August 6, 2010

View of the day-Now this is service. The truck came out to the field and filled the combine and slip tank on the pickup.

We had a knock at the camper door this morning and a had good visit with a Sue Holland from Holland Harvesting out of Minnesota. This is one of a few US harvesters that had come into Canada to do some harvesting over the years...and not that far from us in Yorkton. We compared horror stories from the past couple of seasons...the good ones, as well and before you knew it the humidity had come down quite a bit and we could think about getting some combining done.

We went to the Rock for lunch, hoping it would be a quick one but the house was full and there was only one waitress...more drying time for the wheat. We finally got out to the field and had just started servicing when the fuel truck showed up to give us a fill, then it was cutting time.

We got the wheat finished then took the straight header off, left it in the field and moved back up to the rye that had been swathed and was ready to pick up...we hoped. We got the header on and did a test...hot damn, 11.3% moisture...what a shocker. The elevator had to set an auger up for us and clean out a bin since we were the only ones in the country with rye, so we just filled the truck and grain cart. The forecast for rain had gone up from 30% POP to 50% so we decided to finish the last of the field and left the last dab in the hopper of the combine. The auto folding hopper was looking like a good decision today.

We got into town around 10:30pm and they waited for us at the VFW for supper...Friday again, already, which meant $1 a burger night. It was a full house when we got in, but it looked like most of the guys were just swilling the beverage, so we got pretty good service...which we always do. We had a good chat with a few folks then called it a night.

Back at the camper we are being treated to a lightning show and it looks like we will be getting a shot of rain. Probably won't hurt us too much because we will have caught up to the swather, so we would be sitting anyway. We will have an early morning as Al has to get the two loads of rye into the elevator and Marilyn has to get up for the big Crazy Day sale that coincides with the county fair in town this weekend.

There are several bargains with Marilyn's name on them just waiting to be picked up...

August 5, 2010

View of the day-Woohoo, we finally got going again!

We had high hopes for the day and for a change those hopes became reality...and Marilyn can get off suicide watch.

We had lunch in the camper before going out to take a test at 1pm. We took it to the elevator in Gettysburg...it tested 15% moisture...they would not take it unless we brought in a test that was 13.5% or less. Al decided to run it 10 miles east to Lebanon to see if the elevator there would take it. It tested the same there, but they told us to cut a load...it was a good drying day, so the load would probably be lower by the time we had the truck filled.

The farmers we are working for leave it up to Al to find someplace to haul the grain, which gives him more stress than just from the fact that the grain isn't dry. No competition in Gettysburg means they won't work with the farmer...or ours, at least...Lebanon would take it 15% or under...Gettysburg 14% or under. Guess where we went?

We were able to finish one short 80 acre piece, then Marilyn moved across the road to make a couple of rounds on the next 80. Once again the humidity started to climb as the sun went down, so we couldn't get our 100 acres in for the day...90 would be close enough. After all, we wouldn't want to overdo it, would we?

If you want to have a "Reader's Digest" version of our season, check out the article Marilyn wrote in the Yorkton This Week newspaper...

August 4, 2010

View of the day-A meshing of brilliant minds has finally solved the tipping header problem.

Al was up early to get set up for the Richie Brothers auction online. He was shaking his head at the prices that some of the equipment was bringing. He didn't have a number, so he wasn't directly involved...except to be relieved that the pickup heads went for more than we paid for ours...which was still too much, in frugal Al's opinion.

The welding shop is just across the street from our camper so when the welder man came over to tell us we could bring the cart trailer over after lunch, we knew he had finished with the header trailer. We went over and got the Freightliner running and Al took it to the shop where they unhooked it with the forklift. Al brought the header trailer back to the camper and we proceeded to put it together with crossed fingers, hoping that all would work as we had figured.

Marilyn had come up with the idea of using a long pipe with two tubes fitting into the brackets that we already had. Al added the idea of having an adjustable holder at the end for the cross pipe and Mr. Bliese, the welderman added an adjustable down tube for the bracket...SUCCESS AT LAST! We got it put together on the trailer and loosened the ratchet straps all the way off...and it didn't tip. We still have a bit of tweaking to do with the brackets at the back, but at least one person can load and unload it without having a catastrophe.

Al picked up the Freightliner and cart trailer after they got the cracks welded, then came back to the camper and fought with the decision on whether to do a test or not..."or not" won out.

We went to the VFW for supper and Marilyn had her trusty bingo dabber with her so she could take the monthly bingo game in. Al left for the camper after supper was over and Marilyn went to play bingo...along with 11 other regulars, and managed to win the first two games. This didn't make her to popular with the crowd...newcomers luck, they said...then the lady next to her won about 10 times. Which made her unpopular with Marilyn.

Back at the camper, Al made a few phone calls to see if any of the other elevators in the vicinity would take wet wheat, so we could get going sometime this month. He had a bit of luck and since we actually had a rain free day, it might not be too wet to go tomorrow.

Twenty-five acres a week is just not cutting it...

August 3, 2010

View of the day-The sunflowers are starting to bloom...well this field was anyway. The others in the area look like they are a ways off but the birds seem to like them a lot.

Another slacker day with rain in the forecast. Al went up to see if the rye swaths might go and discovered there had been more rain up at the field so there was no way it was going to go today.

We took the header trailer into the welding shop to get a couple of new brackets made. We are pretty sure we have the final solution to make the trailer work with the pick up head...and he got us in right away.

The rest of the day was spent watching the weather channel and the sky as the dark clouds started working their way in from the west. We finally got a shower around 6pm but thankfully we just caught the edge of it...but it doesn't look like the southern part of the state fared as well.

Tomorrow Marilyn will be making the big bucks...bingo at the VFW...

Kathy Croswell Tribute

August 2, 2010

View of the day-We did a test then closed up the hopper because the skies did not look too friendly.

It was another wickedly humid day and the flies were biting...not a good sign. We went out to the field to see if we could have another catastrophe loading the header on the trailer.

We had come up with yet another plan to offset the balance issue that made the header want to tip off the trailer...not quite perfect just yet. We did get it loaded on and strapped down, then moved over to get the straight header into transport to move down to the highway field just out of town. The farmer had gotten one of the rye fields swathed and was getting ready to swath the next one when we left the field, so hopefully it will only be a few days before we can get started on that.

We moved down to the spring wheat field and got the header back on, then did a test. The elevator told us it was 16.2% moisture...not so good. We went back to the field and closed up the hopper, then went back to the camper for the rest of the day after grabbing a quick snack.

We had only been in the camper for 10 minutes when it started to rain...and then the wind came up as you can tell from the wind sock in the picture. It came down hard for about 10 minutes, then cleared right off and the sun came out...but it never cooled off and the humidity was up there again.

Back at the camper Marilyn worked on a video tribute to Kathy and Al did a bit of shopping on the internet and watched some TV.

And the rest of the day was more of the same...

August 1, 2010

View of the day-The combine sits and waits with the new pickup head on...it will be a few days before it sees action again.

Al was out the door early to go visit with the farmer to see if swathing was in his future. The weeds are really starting to take over in a couple of fields and with the elevators insisting on dry wheat, it won't happen with the weeds. There will be some swathing done...providing the rains miss us...so we will have some time to get the to-do list whittled down.

When we were on our way back from Yorkton, we learned of the passing of Al's godmother, Delores Kuntz, after a two year battle with cancer. She was a great baker and always made sure we had a plate full of dainties to take home whenever we would visit. This morning we learned that we had also lost a dear friend Kathy Croswell, who was only 37 years old, to cancer as well...a real shock since she had just found out a couple of months ago. She was a big part of the theatre group in Grayson and we had performed in many productions together. She leaves her husband Kelvin and three children


Marilyn has a couple of computers full of pictures and videos, so she spent the day sorting through them to put together a tribute to Kathy. Apparently there needs to be some sort of way to catalogue these things, because backing them up on DVD's or CD's is great if you can find the exact file without having to go through every folder, just in case they were misfiled. And you know there would have to be two perfect pictures Marilyn knew she had, but never did find. Lots of time today to trip down memory lane and think about our immortality.


Wish we could have been harvesting...