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View of the day-Do we remember where to start? It's been so long.
Well, the tractor made it to the farm in one piece and was waiting for us. Al's plan was to wait a couple days for the yard to dry out a bit before taking the combine and shop trailer down to Kipling. We were able to use the yard at Yorkton Auction Centre...Al had the combine trailer there for a week, already...so the plan was to load Wednesday and haul out on Thursday.
Before we could do any of that, on Sunday, we took the pickup head down to Carlyle, since we wouldn't be needing it in Kipling. We got down there, had a short visit, then started back for Yorkton.
We took a look at a tree that the beavers had taken down that was on the edge of the dugout beside the house. This tree was about 12 inches across, maybe 25 feet tall...now horizontal...and it was the only tree that was touched around the entire perimeter. We didn't venture any closer...those beavers can get crazy.
Speaking of beavers, we also saw this beaver house in a slough on our way home. These beavers know how to live...there was a satellite dish on this one! The signal couldn't have been that good with the water up that high.
With the tractor and two headers gone, we were half way moved...only the combine, shop and camper to go. Al drove the combine in to work on Wednesday and had Curtis, from work pick him up from the auction yard. Marilyn picked him up from work when she was done at Staples, then it was back home to get the General. Once it was aired up and all the straps, ramps and chains were located, we went back to town with it to start loading.
The loading went really well considering how out of practice we were and the humidity and heat made us feel right at home...well, South Dakota home, at least. It seems we always load in the heat...how we managed to pick one of the few days of the summer that was actually hot, was one of those "Murphy" deals.
With the combine loaded and hooked up, we went back home to call it a night, that way we could get an early start in the morning. It ended up being not so early an evening, since we still had to get everything in the shop trailer tied down for the move...not so easy in the dark, but we got it done.
We left reasonably early Thursday morning and the only setback we had was to be following a house that was getting moved down the road. Fortunately, they did stop to let the backlog of traffic by before we hit the valley. After that, it was clear sailing...can't say "smooth" sailing on Saskatchewan roads...anything, but.
We got to the yard, unloaded the combine, got everything parked out of the way, then took a look around to see where we might be able to park the camper. There had been a lot of building going on and with this being a new job, we weren't sure what the flow of the yard was...we don't want to be in the way in the high traffic zones. Oh, well, we will figure it out when we get there with the rig.
We headed back for Yorkton, stopping in Whitewood for a quick sub, then took a detour to Grayson, to grab some lunch supplies for the camper. We took the back way home to check out the fields along the way...no signs of action, yet.
The plan is to make the final move on Sunday...but rain is forecast for Saturday...
View of the week-First load of the harvest season has been delivered to the first stop near Kipling, SK.
Plan "A" was to get the header moved down to the farmers yard on Saturday, but it had rained so we decided against that. Plan "B" was to go get the pickup head from Rogers over at Lipton...there hadn't been any rain to speak of in that direction, so we were good to go.
We were working on getting everything else up and running, after the winter off, so the yard got a little congested with all the machinery scattered around. One by one, we managed to whittle the "to-do" list down...hopefully we got everything done that we had to.
Sunday was Al's birthday, so Marilyn took him out for brunch, then we were off to Rogers. It did sprinkle a bit off and on, but no where near the mess they got down at Kipling...they were over an inch total for the two days. We got the header and took the scenic route back, since the roads are bad enough without the rough riding, pickup head trailer helping to throw us around. We made it back home and parked the trailer...it's destination will be Carlyle, but we won't need it there for a while.
On Tuesday, we figured we would attempt to get the straight header moved. Marilyn took the header to work in the morning, so we would be able to leave right after work for the 90 mile trip. It was only a short trip...relatively speaking...but just to make us feel like we had never taken the summer off, we started off the season with wheel issues. The bearing was on the brink of disintegrating on one of the rear trailer wheels. We managed to make it as far as White's Ag in Whitewood, just under the wire as they were closing up for the day. We had to leave the trailer overnight so they could fix it first thing in the morning. Just like old times.
The next day we booked off work early so we could finish the move and this time we were successful. After paying our tab we were on our way. We got to the yard and it was pretty wet, which was made worse by the fact that it was newly landscaped. We managed to get the header parked out of the way by one of the bins, had a visit with Bukes, the farmer, then started back home.
Al had decided he wanted the seat in the General covered and was going to take it to the local upholstery place. Marilyn has several sewing machines and lots of material, so she decided to do it herself...it was just a matter of getting the seat out. Simple, right? If only. The seat cushion was only bolted on, so that was no problem...the back, however, was a whole other ballgame. It refused to go without the whole mechanism.
Marilyn started searching online to see if there was somewhere to get a new seat. There were lots of places and they would ship, but that meant a few days to get the seat. After work the next day, Marilyn decided to see what there was around Yorkton, checking out the obvious places, then stopped at Truck Proz, the local heavy truck repair shop. There, in the middle of the show room, was an air seat under a plastic protector...exactly what she was looking for! After inquiring if the seat had been a special order for someone...it wasn't...and getting the price...$200 less than anything online...out came the card to pay and a boxed up seat was in the back of the pickup and she was on her way home.
We got the old seat out, got the new one put in place...would you believe it...the holes lined up! A perfect fit. We did have to get a new fitting to get the air hose hooked up, but that was an easy enough fix. Boom. A new seat without any grief. If only the door latches could work the same way. Baby steps...baby steps.
Next on the list was to get the tractor and cart moved down to Kipling. Just when we had everything arranged, we called down to see how things were going. They were now up to 5 inches of rain that had fallen! Bukes assured us it was fine to bring the tractor down and unload on the road, then it could get parked in the yard.
We had made arrangements to get Al's friend, Larry, who owns Kardynal Transport, to haul the rig, since we were now down to one truck without the Freightliner. Larry found an opening for us on Saturday, so Al took the tractor in to town Friday night and left it by the trailers to be loaded early Saturday morning...real early...5:30am early. We got there at the crack of dawn...which is coming later...and after getting it loaded and chained down, it was on it's way.
More rain, but it's getting closer...
View of the week-More old time antics, this time in North Battleford, SK.
We didn't even have time to relax after the show last week, we went back to work for a couple days, then got geared up for the next show.
We actually did a bit of "harvest" related work, getting the new header loaded on the high-speed transport trailer. The combine was already in at White's Ag, where it had been used to help the service guys get the new header assembled and running on the combine. Once they were finished with the prep, we loaded the header and Al brought the combine home.
There were still radio issues in the combine, so Marilyn went to the CaseIH dealership to see about getting another one to test and see if it was the radio, or the speakers that were the problem. Fortunately, there wasn't a pile of splicing that had to be done to get it hooked up...the cables had the exact hookups. How often does that happen?
It turned out to be the radio that was the problem, so the new one got installed and the next thing on the agenda will be to get all the spiderwebs cleaned out.
So we left for North Battleford on Thursday...just to give us some time to scope out the area and get settled in. On Friday, we went out to get set up on the grounds next to one of the main tents, just behind "Main Street" in Old Town.
The Western Development Museums (WDM)of Saskatchewan are situated in 4 different cities in the province and each one has a different theme. Moose Jaw has "History of Transportation", Saskatoon has "1910 Boomtown", Yorkton has "Story of People" and North Battleford has "Heritage Village". All have a great history of the province and Canada.
The Heritage Village has a couple of main streets with buildings that would have been around back in the "old days". We were able to set up our tent behind one of the stores on the main street, one which we hoped would protect us from the winds that were forecast for Saturday.
Roger showed up and we proceeded to get the tent set up. With the help of the practice run earlier in the week, we were able to get it set up and battened down. There were weather warnings in the area, so we decided not to take any chances by putting out the toys...not even in the boxes...everything else stayed in the cargo trailers for the night. It was a good thing.
We had quite the downpour over night, getting almost an inch of rain, and the wind had gotten up...some towns to the southeast had reported plow winds and there were a lot of trees down and power out. Roger took an early morning drive past the grounds and came back to the camper with the news that we would be doing some repair work to the tent. It was in the same spot, but the roof was a lot lower than how we had left it.
We had planned on starting the setup around 7am, but with the state of the tent, we were hoping to get everything up by noon. We had a couple of the roof braces buckle, but with the help of the guys from the WDM, we had a 2x4 stuck in the ground working as the main upright for the centre of the tent.
We got the tables set up and were only an hour or so behind the starting time, but we fought the wind all day.
We made a point of tying the tent down and anytime it looked a little "light", we pulled it down and added another spike.
The wind went down in the evening and by Sunday, we had a beautiful cool, calm day...until the sun came out. The show was over after the parade of power at 5pm, and we were lucky enough to have the sides open on the tent and a great view of the parade.
Pay no mind to the green toys...business is business.
After the parade it was time to pack up and load the trailers.Roger was going home once he got packed, but we had decided to stay over one more night, so we wouldn't get home in the middle of it. We still haven't decided
We got Roger loaded up and on his way, then proceeded to get our stuff put away and the tent taken down. We never really noticed until we were almost finished, that there wasn't anyone left on the grounds. No one.
They hadn't even driven by to see when we would be out. We were locked in.
Fortunately, we knew a back way out. Too bad it was not passable due to the big rain...it was blocked off. We were lucky to find a guy out by the boon-docking trailers that let us out the gate and we were able to find a back road around the mud bog to get back to the highway and home to the camper. What a weekend.
This was a display in the old service station...Marilyn could hear Al asking for the 3/4 wrench..."the one right there...can't you see it?"
We got back home Monday afternoon, parked the camper on the lawn and tried to get rejuvenated and "in the zone" to go back to work.
Harvesting is just a couple weeks off for us, so now it is time to get back into that zone.
Al even got the General out of the bushes and aired up the tires...
View of the month-Our shortest way into town became impassible after 8 inches of rain.
A lot of water has passed under the bridge...and over it...since the last post, but it's time to get caught up.
We took our three week road trip...not the one Marilyn had hoped for to the maritimes...this one was about, all things toys. We left Yorkton with the camper and made it to Jamestown, ND the first night. Day two got us to Albert Lea, MN, then on day three, we made it the rest of the way to Dyersville...or rather, the campground 10 miles east at Farley.
We had arrived early enough to check things out around the toy show...you know, see where the bargains were...and we took advantage of that, coming back to the camper with a few things. Actually, we got back with more than just a few things as we had gone to visit the ladies at Bossen Implement to pick up some toys that Al and Roger had ordered.
Good thing we were travelling a lot lighter that what we normally do in the camper...every bit of space was needed and we weren't even a couple days into the tour. Marilyn did manage to find a replica of the Freightliner that will be getting revamped just to look like it's old self.
Seeing the summer toy show was a lot different than the fall one in November. Al got a few boxes of treasures at the auction that was held thr first night.
We thought with the great weather, there would be a lot more vendors on the street, but it was just as well there weren't...the purchases were already piling up.
After spending a couple of days checking things over, we had seen all we wanted of the toy show, so it was time for some touring.
Since we always miss out on the Mississippi riverboat cruise in the fall, we made a point of booking the Saturday sunset cruise before we left home.
This was a prime rib supper cruise which was supposed to be three hours long and included a trip through the locks. Unfortunately, due to the level of the river, that part was cut short...and it was raining, so we didn't spend a lot of time up on the deck. The supper area was glassed in and we were seated with a couple from Des Moines, IA celebrating their anniversary.
The meal was delicious and the cruise was relaxing, except for a table of noisy people who made it impossible to hear what the captain was telling us. We did get to go up to the wheelhouse and talk to the captain personally and got to find out a lot about the river and the paddle wheeler.
Our next stop was Wakonda, SD, where we stopped for the night...with another downpour. We had to pick up some more toys that Al had purchased over the internet and to drop off a couple of items that he was getting Girard's Auction to put in their next toy auction. Then we were on our way to Chamberlain, SD for a couple days.
Our main reason for stopping in Chamberlain, was the auction sale at the CaseIH dealer. We had purchased several toys over the years from this "old style" dealer.
We actually had to dig through a pile of boxes in the corner every time we went into the store...it was like Christmas. Now, the building had been sold and the owner was retiring...he was almost 90, so it was time.
They had called us to let us know about a couple of pieces of advertising that we had asked about every time we stopped in...they were good enough to leave them out of the auction so we could purchase them.
Was there STUFF at this auction!
Al came away with a few toys, but the way they had things grouped together,
he also became the owner of several huge banners, some posters and other advertising items, while Marilyn got a new cooler and lunch bag.
All CaseIH, of course. The camper was filling up.
With the auction out of the way, it was time to move north to LaMoure, ND for their big summer toy show. This time we were able to park right behind the school, which was where the show was held. We got there a day early...to sniff around...and just take it easy from the driving. More rain.
We didn't come away with a lot of stuff from the toy show, although what we did was quality...read that to mean "spendy". After three days there, we were off to Pingree, ND.
We were able to get a lot of visiting in while we were parked behind the 281 Stop and once again, we got caught in a wicked downpour, just getting missed by a tornado 5 miles north of us. After four days of relaxing, we headed east to Mahnomen, MN and the Shooting Star Casino campground.
We had seen a video of Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap Tour at the Yorkton Film Festival at the end of May and Al had mentioned that it would have been great to see that live. Marilyn got online to see where they were touring and ended up getting tickets to see Bachman & Turner at the casino. They rocked a lot of Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive tunes and for two guys in their 70's, they put on a hell of a show for 90 minutes without stopping.
That was the last stop on the big "Toy Tour" and now it was time to head back home. All the while we were on the road, we would be thinking about where we would be if we were still on the harvest run. We were both missing it...Marilyn more so...but when we thought about the loading in the heat, the driving, the DOT, we weren't missing it so much.
We made it back home safe and sound and we both went back to work...seemed odd to be doing that at this time of year. Al made a point of getting the toys on display in the camper so his friends could stop by and shop. Now we had to get used to the summertime things, like mowing the lawn and trying to escape the mosquitoes. Then, we had a few days of rain...HARD rain...almost 8 inches. Lots of flooding in town, we were alright on the top of our hill with no basement to worry about.
While we didn't need to worry about our house, we did have to worry about how we would be getting to town. By the time all the water had gotten into the creeks and streams, our main road into town was flooded out...not washed away, just cover with flowing water for quite a distance. What was usually a 6 mile run to town, was now a 15 mile run to town and as if that wasn't bad enough, that road was under water for a couple of days, so we were stranded out at the house, waiting for the water to subside.
Since we were spending the better part of the summer at home, Marilyn decided it was time to have a deck on the front of the house, so she could put up the bargain gazebo she bought last fall. After coming up with some basic plans, getting the lumber and doing the construction after work and on weekends, Marilyn and her theatre building buddy, Brenda got the deck done and the gazebo up. Too bad we still have to deal with the moquitos, although the dragonflies have finally showed up, which has thinned them out.
We are starting to think about getting in the "harvest zone". We have some winter wheat that is first on the list about 100 miles south of us...it is still a ways off, but no sense in leaving things until the last minute. We got the combine out, and serviced up all the items on the list from the "Uptime Inspection" we had done over the winter at the CaseIH dealership. We even made it to the CaseIH combine clinic at our local dealer...that was a first.
After a last minute decision, Al and Roger decided to set up a few tables at our Western Development Museum's annual Thresherman's Show.
They had a big tent set up for handicrafts and the like, so a few tables of farm toys were just what the doctor ordered.
They didn't have high expectations, but were pleasantly surprised by the interest in the toys and the sales made. Looks like next year will be a go.
The show was really interesting, with a lot of old time music right by our tent and demonstrations of the "old school" way of doing things.
Al had been approached to take his toys on the road to a "Red Power" show in North Battleford. This show is featuring International Harvester collectors and getting some red toys in there seemed like a good plan. In order to get set up for the show, we decided to take the camper, which meant we had to get a hitch put on the back to tow the toy trailer.
Now we are set up to go on the road with the toys and we even have our party tent to set up in...we even practiced putting it up in the yard so we wouldn't kill each other trying to set it up in public.
We'll see how that goes...
