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View of the day-Top of the morning and Al is unloading the cart from last night. The truck driver was able to keep up today.
We were making dust by 10:15am, a good start to the day. With this field averaging 75 bu/ac there wasn't any rest for Al...or the truck driver. We found out today that he has three crews running, so that they do not have to clean off the machines between fields. Each crew has their own variety of certified seed wheat. No wonder he was busy at the bins!
We had just under half the field left and were able to get it lapped up before 4pm. Here is a shot of the last pass for South Dakota this year.
After the last semi was loaded, it was time to start cleaning. The bonus this time was that there was a good wind blowing and the temperature was pretty much at 80º...perfect conditions for cleaning.
Once the header was cleaned off, Al hooked it up to the Dodge and took it back to the yard, then got the high speed transport into position so Marilyn could load the header. While he was getting the yard ready for loading, Marilyn got the combine cleaned off, then moved it back to the yard. We went back to the field to get the tractor/grain cart and the shop trailer.
Marilyn had to stop for a chokecherry fix before leaving the field...plenty of choices on this old tree
and it was kind of neat to see the one with the most dead branches seemed to be yielding the most berries.
We got back to the yard and got the header taken out of transport and loaded on the high speed trailer, then got it strapped down, then it was on to the next rig.
We had to move the combine trailer into a better position for loading...it certainly looks like we have been here wayyy too long...we had to fight the grass to get the trailer out. Once Al had it parked on the road, we got the shop trailer hooked up behind it and Marilyn drove the combine up into place.
Next on the list was to get the tractor and cart loaded. Al got the rig driven up on the trailer and Marilyn started chaining it down, while Al got the General started and lined up to hook up to the trailer.
In no time at all were were hooked up, chained down and ready to move...the first load, at least. The combine load will have to wait for the return of the General tomorrow.
Let's hope for an uneventful trip tomorrow...
View of the day-The train was in town, so the elevator was emptied out and they were cleaning up the wheat pile across from the motel.
The day was a lot cooler, hardly getting to 85º, but we did have a good east wind...if an east wind can be good. The humidity was high to start with, but came down in a hurry and we were out of the camper by 10.
We got out to the field, got serviced and were combining by 11:30. It was more of the same, with Al running the cart, but there was a bit of a slowdown in the trucking.
There was another crew working on some of the wheat that was laying down really bad. This crew was using a stripper head so that there wouldn't be a lot of residue...straw and chaff...left behind. If we would have been cutting, we would have had to almost mow the wheat right to the ground and with the high yield, there would have been a solid mat of material which would have caused a nightmare to the seeding equipment. It just wouldn't have cut through the mat.
There was a problem at the bins with one of the augers, so between working on the auger and trying to get all the trucks unloaded from both crews, he was having a time of it. We never had to stop the combine...to wait on a truck, anyways.
Halfway up the field, Marilyn heard an alarm going off, but there were no lights, no strange sounds, all the gauges were normal, she couldn't figure out what the problem was. Until she saw a tiny little bar flashing on the picture of the combine. Something was wrong with the straw spreaders on the back of the machine.
Al came over with the tractor to see what the deal was and after we took one of the shields off, we could see the whole belt tensioner arm was laying in the bottom of the shield. This is what it should have looked like.
We could see that the shaft that was welded into the plate on the side of the combine, that held the unit on through the smaller pulleys had broken off.
We called the farmer to find a welder in town, got the plate taken off the combine and took what we needed in to get buzzed.
We were able to get it fixed right away and he only charged us $6! We took it back out to the field, reassembled it, tested it out...good as new. Back to combining, after losing a couple of hours.
We quit just at sundown...we had run out of space and the straw was getting raggy again. As with every night we have combined, Al drops Marilyn off at the camper and runs into Java to get fuel for the combine. When we got back to town, the pile of wheat had been cleaned right up...like it was never there.
Even with the breakdown, we still managed to get 90 acres done...
View of the day-It's chokecherry time and are there ever a lot of them..big, juicy and way up there. Had to catch these on the fly, but there might be some picking tomorrow.
We were able to get started earlier today, even with the high humidity...again. At least there was more of a wind, but we did top out at 101º today...mighty warm to say the least. Al really appreciated that A/C today!
The going was pretty slow with the yield being as high as it was...reaching 80 bu/ac...but in the low spots and along the water runs, it was still pretty green, which slowed the progression even more.
We got the first field done just before sunset, then moved down the two-track trail a half mile or so to the next field. We got the outside round done and had enough to fill the semi...we even got to use the lights on the combine.
Marilyn got to put, what Al calls "autosteer" in her combine this morning...at the one o'clock position on the steering wheel...a lovely hardwood "speed knob".
Not really what she had in mind...
View of the day-You know it's been a long time since the cart was used when you see this bird's nest tucked nicely under the tarp.
It was a bit foggy again this morning...what's new...but it burned off early, so we had high hopes the wheat was going to be fit. We had lunch at the camper, then headed out to the field around 12:30pm.
FINALLY!
Marilyn got into the combine and was confused when she looked at the calendar that she had put up...it was still on June...that's how long ago it had been since we combined last.
Marilyn went out and cut a patch...enough to park the semis and get some wheat in the hopper of the combine to clean out the "leavings" that might have been hiding. This is certified seed wheat, so everything has to be clean, clean, clean. We were supposed to dump the sample into the farmers smaller grain truck, but as it is on most farms...someone had borrowed the battery from it to use somewhere else.
We took a sample into the elevator and picked up a new battery in town for the grain truck. The sample was 15% moisture, but the good news was that it was being binned on the farm and there was aeration to dry it down. Back to the field we went and after dumping the hopper into the grain truck, we started to do the perimeter of the field.
Al followed in the grain cart as Marilyn opened up the field. This spring wheat was running well over 60 bu/ac, so it was necessary to dump a couple of times just so she could get around the field. Once it was opened up, it was back and forth for the rest of the day.
Al kept busy dumping the combine every round...no time to rest, or take a break.
Fortunately for him, the farmer has a couple semis and it is only a mile and a half back to the bins, so he gets to suck up the A/C in the tractor...and he needed it today with the temperatures finally hitting the mid 90's.
We kept going until the truck driver had to call it quits to go to a meeting, so we filled the semi and called it a night.
Good thing, too. The wind had died down and the humidity was going up.
Again...
View of the day-Actually, view of the "good old days". This one is from 1990.
A day of football and mob week on TV. No combining...and we knew that.
But tomorrow...
View of the day-The pile has started at Selby.
Al got to take the day off...another day...and get his fix of football. He started off with a CFL game to cheer on the Saskatchewan Roughriders, then he gave his channel changing thumb a workout switching between the other CFL game and his NFL Seahawks game.
Marilyn made a road trip over to Mobridge to do a bit of shopping. A roadside stand was selling sweet corn, so she grabbed a bag for supper and after grabbing a few other things to BBQ for supper...and a cheesecake for dessert, headed back home to Selby.
Most of the fields were done along the way, but there were a couple combines making dust and there must have been more going somewhere else, because the pile across from the motel was getting higher.
We have another couple of 90º days coming up, so soon it we be us making dust. Soon...
View of the day-Waiting, waiting, still waiting on the green in the wheat. Soon...very soon.
The fog was so thick this morning that we couldn't see the motel sign 50 yards from the camper. Good thing we weren't combining today, because it wouldn't have been an early start. It stayed overcast until mid afternoon and we stayed in the camper until 4:30.
We went out to the farm and got the combine and header ready to move a couple miles across from the field we will be starting on, then came back to get the tractor and cart moved out. That was the big job for the day.
We started back for town, but went by the far end of the field and walked in to see how much green we were dealing with. The smell of the alfalfa blooms was so sweet...can't you just smell them?
As we left the field and pulled out onto the highway, we were just ahead of a semi with a combine on the trailer and as we got to the stop sign he blew the horn. It was Terrance and his co-pilot from Canada and they were hauling a combine from Pratt, KS to Moose Jaw, SK. We stopped just around the corner for a short gab on the highway shoulder, then went into Selby to have an ice cream while they had a quick burger, then they were on the road again and Al got back to the camper in time to watch his Canadian Football League game.
Might be some shopping in Marilyn's future...
