August 28, 2017

View of the day-One of three pull-type combines working across the road from us today.

Al was out early to start combining in the oats. If today went without incident, it would be the last of the oats. Marilyn didn't need to go out until lunch time, so she worked on getting some water issues looked after at the camper.

Marilyn had gone back to Yorkton on Friday to be ready to hit the floor at Staples first thing Saturday morning. It was her weekend to work, so she got to see what the latest happenings were in the bright lights. Not much new that she could see.

On the way back Sunday after she finished work, she was surprised to not see a lot of combines in the field. Wait. There were combines in the fields, they just weren't making any dust. In the 100 miles back to the field, she saw two...which was't much considering how perfect the weather has been.

Today was a different story. There was dust flying everywhere and there was very little wind, which made it just hang. And it was HOT...even by southern standards...it was over 92ºF. But it was a dry heat...only 17% humidity.

We did get the oats done, then got moved a couple miles over to the first of the spring wheat. After cutting a semi load for a test "sample". We called it a day.

We'll see what the sample tells us tomorrow...

August 24, 2017

View of the day-Got started in the oats.

Got the combine moved out to the field this morning, ready to start cutting oats once we got the go-ahead. There was a heavy dew on everything this morning, so the start time had changed, although there was a strong east wind that helped to speed the drying.

We were down to two combines, but it was just as well, since the oats was running in the high bushels, and the haul to the bins was a 20 mile round trip.

Marilyn had a visit from one of her theatre friends, who was passing by on her way back from Carlyle to Yorkton. This year she didn't get a ride in the combine, since Al was doing the driving.

We quit just after we lost the sun behind a cloud bank...the straw was getting really tough and we didn't want to plug anything up.

We learned our lesson on that, the hard way...

August 23, 2017

View of the day-Our puzzler for the day. How to fit the header on the new high speed trailer, without hitting the tires together.

It was parts run day. We drove over to Windthorst to get a few parts for the header and to return the chopper belt that we didn't need. Marilyn talked to the service manager about the autosteer, but since the tech was on holidays this week, he had no solution. The product specialist for the area was supposed to give her a call back, but that never happened either.

On the way home, we swung by to check out the RV facilities at the next farmers job that we have. It is between Kipling and Windthorst, so the drive will be too long from where we are parked now. After a chat with the farmer we headed back to the camper after lunch in Kipling.

Al blew out the rads...a job Marilyn thought he had accomplished yesterday. Then we set in to see if we could get the brackets on the new header trailer set in the right spots for transport. This was not going to be an easy job. The trailer is capable of hauling a 40ft header and ours is only 35ft. You think that would make it easier to set down just about anywhere on the trailer...except for two things...the wheels on the axles.

We moved the brackets back and forth to try and tweak them, but every time those axle wheels were either in the way of the header transport or else the feeder house.

We took a break to go on the internet to see if there were any pictures of a MacDon header on one of these ArcFab trailers. There were some pictures...either the wrong angle or such poor resolution that we couldn't tell what was going on. It looks like the only thing to do is move one of the axles back a ways so the tires on the header fit between the axles. We don't need the trailer for a while, so that will be a rainy day project.

While cleaning up a memory card from one of the cameras, Marilyn found a shot of our Parking Lot Farm Toy sale from the July long weekend. We set up at H&R Block where we work in the off season...Al full time and Marilyn part time around her Staples hours. We even had the Mini88, our 1/4 scale combine. It really had the people pulling in off the street to check it out and have their pictures taken on it.

And there were actually harvesting pictures on it as well...and current ones, to boot.

A couple more barley cutting shots to close out the day.

Tomorrow is oats day...

August 22, 2017

View of the day-Servicing, fueling and fixing this morning.

We got to sleep in a bit, since we were done with the barley. We drove over to the farm to fuel/DEF up then put the header in transport to move back to home base.

We had water issues in the camper. The hot water was smelling like rotten eggs, but we thought we had solved the problem when we put the new anode rod in the water heater. After doing a little research, Marilyn decided we had to sanitize the system...but we didn't have any bleach to do it, so it got added to the shopping list for the day.

We took a road trip up to Stockholm to visit with a friend who had just upgraded from CaseIH 2388's to 7088's. Al helped him tweak the settings for picking up wheat, then Marilyn got in and set up the monitors. Actually, he wanted nothing to do with the monitors, so she set up the main run screen, shut off any information only beeps, so he could just drive it like the old ones. 

After spending a couple hours there, we went into Esterhazy to get a few groceries and the items for the water sanitizing, then headed back to the camper.

Marilyn got the water business going, while Al went and blew out the rads and filters at the shop. It took a while to get the bleach through the system, but after letting it "cook", draining and refilling, the rotten egg smell was gone. Replaced by a chlorine smell, but that was preferable to the alternative.

Al has decided to try and keep the Pull-Type Combine heritage alive, by collecting and displaying real combines on our land along highway 16 near Rokeby, just east of Yorkton. 

He had mentioned it to one of his toy customers at the threshermans show a few weeks ago...told him what his limit was...and tonight he called Al to let him know he got three for him at the auction in Yorkton over the weekend. 

One International 914 and two John Deeres *spit*, a 6601 and a 7721.

Now he just needs to figure out how he will display them...

August 21, 2017

View of the day-Supper break for most of the crew.

Yesterday we serviced the combine, switched out the Nav controller from the farmers combine into ours to see if there was any difference. None. Kind of a good news/bad news thing...good that it wasn't the controller/bad because we don't know what else it could be. We were back at the camper by 5pm and that was the end of the day.

Today we were back combining in the barley and looking forward to the eclipse. We knew we weren't in for totality, but we had hoped it would dim a little bit at least. Didn't see much change at all.

We continued on with no incidents, just had to break once to change a few knife sections and a guard on the header, but it was otherwise uneventful. With four machines running there were a lot of acres covered.

Marilyn had to take a break in the evening to attend a theatre meeting via phone. She finished the first meeting just as Al was quitting for the day and parking the combine. The "post meeting" meeting took a little longer.

We are finished with the barley, so tomorrow the combine will come back to the yard to wait for the oats this weekend.

Maybe we will get that autosteer working yet...

August 19, 2017

View of the day-Dancing with the poles again, cutting barley with the John Deeres.

An early morning as we were up and moving the combine back over to the first area we started in. Itchy barley again...and lots of it. This was yielding over 100 bu/ac so the buggyman and the truck drivers were kept hopping all day.

Al combined all day and with the exception of plugging the straw spreaders a couple of times, there were no issues with the combine. Marilyn went back to the yard and spent a couple hours cleaning out the shop trailer...something that has been on the to-do list for quite a while.

Marilyn drove back to pick Al up after they quit for the day. He had combined just over 100 acres, top day so far. 

Tomorrow is 100 hour service day for the combine and since they are short a truck driver, Big Red gets the day off. It is Sunday after all...

August 18, 2017

View of the day-And, we wait. Finished the winter wheat and had to wait for the other truck to show up.

We had high hopes of the combine parts sliding on as smooth as they came off. We were also hoping last night was a bad dream. Both wrong.

We started working on the combine early and were having the same issues as last night. Fortunately for us, Alex was fueling up the combine and was able to give us a bit of input into the way it should go back together. The biggest problem was that the hammer we had been using on one of the old parts had made a mess of some of the parts. This would be one of the expensive parts that we thought we could salvage.

We got various files out and started to "unmash" what the hammer had reformed. We worked on those splines for quite some time before deciding we wouldn't need the slow speed option so we could slide the toothed bearing on from the other side. And it worked.

After getting everything back on the shaft, we tried putting the range shifting yoke back on. No way would it go...the shaft was sticking out too far. This meant we had to take it half way apart to get that put on. Once that was accomplished, we put the rest of the shields back on and went to test it out. It worked fine...that was a relief.

We got to help finish the field they had been working on, then moved over to combine some seed wheat. It wasn't a big patch, but with four machines, it didn't take long to lap up.

We moved back to the yard and blew off the combine before parking it for the night. We have finished the winter wheat and have a week or so wait until the oats is ready.

Maybe we'll find something to occupy the combine until then...or maybe get the autosteer working...