August 22, 2012

View of the day-Well...yesterday. Somehow this one never made the upload. Al getting ready to pull into the yard with the last load.

We had a list of things to do today...small things, but necessary.  We stopped to pick up some antifreeze and Bars Leak for a small leak on the tractor radiator, then went for fuel.  While Al was getting the fuel, Marilyn ran into A&W to grab a quick snack, then met Al at the  Coop cardlock.

We went to the cardlock to get diesel for the tractor, and the pumps were screwed up, but we still spent 30 minutes trying to get them to work.  No point in putting a sign up saying it's not working, right?  The guy even came out and tried to fix it, but we're pretty sure he didn't succeed...we had no time to wait.

We dug into the bag of snacks that Marilyn had picked up, only to find they had screwed up the order...Al made short work of going in and getting it "straightened" out. What could happen next?

It was cloudy all day and it really looked like it was going to rain at any moment, but we lucked out and were able to get started combining.  We had a bit of servicing to do before we got going...Al tightened the reverser chain and shortly after we started, it was making a heck of a racket.  We checked it out and could see that it was stretched, so we loosened it back a bit to stop the clatter.  Then Al sent Marilyn back to town to pick up a new 10ft box of 80H chain.

Marilyn did as ordered, but nearly choked when she got the bill...$2.43 per inch X 120 inches...yee-ouch...with taxes $350! That's some kind of chain.  That didn't help Al's mood much.  After getting the chain, Marilyn tried to get fuel again...same $hit, different pile. No fuel.

We finally got on a roll and between the three combines...Al, Kim in his Case 2388 and Kim's dad Bob in his JD 9600...we got the field lapped up around 3pm.  We went back to the farm with the combine, while Kim moved 8 miles up to the next field to do a test on the canola.  We waited for the results.

While we waited, Marilyn's friend, Teresa, was passing through on her way back to Yorkton and stopped in to get caught up and fill Marilyn in on all that had been going on at home over the summer.  The rest of the crew stopped to eat in the house where Marg had picked up pizza for supper...nice, thick, cheezy pizza.

Al had taken the combine and headed up to the other field and got started on the outside round with Kim and Bob.  After Teresa left for home, Marilyn went up to the field to keep Al company.  Some of the "beaver houses"...great tall lumps of canola that got caught in the swather made for some delicate work on the reel speed button, but Al got it done without plugging the feeder house.

We were getting drops of rain on the windshield off and on...there was a 30% chance of thunderstorms and the way the bugs were clouding up, we knew there was something coming.  As Kim was coming around with the outside round, you can see the swarms.

This field has the local drive-in on it and it still has shows every weekend.  Dark Knight Rising is on this weekend, but we will likely be done before we get to "sneak a peek"...