in, Marilyn loaded the straight header on the trailer and got the pickup head back on and hooked up to the combine.

The farmers wife brought out a fried chicken feed to celebrate their wheat harvest conclusion, and after supper we headed back over the interstate to the campground. We never did see our company from Sterling, but we hope to maybe meet there for breakfast tomorrow.

Al got the evening off to watch his "Ice Road Truckers" on the History channel, and Marilyn finally got to go into Bismarck to get a hit of Walmart air.

Tomorrow we do a parts run north to Fessenden and Pingree...