May 9, 2011

View of the day-The Freightliner is tucked away in the shade of the hay barn until our return in a couple of weeks.

We were up bright and early again, hoping to make good time and beat the heat of the day...another 100 degree was not something we were looking forward to. We had to pick up oil and antifreeze for the Freight since it had been working extra hard in the high heat against the strong south wind, but since we had parked in the truck repair lot, we didn't have far to go...and it's like stopping to use the washroom at a gas station...we always like to spend some cash for the use of the facility.

Once the fluids had been topped off we were on the road heading for Cherokee, OK...the final destination this year. The crops were looking good for the most part, but as we got further south they looked somewhat stressed...although the winter canola was looking pretty good.

As we continued our drive, the temperature wasted no time getting up to 99 and the wind was blasting every bit as hard as it had been the last couple of days...which we didn't mind so much when it came time to unload tractor and cart. when we got to Cherokee, we took the header out to the farmers yard, then went back into town to get the tractor unloaded and moved out to the farm yard along with the Freight...it was way to early in the season to be battling the heat, especially after coming directly from the frigid temps from back home in Saskatchewan.

We had everything put away and after stopping at the elevator for a visit and to put some posters up, we started heading back north...the GPS showed 1192 miles to go to get back to our yard...hopefully the wind will be at our back this time.

We stopped in Great Bend for a quick snack, then made it back as far as Hays for the night.

We might even get to sleep in a bit...

Happy Mothers Day! - May 8, 2011

View of the day-Al can't wait to start driving the cart...while we took a pit stop in Sterling, ND. Actually he was in the 'phone booth' where it was quiet to talk on the cell.

No report yesterday due to technical difficulties. Marilyn's main laptop is getting repaired, so we had to take Al's WindowsXP laptop and it refused to recognize the camera card, so...no pictures, no blog.

We made Gettysburg, SD yesterday and after getting parked, fueled and checked in, we were ready to call it a day. Al talked to our main farmers here...two 85-ish year old brothers and we had always known that it would happen sooner or later...they rented out their land and were finally retiring. Renting for $90/ac...not a bad way to go...they still have cattle to keep busy with, but it looks like we will be restructuring come July.

We left Gettysburg this morning just before 8am and it didn't take long before we were fighting a strong SE wind...all the way to Kansas. Al never did get in the tall one and we were lucky to average 40mph for the day...but we still managed to get 480 miles covered and made it to Hays, KS. And talk about mild temperatures...the truck temp gauge showed 101 degrees!

We got into Hays after parking the Freightliner at the truck repair place north of town and while Al got cleaned up, Marilyn got fuel and supper after running into Walmart to get a memory card reader for Al's laptop. Back at the motel Al was listening to his hockey game while Marilyn found the laundry room and got that job taken care of, before finally getting online to find out what has been going on in the world.

It is nice to finally see leaves on the trees and fields looking lush and green...so far, at least...a FAR cry from the big snow we had at home last week.

Tomorrow we head for Oklahoma...same wind...same heat...

May 6, 2011

View of the day-Al checks over the rig after arriving at the first stop of the journey. Carlyle, SK at the Precision Ag parking lot.

Marilyn was up early to put in one more day of work at Staples...well, a half day from 7am -noon. Al was getting organized at home and by 2pm we had the Dodge loaded up and were on our way to get the Freightliner from the auction barn.

We had a slow trip to Carlyle, even though it is only 110 miles, it took forever it seemed, because the roads were chewed up so bad and the "patches" were a joke...except that they weren't the funny kind. Top speed most of the way was 45 mph and that slowed down when we hit the rain south of the Trans Canada highway.

We made Carlyle and after Marilyn and her sister, Marg, did their annual job of fixing the wiring on the cart trailer...this time it was an easy fix, since the cord had just been dragging and rubbed through the coating. It was far easier than last year when we had to do major wire chasing to find the bad connections.

Al and Kim worked on getting the draper header out of the barn where it had been stored over the winter. After getting the sprayer moved out of the way, Kim used his four-wheeler to pull the header out as far as he could before spinning out...the bottom brace of the header trailer got high-centered on the cement drain way in the barn and it just didn't have enough oomph to get it out. Once Kim got the tractor hooked up to it, out it came without a problem and after getting it hooked up to the Dodge and checking the lights, we had a rig ready to roll.

So tomorrow we see what the border has in store...

May 4, 2011

View of the day-The road to our house will not see much traffic in the next little while...except for the minnows trying to get across without being picked off by the birds.

Well, it's official. We got our final approval for our work visas and now the rush is on to get things organized for trip number 1.

After getting the oil changed on the Freightliner, Al went out to get the tractor and grain cart trailer from it's winter parking spot. Fortunately, his friend Danny had pulled it out onto the road with a tractor so Al could hook it up without getting stuck. He could not believe the water that is lying around that area southeast of Yorkton and with no camera, we all just have to imagine how bad it is.

Marilyn had to work at 7am, but got off at noon to help Al get the grain cart hooked up and moved to the big lot at the Yorkton Auction Centre. We were lucky enough to be able to use the lot to get things loaded, because we certainly have no room...at least any solid ground...to load near our house like we usually do. Over at the lot, Al had to take a tire of the cart trailer so he could get a new one tomorrow and Marilyn got the Freight and tractor cab all cleaned out and polished. Then it started to rain, so we called it a day.

Tomorrow, we load...the first one of the season is always a treat...

April 29, 2011

Before the big storm, Al gets the combine parked...

April 30, 2011

View of the day-The Freightliner looks like it would seriously like to make the trip south in a hurry...this snow thing is getting old.

Quite a couple of days...yesterday it was overcast and started to rain later on in the day. This eventually turned into snow around 10pm, but the forecast was for more snow to the south, so we weren't too worried. But it was the weekend report so we should have known not to be too complacent.

Al woke up around 3am and took a look out the window...wow...at that time everything was already white and the trees were loaded down with the heavy snow. The wind was blowing hard out of the north, but since we have a pretty good stand of trees protecting us, all the snow did was pile up on the roof and swirl around the front of the house.

Around 4am the power went off and it continued to snow and blow...by now the weather band was stating that we were in a winter blizzard. How can that be when winter has been over for at least a month? The power was out until 8:30am, but since we had no place to go, we just went back to sleep to wait it out...thankfully the temperature wasn't that bad.

Al decided he had to take a trip into town to see if the big consignment auction was a go...the gates were locked and it was postponed until tomorrow. He continued into town to see how things were looking there...not so good, but there were still other people that had ventured out. Too bad they didn't have 4WD, there were a lot of them stuck in snow drifts.

We saw a glimmer of the sun just as it was setting, so it would appear the snow is done and now we will wait for the melt...which shouldn't take too long with the temperatures going up into the 60's later on in the week.

Of course, this won't help the flooding issues...

April 28, 2011

View of the day-Al cranks up the M88 for a ride before parking it.

Time for a quick update...one has to ease into these things...

We have been busy...Al doing taxes at H&R Block and getting down to the wire as cut off is the end of April. Marilyn was busy with work at Staples and also the community theatre group, building a set for a production of Rumor's by Neil Simon with her friend Brenda...the most challenging set to date.

We have had a lot of runoff with all the snow that has been melting, so much so that it has been running across the road to our place, cutting us off from the highway into town. This means doubling the distance to town from 6 to 12 miles...and there is no sign of let up for the next while.

We finally took possesion of the M88 combine we bought at the US harvesters convention. They delivered it to our dealer here in Yorkton and with the help of Jeff's snowmobile trailer, we were able to get it loaded and brought out to the farm. Marilyn got it unloaded and drove it around a bit...somewhat of a task, since it has "armstrong" steering and as soon as you let off on the joystick, it stops dead so you can't use both hands to crank the wheel. Al even got to take it for a spin to show it to the neighbour and see how it would handle on the open road...he was very impressed with the handling.

His last comment was "at least I get to drive one combine"...