skip to main |
skip to sidebar
View of the day- It's that time of year in North Dakota...the sunflowers are all blooming.
Al was up early and off to get the General unloaded at the elevator in Sterling. After he got back to the farm, he hooked up the pickup head and came back to the camper to get Marilyn motivated to get ready for the road.
We stopped in Wilton to fuel up and had a good chat with Shawn Johnson from Johnson Harvesting. We got caught up with how his season has progressed up to this point and where he was going from here. We passed Gerry and Lynn Prevost's crew getting ready to do some combining along the US83 highway on the way to Bismarck. There were a few other crews along the way that were just getting ready to start.
We got to Kenmare and dropped the straight header trailer tire off at the Cenex to get repaired...you know, the one that Al couldn't get fixed in Bismarck on Sunday. After the drop off, we headed west of town out to the farm yard where we would leave it until we could take it back to Canada.
Then we turned around and headed back for Menoken. We stopped for late lunch/early supper at Minot around 4pm...at what Al likes to call "old peoples supper time" and we finally got our Chinese buffet.
There were sprinkles of rain off and on but just as we stopped at the field where Gerry and Lynn were getting their straight header loaded on the trailer to move to the next field, it really started coming down...so we scampered back to the pickup and left them to their work.
Back at the camper, we had a big shower go through and it rained hard for about 20 minutes before clearing off and leaving us with another great sunset.
Marilyn's fortune cookie-To love what you do and feel that it matters-how could anything be more fun?
Let's hope we still feel that way once we start the canola...
View of the day-Marilyn couldn't believe how small the General looked next to this semi...unfortunately, driving and picture taking results in a not-so-good photo...but you get the idea.
She was an AIS 10:00am morning and Marilyn was three minutes early...too bad Al hadn't informed her it was AIF(a$$ in field) until she was in the pickup. Lesson learned. Maybe.
Al got dropped off at the General to unload while Marilyn went out, serviced and fueled the combine. By the time Al got out to empty the cart, Marilyn was already making dust...it was plenty dry and with a hot day forecast and no wind to speak of, it would only get better.
Al was keeping up with the hauling, but Marilyn was bringing in too much grain...the bins were filling up and Roger was running out of room for the wheat. He called in a semi to take some of the heat off and take a load into the elevator, which gave Al a break from his "tail chasing" from cart to truck over and over.
With the help of the semi we got finished the field and had the General full, so now Al gets to take the last load into the elevator tomorrow. We finished around 7pm, dusted off the windows and headed for the camper...114 acres and quitting while the sun was still up.
After Al had his shower, we went into Bismarck to hit the McDonalds...haven't been in one since Winner and Al needed a "fix". Fortunately there is one right on the east end of the city, so we were in and out in no time at all and back at the camper in 15 minutes.
While we were at McDonald's, we saw another "harvest crew" parked in the lot. Just check out this little cutie...for those that don't know, this little combine is used to cut those little seed plots that you see on the side of the road. The seed companies plant small strips of various types of grain, then harvest and weigh it when it is ripe to see which one performs the best.
Al got caught up with the local news on TV and Marilyn worked on getting the last 4 shirts finished. The shirts made in China seem to have sleeves meant for Popeye...you know, he had spindly little biceps and his forearms were huge. These shirts had long sleeves, so Marilyn cut the bottom off to make short sleeves and is "fabricating" a little more room for Al's "guns". The prototype has gone through more than a couple of attempts, but it looks like she finally has the pattern down and the rest will get finished tomorrow.
We now have a wait for the canola, so tomorrow after Al has the General unloaded, we will make a road trip north with the pickup head. Since we will be doing the canola with the draper head, we won't need the pickup head and it just means an extra trip later on.
And we haven't driven for a while...
View of the day-Al gets the General backed up to the bin to be ready to top off the bin in the morning when Roger is out to climb the ladder and keep an eye out.
A perfect drying day out...sunny and warm...far from hot, but low humidity was going to be a big help. Al wanted to be out at the field to try it at 5pm, so we had time to kill in the camper. Al watched the Olympics for most of the afternoon and Marilyn dug out the serger and sewing machine to get some work done...and insure that they did not make the trip for nothing.
Marilyn found some shirts for Al during her shopping trip yesterday and always likes to sew the front placket closed...making the shirt a pullover...so that she never has to deal with sewing a button on. Even if one falls off, the shirt doesn't open up and no needle and thread needed.
At 4:30pm, Al was in the Dodge waiting to get out to the field and Marilyn was right behind him, ready to go...just as ordered. We got out to the bins where Marilyn dropped Al at the General so he could unload, then she carried on to the combine to do a test. After cutting a good sample, she stopped to use the hand held tester to confirm that the wheat was dry enough...good to go.
We combined until it was time to top off the bin and since we had to wait until the morning, we just filled the truck and cart for the morning. After parking the General at the bin, we checked out a back road to see if we could do the short haul from the field...Al was concerned that even as dry as it was, he might sink the General. He wasn't familiar with the ground, so he will continue taking the long way around until we get on to the canola, then he can use the road.
With no more combining to do, we came back to the camper and called it a day...
View of the day-Al was out checking the machinery lots in Bismarck and came across this IHC 2+2 6588 tractor all dualed up...don't see very many of these.
No combining today, so it was a sleep in day. Except for the neighbour in the campground, whos pickup was parked directly below our bedroom slideout. You would have thought it was winter, because he started his truck at 6:15am and let it "warm up" for 30 minutes. Every two minutes he would rev it up five or six times, then let it idle some more...grrr. Finally he left the campground just before 7am.
A trip into Bismarck for shopping was high on Marilyn's list...heck it was Marilyn's list. Al went out to take the flat tire off the header trailer and got caught in one of several rogue showers that hit us during the day. We left for Bismarck and mapped out the short shopping trip we would make...Al would get the tire fixed while Marilyn was getting her Staples "fix" in.
Al picked Marilyn up with the news that he had been to four different tire stores...none of them open. He wasn't happy...this was the big city, surely there had to be one place open, so on we went in search of one.
We finally found one open, all bays full and a lineup of people at the counter...Al was not waiting. Now he was really "miffed" and decided he will drive 20 miles the other direction to get his tire fixed. There...he showed them.
Marilyn took Al back to the camper at Menoken, then went back into Bismarck to shop in peace. While there she ran into Lynn Prevost in the Hobby Lobby and had a good gab before making a date to have a meeting later on in the evening at Sterling. Since Shawn, the president of the Association of Canadian Custom Harvester's was staying in Sterling, and Lynn, who is the executive secretary, was camped just south of Sterling, we decided we should have an executive meeting.
When Marilyn got back to the camper, Al had the sweet corn that we had bought at the farmers market, shucked and ready to cook. And that was all we had for supper...very filling...and tasty.
We drove over to Sterling and met with Shawn, Lynn and her husband Gerry at the bar. We sat in the "lesser smoke" area and had our meeting, then came back to the camper around 1:30am. It was somewhat chilly on the way home as you can see by the temperature on the pickup.
Good thing we can sleep in tomorrow...
View of the day-Out at the field servicing as most of the weather stays away.
Forecast of rain for the day, but it looked like it would be missing us and staying to the north, so we decided to just carry on as normal.
We drove over to Lincoln, about 6 miles east of the field, to have lunch. Al has found his newest "favorite burger" on the run...unfortunately we must have been in the smoking part of the bar, which knocked the rating down a bit.
After lunch we went out to the field, got the windows cleaned on the tractor and checked the tarp...everything was okay. Once that was looked after we went over to the combine, fueled, did the windows and checked the rain gauge...the dust never even got settled in it.
Al went over and gave the wheat a bite test...it cracked pretty good...so he thought maybe we should give it a test, just to see how it would work. Marilyn wasn't so sure, after all she did just finish washing two sets of windows. Al thought since there was dust flying down the roads, we would be in the clear and he stuck to that opinion up until the time the huge raindrops started randomly pelting us...time to get out of the field.
As we drove the 5 miles back to the campground, the heavy rain hit...we were officially done for the day. Al wanted to find his Farm Forum Green Sheet, so Marilyn "suggested" going in to Bismarck to get one and Al agreed. We got the paper, took a slight detour to pick up some groceries and look at an 80 inch TV...just look...then went back to the camper.
Just as we left Bismarck, the rain hit so hard we couldn't keep it off the windshield and it followed us all the way back to Menoken. We got safely into the camper and watched as wave after wave of rain showers came through. Al checked his eyelids for cracks, while Marilyn made the potato salad that she had picked up the fixin's for. We now have a keg o' salad, since Marilyn doesn't know when to stop...no sense in having leftover veggies in the fridge, they just take up room.
After supper, Al got to watch his Canadian Football game and read his Green Sheet and that was it for the day.
More nothing tomorrow...
View of the day-Clayton from ProHarvest pays us a visit to see if he can figure out why those spreader bolts keep breaking.
We got out to the field around 10:30am and started to get organized...get the header on, do some greasing, fueling, get the hopper camera mounted and, of course, wash the windows. While we were working on setting up, Clayton from ProHarvest stopped out before heading out with the rest of the crew from their stop at the CaseIH dealer in Bismarck to the next one in Dickinson, ND. He couldn't figure it out either, but he did leave us with two new bolts...just in case.
We got moved out to the field, then Marilyn cut a patch to park everything before making a pass around the whole field to set the boundary. It took some getting used to...this spring wheat was a lot shorter than the South Dakota wheat we had just come of of, but that didn't seem to affect the yield...it was still going close to 50 bu/ac.
Al was kept busy driving the two miles around the block to the bins to dump the truck. Marilyn never had to wait, so he was keeping up with the trucking...he was only able to drive out to the combine a couple of times with the cart, but most of the time he spent in the tractor was just dumping into the General so he could get to the bins and back. After cutting around a couple of sloughs, it didn't take long before Marilyn had the swath straightened out and could dump at the east end of the field every round.
We had weather warnings start up in the afternoon and the sky was threatening to dump at any time, but you know the rule, we don't stop...not until the water is running off the header. The picture really doesn't do the black sky justice...the price of taking pictures through the combine windshield. The biggest issue with this warning was the strong winds that were supposed to hit and about 100 yards from the end of the field and the grain cart, it hit. The wind was coming from behind the combine and blowing the chaff and dust so bad that Marilyn couldn't see the edge of the swath to keep the row straight.
Al called on the radio and told Marilyn to get dumped right away, so she made it to the grain cart, dumped, then tried to get the cart tarped in the wind. Getting it rolled was the first task, but having both of the straps that normally drop down so she can grab them and wind them on the ratchet handles was another story all together.
She got the back strap to come down and get strapped in, but the other one was blown under the tarp by the wind and it was only 10 ft off the ground to reach it. Marilyn ended up parking the combine header close to the cart, lifting the header all the way up, then walked down the length of the header to fish the strap out from under the tarp...success. Just as the rain was really starting to fall.
Roger gave Al a ride out to the Dodge, which was by the now parked combine, picked Marilyn up and went back to the bin site to move the General. He had been in a hurry to get Marilyn out of the field before the deluge hit, that he left it by the shed and had to do some rearranging. Once that was done, we got fuel in the slip tank, so we would be ready for the morning, then headed for the camper.
The windows really had to be washed, surely that didn't bring the rain...
View of the day-Al moves the combine past a field of blooming sunflowers.
We got the camper ready to hook up, then went south to the farm to get the General and its load. When we got to town with it, we parked across from the campground then went and got the camper hooked up. No sense hauling it all the way out to the farm and back.
The trip up was uneventful...all the rain missed us. We got to Menoken, parked the General at the old school yard, then went to get the camper parked at the RV park. After a good gab with the camp hosts, we went back out to unload the combine and unhook the shop trailer. Once we got that done, we hooked the combine trailer up to the General again, then drove four miles out to the farm yard.
There wasn't enough room to maneuver at the yard, so that is why we decided to unload the rigs and road them out. After the combine and shop were out, we took the General and found a spot to park it...then it was back over to Sterling to get the Freightliner and header.
We got them back to the school yard, unloaded the tractor and cart, but this time we were able to park the Freight and its trimmings in town. Al talked to someone who was good enough to let us leave it parked at his place and since we wouldn't be needing the Freight, it stayed hooked up.
We took the tractor and cart out to the wheat field, then called it a day. Well, Al did, at least. Marilyn got the dish aimed, got cleaned up, then went into Bismarck to get some groceries.
A late night after getting everything put away...
