October 27

View of the day-The sun sets behind the metal wheat on the family farm sign. There are a lot of unique signs like this one all over the area.

Al was able to talk Marilyn into going for an early breakfast, since there would be no combining for a while. We did get a frost last night so everything was a bit wet after the frost melted. There was a rain shower about 5 miles to the north, but it never amounted to much and it never threatened us.

We got the truck unloaded, the combine serviced and fueled, then replaced two of the plastic collars that the disappearing fingers fit through. Al had been dealing with the constant ticking...more like clunking...as the finger was slopping around in the hole on the auger. It was a steady noise that could be heard across the field, so he was really happy to get the guides in...sort of like the water torture...every two seconds...metal on metal...oh well, it's fixed now.

Marilyn had lots of time on her hands today so she and Donna washed all the windows on the house. Once the sun came out it was really quite nice...a perfect day for windows. Once all the windows were clean, the storm windows got washed and installed and the screens put away for another winter. The box elder bugs (maple bugs where we come from) are unbelievable here. While cleaning the basement windows, it was almost impossible to keep them off the windows, even after flinging them off with a brush. The only repellent Donna had was wasp and hornet killer, so Marilyn used that to keep them away long enough to get the storms back on. It was supposed to kill on contact, but the only way it seemed to work was to drown them in it...which she did.

Al kept going all day, no breakdowns, no fires, quite uneventful, really. Once he decided to call it quits, Marilyn got a ride out to the field with Mike and brought the grain truck back to unload in the morning while Al drove the combine home so he could clean it off in the morning. He's claiming we get to sleep in tomorrow.

After all, Sunday is a day of rest...