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View of the day-All rigs running on Bob's canola, hoping it doesn't rain.
We knew we wouldn't be able to start real early, since the sky looked like it could let loose anytime. Fortunately, it was still a ways off to the west, so Kim went out and did a test then brought the sample back to the yard. It was close...10.8%.
He went back out to test in a different spot and this time it was right at 10%. Marilyn thought the next sample should have come from the bin, then it would have been plenty dry.
Once Kim and Bob were rolling, Al started out combining until Marilyn made it out with the lunch. We finished Bob's field around 1:30pm, then went into his yard to fuel up the combine, since we were done for him...for now.
We drove back over to Kim's, and he did a test on his canola and found it was good enough to start picking up. By now, the weather had moved in and by the time we were all at the field, ready to go, it started to sprinkle. But it never started running off the header.
We combined a couple of hoppers, as the sprinkles got heavier and by the time we made it back around to the yard, there was no dust at all. So that, was that, for that.
Marilyn went into town to pick up a few things, while the guys got the truck dumped and Marg worked on digging potatoes out of the garden for supper...which were fabulous done on the BBQ.
We got a shot of rain but it looks like the worst of the rain went south, but tomorrow we are looking at 60% all day. Al has some work to do on the combine, then an important date with some Sunday NFL football. Marilyn is going on a road trip to meet her friends at Whitewood for brunch.
The wait should help the wheat...
View of the day-Keeping a watchful eye to the sky as the clouds get darker...and noisier.
We were out to the field by 10am to get started on the canola. The forecast was for temps in the high 80's, so we had anticipated getting a lot done. So where did the clouds come from?
Al took the broken part off the combine and got Kim to fabricate a new one...and a fine job of it, he did...then we went to town to get a new chain for the auger on the pickup head. Kim and Bob got rolling early, while we finished putting the header together, then Marilyn was ready to make dust, too.
We managed to get the first piece done and tried to get going on the long swaths, but it started to sprinkle and there was a lot of lightning and thunder, which was getting closer all the time.
Once the dust stopped coming out of the back of the combine, we knew it was time to quit...even if it wasn't running off the header. We could see that it soon would be. We waited under the shield of the combine, out of the rain, until Kim showed up with our ride.
We left the combines out in the field and came back to the camper...then the rain came. We had enough to stop us for the rest of the day and when Kim and Al went north to see if the wheat was any better, they could see that a lot more rain had fallen up there.
We killed time in the camper for the rest of the afternoon, then when Marg came home from work, we went into Carlyle for supper. Back at the farm it was CFL football night, so we watched the game in the house, then went back to the camper for the night.
Not sure what tomorrow holds in store...
View of the day-Al fueling up the combine after we finished the barley. Here in Canada, the farmer supplies the fuel, so we make sure we are full when we arrive and they fill us when we leave for the next field...and we were moving on to Kim's dad's field next.
It was a much earlier start...just as we had hoped...to finish the last of the barley, which the truckers were ecstatic about. Once we got done, we went back to the yard to fuel and clean off the barley straw and chaff that was on the combines.
Marilyn went across the road to Bob's canola to run a test, then we brought it back to Kim's where he checked it out for moisture and green count. With the canola, 100 seeds are laid out on a piece of masking tape and rolled out flat. If there are more than 2 green seeds in the 100, it won't be a #1. We waited for Bob to show up to see if he thought we should go, but since the test Marilyn had combined was from the outside round, he suggested going back and taking one from about three rounds in.
With the new test and once we figured out the correct way to read the chart, we discovered that it was plenty dry and we were good to go. Al picked Marilyn up with his ride...Kim's Pete...then we were off to the field.
The birds nest was in the side of the barn where the testing station was...they find the darnedest places to build.
Bob had a lot of issues with his 9600 JD, it kept quitting on him and even though the service man had been out the last 3 days and some spendy computer parts had been ordered, he couldn't seem to get anymore than a couple of rounds before it quit.
Marilyn had a header issue later on in the day. It had started making a noise, so she called Al over and we figured there was a part of one of the disappearing fingers on the auger jammed up somewhere. We tried to get the inspection holes on the auger opened up, but wouldn't you know it, two of the clips that held the bolts on were stripped and we had a hell of a time getting them off. Then we discovered it was the auger that was the problem and it had to be adjusted. There also was a bolt that had broken, but we managed to use one of the locking nuts to hold it together until we can get a new one.
Once we got that remedied, we were making dust once again and the fix-it job held until we got Bob's field of canola done, then parked for the night.
After all, it is the NFL season opener...
View of the day-All rigs in the yard for service work.
Rain during the night and into the early morning meant there would be no combining today...so we figured it was time to do a bit of maintenance work.
We took a drive over to the Case IH dealer over at Storthoaks to pick up a filter and some oil to do a change on the combine. We stopped for lunch in Redvers, then came back to the farm to get to work.
Al got the oil changed, then tightened a few of the chains while Marilyn got all the higher hour greasing done. While we were working on the combine, Kim was getting the trucks from last night unloaded, then he did some cleaning on his combine.
After we had gotten everything done that we wanted to, Marilyn decided to help Kim put his Outback autosteer in his swather...just for practice, of course. We got the first part of it accomplished, under the watchful supervision of Buttons the dog, then we took a supper break and finished up the job just after dark. After taking it out to the field for a test drive, we called it a night.
With no more rain during the day, we should be good to go in the morning...
View of the day-Picking up barley swaths and meeting Kim in his combine.
We were up early to get some work done on the pickup head before we would be able to get going on the barley. First thing, though, was that we had to clean up the last 15 acres of straight cut wheat for Phillip.
While Al and Kim worked on torching the old bearing off the back roller of the pickup head, Marilyn went over and cleaned up as much as she dared on the wheat. She made a point of staying well away from the sloughs and only had to leave an acre or two that were just to chancy to get to. Once that was done, she drove back to the yard.
While Al blew out the air filters, Marilyn made lunch in the camper, then we went out to the barley field to get started. Kim was already going on the swaths, but he had spent the first part of the day waiting on the service man from the Moosomin CaseIH dealer to come out to do some work on one of the pressure sensors that had been setting off the alarms. He finally called to find out the guy hadn't left yet but "was going to try and get out in the next couple of hours"...Kim wondered what had happened to yesterday's promise to "be out there first thing in the morning".
He finally showed up and after a couple of hours of repair and testing, he was up and running again. We worked until dark and the semi was filled, then drove the rigs back to the yard which was just across the field.
Al had a lovely day hauling barley...a grain he hates because of the itchiness.
Hopefully, it only lasts one more day...
View of the day-Pump jacks everywhere, nice to cut around. We were working across the road from Kim who was picking up barley swaths and Dudey was hauling it away with the tandem.
Sun was shining and the wind was starting to blow, it was looking to be a great day for combining. Al went out and got the combine serviced, then we went into town for breakfast, before going out to crank it up.
It was a bit tough to start, but as stated yesterday, Phillip will be drying it, so we forged on. The day was going pretty good, the yield was down on this field, going around 25 bu/ac due to the hail, so that meant the cart and truck driver had it pretty easy.
Around about 15 acres left, Marilyn was working around a couple of sloughs on the east end of the field and had already gone around a couple of them, when all of a sudden the wheel dropped and she wasn't going anywhere.
The hopper was about a third full, so Al came over and was able to get under the auger to dump the combine and peruse the situation. Time to call in the big guns.
While Marilyn worked on getting the tow rope of the side step by the toolbox...no easy task when it was pretty much sitting on the ground on that side...Al went with Phillip to get Kim and his 9400 JD 4WD tractor. By the time the tractor showed up, we had the rope straightened out to hook up to the tractor and it only took one pull and the combine was out. It was a good thing only one tire was down.
After getting the rope wrapped back up, Marilyn cut back to the approach at the other end of the field and called it a night...let that 15 acres sit until tomorrow.
Even with getting stuck, it was a 104 acre day...
View of the day-Al and Phillip listening to the Labor Day Classic football game as they wait for a load.
Well, today is the start of the brrr months...Septembrrr, Octobrrr, Novembrrr, Decembrrr.
We woke up to overcast skies and high humidity...again...and it even appeared there had been some rain during the night, so we knew we wouldn't be starting early. Al went out and serviced the combine anyway, just so we would be ready to get down to business when it got fit.
Marilyn got to give Kim a crash course on how to calibrate moisture on his "new to him" 7120 combine. After giving him and his combine driver for the next week or so the once over on the monitor, they felt they had a working knowledge and were comfortable that they shouldn't set off any alarms. Fortunately, Dudey, the temp driver is in his 20's and doesn't fear/hate technology the way Al and Kim do.
We got out to the field and started on the last 30 acres just after noon and just as we were getting the last couple of laps in, the sun broke through and after a couple of hours the skies cleared off. We finished the field and moved over to the next field, moving past the truck dumping the last load at the bin.
Driving the combine the three miles over to the next field, was like driving in Oklahoma during harvest...minus the 100ยบ heat, blistering winds and red dirt roads...there were combines going everywhere. Two red ones with a cart on one side, two JD's, across from them, Kim with his red one and his dad's green one going in barley and even a couple of Claas combined giving some canola a workout. The dust was really flying!
Marilyn opened up the field, it was a little tougher than she had hoped, but Phillip wasn't concerned...he would just run his grain dryer. Fine by Marilyn...shut up and drive.
Which she did until the sun was gone...
