September 14, 2008

View of the day-Reflections on a summer day...it is still summer, isn't it? Way too soon for the colors to be changing

Just a heads up, if you are in Saskatchewan and can get your hands on the Regina Leader Post, Ron Petrie's story on his day in the field with us is published in Monday's paper.

Back to the show...

A not so early day by last weeks standard, but early enough. Al decided since we weren't going to get going very early today, we would go on an road trip up to Esterhazy and Yorkton.

We made Esterhazy around 12:30pm and were able to sweet talk our insurance man to go down to his office so we could renew the licence plates (tags) for our pickup and car. We were lucky we called when we did, he was on his way for a holiday to Minnisota on his bike and was leaving right after he finished with us.

We stopped out at the farmers field on the way to Yorkton to update him on our progress. He was finally getting to combine some canola, so we kept it short and moved on. We were surprised to notice pretty much all the way up to Yorkton there were way more fields standing or swathed than combined...probably only 10% had been done.

We had called ahead to have a pizza ready when we got to town...mmm...we really miss the Canadian pizza's...they just don't get it down there...the toppings are the important things. We headed up to our house to unload the batch of toys we had dropped off when we went to Carlyle a few weeks back to get the pickup head. After getting that done, we tried unsuccessfully to start the car...dead battery, and no cables long enough to reach from the pickup to the car. Al pushed it out of the garage where we were able to get the cables on and we walked over to the neighbors to pay for a hockey season ticket that she had picked up for Al and drop off some bottles of...er...beverage for lawn cutting services.

Back at the house we were finally able to get the car started and Al went into town to get antifreeze and oil to top it up, while Marilyn stopped to pick some apples off one of the trees in the yard before meeting up with Al in town. After filling the fluid, we tried starting it again, but it was dead again. Marilyn suggested purchasing a new battery for it but Al poo-pooed the idea and forged on back to Carlyle with it. Marilyn stopped to pick up some groceries before heading back in the pickup.

Al went straight out to Kisbey to see if the wheat was dry enough to go...and it was...so he finished the rest of the field then went back to the camper. Marilyn met Al's step-dad at the junction to get the latest bag of mail that he had been collecting for us. While we were standing having a chat, Marilyn noticed some wide loads coming around the curve and was quite surprised to see Holland Harvesting from Minnisota moving north on the highway. Even though we see this all season long, it seems odd to see a crew of six combines with all the support equipment moving north...especially one from the USA. On the way back, Marilyn stopped at KFC at the lake to pick up chicken for the Carlyle crew who were trying to get the last of the barley done.

Back at Carlyle a visit to the field found Kim and Mike trying to get the draper head to feed properly and finally the dark chased them home for supper. Al on the other hand was a little more productive...and the car started...although he was bummed his Seahawks lost in overtime.

And now we struggle with the internet connection...