skip to main |
skip to sidebar
View of the day-Well...yesterday. Somehow this one never made the upload. Al getting ready to pull into the yard with the last load.
We had a list of things to do today...small things, but necessary. We stopped to pick up some antifreeze and Bars Leak for a small leak on the tractor radiator, then went for fuel. While Al was getting the fuel, Marilyn ran into A&W to grab a quick snack, then met Al at the Coop cardlock.
We went to the cardlock to get diesel for the tractor, and the pumps were screwed up, but we still spent 30 minutes trying to get them to work. No point in putting a sign up saying it's not working, right? The guy even came out and tried to fix it, but we're pretty sure he didn't succeed...we had no time to wait.
We dug into the bag of snacks that Marilyn had picked up, only to find they had screwed up the order...Al made short work of going in and getting it "straightened" out. What could happen next?
It was cloudy all day and it really looked like it was going to rain at any moment, but we lucked out and were able to get started combining. We had a bit of servicing to do before we got going...Al tightened the reverser chain and shortly after we started, it was making a heck of a racket. We checked it out and could see that it was stretched, so we loosened it back a bit to stop the clatter. Then Al sent Marilyn back to town to pick up a new 10ft box of 80H chain.
Marilyn did as ordered, but nearly choked when she got the bill...$2.43 per inch X 120 inches...yee-ouch...with taxes $350! That's some kind of chain. That didn't help Al's mood much. After getting the chain, Marilyn tried to get fuel again...same $hit, different pile. No fuel.
We finally got on a roll and between the three combines...Al, Kim in his Case 2388 and Kim's dad Bob in his JD 9600...we got the field lapped up around 3pm. We went back to the farm with the combine, while Kim moved 8 miles up to the next field to do a test on the canola. We waited for the results.
While we waited, Marilyn's friend, Teresa, was passing through on her way back to Yorkton and stopped in to get caught up and fill Marilyn in on all that had been going on at home over the summer. The rest of the crew stopped to eat in the house where Marg had picked up pizza for supper...nice, thick, cheezy pizza.
Al had taken the combine and headed up to the other field and got started on the outside round with Kim and Bob. After Teresa left for home, Marilyn went up to the field to keep Al company. Some of the "beaver houses"...great tall lumps of canola that got caught in the swather made for some delicate work on the reel speed button, but Al got it done without plugging the feeder house.
We were getting drops of rain on the windshield off and on...there was a 30% chance of thunderstorms and the way the bugs were clouding up, we knew there was something coming. As Kim was coming around with the outside round, you can see the swarms.
This field has the local drive-in on it and it still has shows every weekend. Dark Knight Rising is on this weekend, but we will likely be done before we get to "sneak a peek"...
View of the day-Al heading over with his paperwork to the office on the USA port of entry.
Up early and ready for the last day of moving. We were a three person crew today as we enlisted the help of nephew, Gordie, and his pickup truck. We needed him to pull the pickup head so we could get all three loads back at once.
We got to Kenmare and Al jumped in with Gordie to go out to the farm and hook up the pickup head trailer. Slight problem...a train stopped on the tracks and it was blocking the only road to the farm. Marilyn had gone with the Dodge to get the General started and aired up before hooking up the straight head...her load for the trip to Carlyle. While waiting for the guys to come back, she grabbed a quick snack, then went across to the Ace Hardware to see if she could find the fixings to build a 50 amp extension cord for the camper. They couldn't help, but they sent her out of town to a specialty electric place...no cord, but she did get an outdoor outlet, so that was one part looked after.
Al and Gordie were still waiting at the crossing and with patience wearing thin, they decided to come back to grab a snack and kill some time...hopefully the train would be moved by the time they got back out there...and it had. They got the header back to the parking lot and we were ready to forge on.
We stopped on the USA side got rubber stamped and were on our way to the Canadian side...and they seen us coming. We went in and paid our GST on the cargo trailer, got the combine imported and were on our way to Carlyle.
We got out to the pasture where we were parking everything, got the combine unloaded, then went in to town to get Gordie's pickup fueled up before stopping for lunch. Just as we were heading for the A&W, we met a van from a local electric company, so we stopped to ask him if we could get a 50 amp extension cord made up. He sent us to see his son back at the shop, who told us no problem, he could get one of the guys to do it right away. All we had to do was decide how long we wanted it...Marilyn thought 60 ft was long enough and Al didn't, he figured it should be longer. Marilyn said she could move the trailer closer to the house if it was too short, but went ahead and got a 70 ft one made up.
Back at the combine, we were getting it serviced and fueled, when one of the farmers we had worked for in the past asked us if we could do the last 30 acres of canola that he had left because he had smouldering fire issues with his 2388 Case combine. Al got the go ahead from Kim, so Marilyn moved the combine out to the field and Al started combining.
Marilyn picked up the extension cord and went back to the farm. By this time, Marg was home from work and between the two of them, the new outlet was wired in and both air conditioners in the camper were cooling the joint down. Al was thrilled.
Next job they had to do was to try and find out where the air leak was on Kim's grain truck. It was sitting loaded, at the far end of the field and there was a major air leak in one of the lines to the brake pot, so back to the shop trailer to get some Rescue Tape. The hope was to wrap it with this silicon tape and hope it would work to get the truck into the yard...it worked like a dream, so Marilyn was able to drive it to the bin site so it could get dumped.
Al finished combining for the farmer, then moved over to start on Kim's canola. Marilyn brought out the General, so he would have something to dump into and Marg went out to do a green count on his canola sample, then gave Marilyn a ride back to the camper. Now it was time to aim the dish and get cleaned up after a long hot and humid day.
Today's humidex was every bit as bad as Oklahoma...nasty to work in...
View of the day-A beautiful sight in the morning...a field of sunflowers on our way to the farm to get the last load.
We were up early to get the camper closed up and ready for the road, before going out to the farm to get the General and combine. After getting the General across from the campground, we hooked up the camper and started north.
A mostly uneventful drive until we neared Cole Harbor. Al thought he heard something and looked in the rear view mirror just in time to see a chunk of rubber flying off one of his back wheels. We limped the truck onto a side road in the small town of Cole Harbor and proceeded to try and find the nearest place to get a new tire. Even though the rubber cap had peeled off the tire, it was still holding air, so after getting the combine trailer blocked and unhooked, he took off 15 miles to Garrison to get a new one.
Marilyn stayed with the combine just in case someone came along and wanted us to move...that never happened. After about an hour and a half, Al made it back with a spanking new tire...$540 later...we proceeded to get hooked back up again and we were back on the road again.
We got to Kenmare and while Marilyn was fueling up the Dodge, Al got the General parked, then went over and started the Freightliner, since it would be crossing the border first. It started without issue and after airing up, we were rolling north, once again.
We got to the border and stopped on the USA side to check out before we went on to the Canadian side. Smooth sailing there. On the other side, it was a bit different than it had been in the past. We needed registrations for all the equipment and the officer was surprised when we didn't have any for the tractor and cart...until we told him they didn't need to be registered. He was cool with that and after 20 minutes, we were on the way to Carlyle.
We got out to Marg(Marilyn's sister) and Kim's place, then got the tractor and cart unloaded out in the pasture, then it was time to find a spot for the camper. We opted for sewer hookup as opposed to high power hookup...each option was on the opposite side of the yard. We thought we could live without the A/C since it cools down so much in the evening and we wouldn't be hanging around the camper during the day(we hope). With the no sewer option, we would have had to hook up the camper to dump the tanks somewhere. A sewer sidenote...Marilyn saw a septic pumper truck go past the field one day in Menoken and the business name was "The Turd Burglar"...she still chuckles every time she thinks about it.
Camper parked, windows open...a good night's sleep before going back for the last load first thing in the morning...
View of the day-A driverless tractor and cart outside Minot, North Dakota...no trucks in sight, so they may be waiting for a while.
We left the camper at 9am and went out to the farm to get the Freightliner started, then hooked up the straight header to the Dodge. After doing our circle checks to make sure everything was working, we struck out for the road north.
It was an uneventful trip, not a breath of wind, but crazy traffic...fortunately, we had four lane highway for 120 miles. Marilyn thought we must be in Canada already, because all the vehicles that were passing us had Saskatchewan licence plates. There were lots of combines in the fields as we drove along and we even saw a huge field of standing canola that a couple of combines were just getting started on...and one that had been standing, but the wind had completely flattened it. Someone is going to have a time of it.
We made Kenmare around 2pm, got the rigs parked, then headed back for Menoken. We stopped in Minot for a late lunch, then we were off again. We made it back to the camper in plenty of time for Al to watch his CFL Riders game...which, apparently, was an embarrassment. Marilyn went into Bismarck for her last shopping trip before crossing the border.
Hopefully we get one load across the border tomorrow...
View of the day-Al makes one last check around the rigs before calling it a day.
Perhaps the old age comment from yesterday should have been for Marilyn, since she got the blog done and was sure she hit the 'publish' button...apparently not.
Today was cleaning and loading day. We had a good wind to keep the chaff away as we blew everything off and the temperature was a lot lower than any of the other loading days we have had this season.
First we had to go and get the Freightliner from its parking spot, then take it out to the farm to get it set to load the tractor and cart. Once it was in place, Marilyn started blowing off the header while Al worked on getting the grain cart cleaned out with the pressure washer. The water supply had really low pressure, so we didn't use the heater, but it didn't matter much because the water was so nice that it didn't leave any spotting and it did a great job of taking the black canola dust off the header and combine.
We got the header loaded onto the high transport trailer and Marilyn took the pressure washer to it. With that ready to go, we got the tractor and cart loaded, chained down and hooked up to the Freight...load two ready to go. Before Marilyn started washing the combine, we decided to go in to Lincoln for lunch.
We had our burgers, then fueled up the Dodge and filled one of the propane tanks for the camper before going back to finish loading. Back at the yard, Marilyn started washing the combine and pretty much went through two tanks of fuel doing it...but it was finally done. Now to get loaded.
While Marilyn was washing the combine, Al got the shop trailer hooked up to the combine trailer and had everything lined up for Marilyn to load the combine. After we got that done, we chained it down, got the backup camera hooked up and called it a wrap at 7pm.
Load one rolls tomorrow...
View of the day-Making the second last pass on the canola...light at the end of the tunnel and a wash is in order.
Happy Birthday to Al! It was his day today and he made a point of reminding Marilyn of it every chance he got...just so she would be nice to him. She couldn't decide what kind of cake to get him, so he got carrot cake AND cheese cake...and season two DVD's of Modern Family and The Middle. Marilyn has learned not to get him something she "thinks" he will use...or learn to use, so you can't go wrong with his favorite passtime TV.
The night got down to 38ºF, which made getting up this morning pretty slow. The sun was shining, however, and once the blinds were opened it warmed up quickly. After making lunches and getting the water iced up, we were ready to take on, what we hoped, was the last day of canola.
We had a bit of a wait for the humidity to drop, but we finally started making dust around noon. We estimated there were about 90 acres left, but we had a slough to work around which cut back on productivity. It was at the far end of the field, so Al had to do some shuttling all the way back to the yard, but the good news was that the bins were really close now as we were getting to the end, so he could just leave the truck at the bin and dump the cart right there.
Roger estimated that we should be done by 7pm and Al figured more like 7:30-8pm. Roger was the winner, as we lapped up the last pass with 10 minutes to spare at 6:50pm. The 2012 USA portion of our harvest was officially done as Marilyn did the same thing as the cart and dumped right into the General as it was parked at the bin.
We got everything parked, then went back to the camper to get some papers that needed to get faxed to the border so we could take the combine back through, then went into Bismarck to find someplace to fax. The truck stop was right next to McDonald's, so we faxed first then ate later and never even had to go into the city.
Back at the camper, Al's phone was ringing steady as he got birthday calls from back home. He was still counting down the hours he had left for "Marilyn being nice" time, and even tried to weasel an extra hour by using the time on the satellite receiver that was still on home time...an hour behind. Marilyn got off easy...he went to sleep early to get ready for cleaning day tomorrow.
Or is it old age...
View of the day-Al dumping canola into the grain cart.
We got out to the field around 11:30am and Al pulled the first shift. He combined until the General was full, then Marilyn came out to the field with lunch and took over in the combine.
Al had a short haul, since the bin site is in this field and we are continually getting closer to the bins, so at some point he will be meeting himself coming back on one of his trips.
The temperature was a lot cooler and there was a strong north wind, but the sun was shining which was a nice change. It almost felt like late September...and we are only halfway through August! Still, we know fall is coming and the rest of the week is looking like it will have the same temps...except the nights are forecast to go down to 40ºF...brrr.
We managed to get in 125 acres and are looking at slightly less than that to get the field done, so...we could possibly be done with our USA harvest tomorrow.
Won't that be a great birthday gift for Al...
