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View of the day-The farmer's son "bale surfs" as his dad pulls a stack of bales on the hauler.
We didn't wake up to rain for a change...no...it showed up just after dinner. It never ends.
While it sprinkled off and on throughout the afternoon, we worked on the books. Al calling out the numbers and Marilyn entering them. It took a couple of shifts to get it done, but by midnight we had that job wrapped up. It quit raining and the sun attempted to show itself a few times, but never really succeeded in winning the battle with the clouds.
We took a break around 5pm, Marilyn walked downtown and Al met her at the community store shortly after. Once we picked up a few groceries, we decided to take a trip to Robinson, ten miles east of Tuttle. We checked out the fields of wheat we will be combining (someday...sigh) then cruised into Robinson to check it out. On our way in, we passed a young lad sitting on a tractor roof by some bales in the ditch, we recognised him as the farmer's son so we stopped for a chat. He was waiting for his dad to show up with the trailer to haul the bales home.
After leaving town, we could see the trailer was in the ditch getting ready to pick up the bales so we stopped to watch and have a chat with the farmer after he was done with the bottom layer. His son scrambled up to the top of the bales just as he was backing under them and proceeded to "surf" them as the trailer moved underneath the stack...kids...
We went back to Tuttle, had supper...Al put a mark on the calendar noting that Marilyn had actually used the stove in the camper. While we were working, we thought we heard a semi passing by on the road, then we realised...oh crap...thunder. Yep, a look on the radar showed a tiny red cell on the map heading our way. Fortunately it was all bark and no bite as it passed by with nary a spritz. We tied back into the bookwork again, and before you knew it, it's 1am and the blog is finally getting done.
Not gonna jinx by saying anything about tomorrow...
View of the day-The jaws of the header as it waits for the combine and the weather.
The meteor shower kept Marilyn up till the early hours, since she figured the "city" lights were cutting in on some of the smaller flights, a trip in the country was in order. Once a couple miles out and on a high hill, the night sky was perfect for viewing. Marilyn had company too as the coyotes were singing, somewhat in unison, to the heavens above. It was after 2:30am when the truck pulled up to the camper and it was time to call it a night...er, morning. What an awesome experience, it makes one feel so small to look up and see a part of the universe overhead and realise how insignificant we really are. We can't possibly be the only life out there...can we? Maybe the daily episode of Star Trek Voyager that we watch is coloring our thoughts.
Unlike the clear night sky, the morning brought low clouds and high humidity, which refused to leave until 6pm. We only did one test today around 5pm...what a waste, 14.8%, the humidity never did get below 58%. And where was the "high 90's" we were supposed to get? Even with the "humidex" it never got above 88 and that won't dry anything out. No one was combining in the area, so it didn't hurt so much.
With no shopping opportunities in town, Marilyn decided it was high time to tackle the bookwork that had been put on hold since, oh...say...May! Yeah, fortunately we do keep a filing system in the pickup with us so it was pretty much sorted, it was just a matter of entering everything into the computer. Except that we had upgraded the accounting software in the spring and it didn't want to work without reloading. It didn't take much convincing to just leave the entering for another day.
That pretty much was the day for us and as the evening rolled in, so did the clouds. The outside of the camper is as wet as if it had rained, with condensation running off of it.
And now looking outside...thick fog...sheesh...
View of the day-The man we seem to see the most often checking yet another sample at the elevator in Tuttle.
With a day full of promise and a sky full of clouds, it was once again a waiting game. It was after noon before the sun started to dry things out...sort of. Al unloaded the truck full from yesterday and Marilyn took a test in around 3pm and it tested 16.8%, far from good enough.
We spent most of the day doing constructive things...watching TV, surfing and hoping the barley would dry down so we could finish the last 50 acres and get on to the wheat. We did another test at 6:30 and it was down to 14.2, but it needed to be below 13.5% so we gave up for the day. It never did get all that warm, maybe 74 and the humidity refused to get below 55% neither of which helped dry things out.
Another "super-do-nothing" day, getting caught up with things at home. Marilyn's sister Marg, and her son Gordie have their camper parked out at our house in Yorkton for the week while Gordie is attending the Highway 10 hockey school. A shame we don't get to entertain them while they are there. Marilyn always needs an excuse to hit the wave pool when Gordie comes to town.
Meanwhile back in Tuttle it's time to head out to watch the meteor shower...
View of the day-The apples in our back yard at Tuttle.
What a night! We must have been roused three different times by the thunder shaking the camper. The first round started just after midnight and passed to the north of us, the second round was about 3am and it too went north. The last blast came through around 5am and it pretty much stayed south and ran along the interstate. We ended up with .3 inches of rain here, so we really lucked out.
We had the tractor at the doctor's so we went to see if they had been able to fix it up. We found out they had put on a new alternator, but needed to get a pressure switch for the A/C compressor. We had just left it in front of their shop on the trailer, still hooked up to the freightliner. We were concerned it was too close to the highway and didn't want to cause an accident, so we parked the trailer on the other side of the shop. We then unloaded the tractor and parked it where they could get to it once the part came in.
When we got to talk to the owner of the shop, he told us there was a bit of excitement there this morning. They must have had 6 or more Case tractors parked around where they were working, and they had finished fixing on one 2290 Case when the owner came to pick it up. For some reason it wouldn't start, so he went out to try and jump it on the starter...well apparently, the reason it wouldn't start was that it was in gear! Talk about action!!! Fortunately for the owner of the tractor, it was parked by the building and didn't run him over. It did however run over a garden tractor, run into an old tractor, had one of the big rear tires flattened and was pushing against one of the other tractors when the mechanic was able to get inside and get it out of gear. A bit of carnage, but no loss to life or limb, and our stuff was out of the way.
We did a test around 3pm, it was 15%, so we stopped at the community store and sat in for a pop and a chat with the locals. While sitting there, we noticed some old pictures of the town and some yellowed newspaper clippings posted on the wall, two of which were written by...you guessed it...Tom Isern. What a small world! He was stating the best place to get the tastiest take out Kuchen, was the Community Store in Tuttle...which we did.
We took another test at 6pm which was 13.7%, so we decided to cut a load. Al did the combining while Marilyn went back to the camper to round up the laundry. After he filled the truck, we were off to Steele for the weekly task. After getting that job done, we fueled up the truck and were on our way back to the camper.
Hopefully tomorrow will see the end of the barley, then we will move east to Robinson for the next 200 acres of straight cut wheat.
The weather looks promising for the next few days...
View of the day-Al gets lined up to hook up the straight cut header to start in on the barley.
Lightning flashes and low rumbles of thunder woke us around 5:30am, but it was moving NE, so we felt reasonably safe and were able to go back to sleep. It never did hit here in Tuttle, but they certainly got hammered bad to the north and east of us.
The combine was still parked in the farmers yard, and the pass to get to the field was through part of a corral which was a bit too soft to haul the header through. The pickup sunk down a fair bit when we went through the corral and pasture to check out the path and do a sample.
We got our "Simple Sampler" out to do a test of the barley. This little box lets you cut stalks of grain by hand and with a rotating cylinder to thresh the grain out of the heads and a fan to blow the chaff away, you get a sample to take to the elevator for moisture testing. It tested 14.3% moisture (13.5 is dry for barley), so we decided to move the combine out on a different road and come in the back way to the field and then just kill a little time having lunch at the camper while it dried down.
While we were having lunch, Tom and Suzanne came by the camper bearing gifts of dessert...Kuchen made at the local grocery store. It was mighty fine. We went back out to the field to give it another try, Tom rode with Al as he made the first few passes to get a sample. They took it into the elevator and this time the moisture was down to 13.8% so the farmer said to go ahead and cut a load. Tom took several "action" photos and rode with Marilyn for a few rounds, then they headed back to Fargo.
The weather was quite spectacular today, as we listened to the Harvey radio station as they described the golf ball size hail and heavy rain and wind that just pummeled them for quite a while. There were also tornado warnings out, with several funnel clouds spotted in rural areas south of I94. We were able to watch the massive clouds forming from a safe distance to the west, north and south. We were very fortunate that they all missed us, but there is another band of nasty weather predicted for tonight before the front finally moves out of the area.
Al had to drive about 6 miles to the bins where he is unloading and the auger is a slower one so he wasn't able to make it back to the field before Marilyn had a hopper full and was waiting. Once he returned to the field, we made one more load and called it a day, since the moisture was getting high. The barley was yielding around 30 bu/ac.
We finally got our phone hooked up at the camper, so there was no need for the "internet road trip".
Sometimes dial-up isn't so bad...
View of the day-Children of the corn...not for several years. The corn at the campground in Menoken.
Up bright and early to get the camper closed up and ready to move north. Al got his daily journals returned when Tom and Suzanne stopped in on their way back to Fargo from Mandan.
We stopped in Sterling to get the Freight with tractor and cart, have a bit of breakfast and then make our way to Tuttle. It was a short and uneventful trip, no wind to speak of, which didn't help us at all when we got to our destination and started to unload the combine.
We got the camper moved to it's home for the next week or so, and after getting the A/C working we went to see if the local mechanic could check the alternator out on the tractor. We were having problems with the tractor not charging the batteries, so we were having to constantly boost it. We didn't unload it at Menoken, so at that time it wasn't too big a deal because we didn't have to use it. But if the barley yield is high, we may need it to keep up.
After getting the combine unloaded and the settings changed for barley, we moved it out to the farmer's yard, but since they had gotten almost an inch of rain yesterday, we were pretty sure it wouldn't go. We stopped at the local bar for lunch and then went back to the camper to wait for the phone guy to show up and get us on line, since the cell service is pretty poor out this way. If he can't get us hooked up, we have to make a run into Steele, about 25 miles south, to post this entry.
Which we did...
View of the day-Al's handy work on the interstate overpass leaving Menoken. His load was just a bit wide, or the crews had their barrels a bit to close.
Well, we thought we had lucked out last night when the weather fizzled out before it reached us. Of course, once again we woke up to lightning, thunder and rain. We decided not to move up to Tuttle with the camper and grain cart, since we wouldn't be cutting for a while. The rain was falling up there as well, and continued on for most of the day.
We met with Tom Isern and his wife Suzanne for breakfast at Sterling, and had a wonderful chat about all things harvesting. We went into Bismarck to do a bit of shopping, then Marilyn dropped Al off at the library with the laptop to do some surfing while she did some "power shopping". After picking him up, we went over to Mandan to the CaseIH dealer to pick up the ball and socket bolt for the engine hood strut to replace the one that had disappeared. Al also managed to find a few farm toys at the dealership that he needed for his collection.
There were severe weather warnings through most of the day and we did get a lot of rain, over an inch and a half in Bismarck, but eventually it moved off to the NE and the sun came out. Again, the cell phone was ringing with farmers looking for harvesters right up until we got back to the camper. By then it was time to take it easy for the rest of the evening.
Al has kept a daily journal during harvest for the past 13 years and Tom thought they might contain some interesting time lines over the years. They stopped in to pick them up to archive them and we chatted further about harvesting. Later, Gerry and Lynn Prevost stopped in for coffee on their way back to Sterling after their Bismarck shopping trip, so we had lots of company.
It started out looking like this entry was going to get posted at a decent time, but once again it will be a trip to the rest stop after midnight.
Another tough day at the mill...
