July 3, 2012

View of the day-The Freightliner coming back to get loaded for the last time today, as the General sits in the other field waiting for repairs.


Al was up early to take the loaded Freight into the elevator in Winner and Marilyn had orders to be out at the field combining by 10:30am.  There were heat warnings out again, which didn't make Al very happy driving the Freight, but we only had 40 acres left to do, so there was a bright spot.

Al kept hopping with the Freight and it was an exhausting day...he pretty much emptied out BigO, the water cooler.  Marilyn had a rider with her for part of the last strip of wheat, Cal's brother from California had the chance to see what changes there were in combines from the JD 95 he had ridden in last. Just a little bit of change.

We thought we were finished, then one of Cal's neighbours stopped by to see if we could just go across the road and do 50 acres for him.  What the heck...we got nuthin' but time.  It was nice not to have a big move for everything to the next field and Marilyn just had to cross the road and get started.

The wheat has been running right around 50 bu/ac and it is surprising how the protein has differed in the wheat.  On one side of the road, it was around 10% and on the the other side it was 14%. But it was plenty dry...9% moisture and in 100º temps, it don't take long.

Al had asked Marilyn if there was enough fuel to finish the job we had to do and the answer was 'yes', but we added on the other 50 acres, so we were cutting it close...apparently too close.  The low fuel alarm went off just as Marilyn was getting the last hopper for the load, so after the cart was full, it was into Winner to fill the slip tank.

There was an hour lost, but once the combine was filled, we were back in business.  Al couldn't quite keep up and Marilyn had to wait a couple of times, but we knew we would have no problem finishing in the daylight.  We were down to one hopper left in the field when Al got back from the last load he was taking to town and Marilyn moved over and let Al do the driving for the rest of the field.  He really needed the a/c because driving the Freight is a tough task at the best of times.

We got the field finished and came back to the camper...done by 8:30pm.  Tomorrow we get to dismantle the General and see what we can do about the air bag.

Oh yeah...and head to the river for fireworks...