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View of the day-Going "old school"...round and round the piece, staying together as you can see in the mirror. At least for a while.
Heavy smoke in the air and clouds...possibly...couldn't really tell with all the smoke in the air. This kept the humidity from dropping, so we didn't get started combining until 1pm.
The going was slow when we did get started and we never did get up to speed during the day. It all had to get combined, so we all kept plugging along.
We got a couple of short breaks during the day. One, to fix a broken section on the header knife, and several more to pull the dead stumps off the header before any damage could be done. We got the call to shut down at 8pm as the humidity had gone up to 80%. Just a bit damp.
Looks like a late start tomorrow, unless the sun is shining...
View of the day-The only time the buggy man doesn't have to chase combines all over the field.
Good day to get an early start. Once the combine was serviced, Al started combining and Marilyn went on a road trip to get fuel in Whitewood.
We had another 30ºC day with a strong wind and a hint of forest fire smoke in the air. While filling the slip tank with diesel at the cardlock in Whitewood, Marilyn struck up a conversation with a gentleman pulling a 5th wheel camper. She was wondering if he was travelling somewhere and having to fight the wind. He said he had just gotten back from a camping trip to Grasslands National Park in the SW of the province.
He told her the weather nearly killed him with the heat...he just couldn't handle it and the A/C couldn't keep up in the camper. Then he said when they closed up the slides to come home, the bedroom slide had been a resting spot for about 30 bats! Some had managed to get past the seal and were flying around inside the camper. Never heard of that before. They got them out, but now have to deal with all the $hit they scared out of them.
Once the slip tank was filled, Marilyn headed back to the farm to fill the one ton, then hooked up the shop trailer to do a little cleaning on the pickup head we rented. The barley "leavings" had to be blown off since the header was going to be used for picking up seed wheat.
It was hot and the wind was helping to blow the chaff and straw away...most of the time. There doesn't seem to be a way to not get the itchy barley on you when cleaning. Once the header was done, the shop trailer went back into its parking spot and Marilyn went out to the field.
By this time the combines had moved to a new field and were working east. Marilyn timed it right to get picked up by Al near the road to ride for the rest of the day. It was slow going with a lot of patching out due to weeds, so most of the time was spent turning around, or almost running into one another.
We didn't make it to sunset, since it was getting tough and there would have been a lot of confusion trying to figure out where we were going in the dark. Quitting time was early for everyone.
More heat tomorrow...
View of the day-Unloading on the go with the best buggy man around.
Al got up extra early and took the pickup head to the CaseIH Dealer in Windthorst, 20 miles west of the farm. Since we didn't have the right trailer to haul it, he had to take it over on the combine...at 22 mph. He was back by 9:30, so it wasn't too bad.
We were going into straight cut winter wheat, so we had to hook up the header and make sure everything was in running order. It was, so all we had to do was move to the field and crank up.
With five machines running again, it didn't take long to get the first quarter section done. We moved over to the second field, but had to do a bit of cherry picking to find the dryest wheat. It had been desicated but there were still some green heads that were bringing the moisture up. Fortunately it was a lot dryer on the north end of the field.
We lost our wind just around sunset, but the timing was right. With another hour to go, we had finished the dry wheat and it was quitting time.
More of the same tomorrow...
View of the day-Finally the sun comes out to attempt to dry out the barley straw.
Al got started early again, but it was really slow going. Partly due to the grain cart driver being able to keep up with five combines and the other was tough straw. It was cool...Marilyn would describe it as cold...and cloudy all day, which didn't help to change conditions.
Al got a great bargain with his latest acquisition for his Heritage Fleet...AND he even got it delivered! A Massey Ferguson 851 to go next to the last one. Big thanks to Mike Karpinski for buying it at the auction and delivering it.
While Al was combining, Marilyn pulled up stakes and got the camper ready to move 15 miles east to our next farmyard campground. It was a lot easier to make the move since the shop trailer was able to hold the hoses, tanks and satellite dish. It got moved first, then the camper got pulled over and set up.
After setup, Marilyn went into Kipling to pick up some groceries and parts for the dish cable...the end had mysteriously disappeared from under the camper over the winter. With the cable fixed and groceries put away, it was time to head back to the field.
It was only two swaths after Marilyn had jumped in the combine with Al, that the rotor had plugged picking up a headland around a slough. Al had a couple other plugs during the day, but they had been easy to reverse out...not this time. We spent a good 30-45 minutes rocking the rotor to try to get the wad out, but finally it gave way and we were back at it.
We called it quits just after 8pm so we could go back to the yard and clean off the rented header. After filling it with fuel and DEF, Al started his road trip back to the farmyard where the camper was. We drove back to get the little Dodge pickup and bring it back with the rest of the equipment and called it a night.
No air conditioning tonight, it's fireplace time...
View of the day-Al gets to keep cool and dust free...for the most part...picking up barley.
A 10 am start helped to make a 120 acre day possible. We moved over to work with the John Deeres today and it was nice to work with a grain cart as well...no time for bathroom breaks.
We had another 30C hot one for most of the day, the wind was also blowing hard. Al started combining, then after Marilyn came out, she took over while Al had a lunch break. While she had the combine to herself, she got the autosteer working...finally. It had been a issue last year and since we had to purchase a new monitor to repair the problem, there was some relearning to do.
When Al got back to the combine, he noticed the engine temperature was a little high, so he borrowed some air from one of the semis in the field and blew out the radiators. This cooled it down in a hurry and we were back in the barley before too long.
The other red machine was missing for part of the day due to an electrical problem...it wouldn't start. The service truck from Moosomin came out and discovered it was a wire to the key. It wasn't long before they were back in the swing of things.
The cart driver had his work cut out for him, with all of the machines rolling and the barley running as well as it was. It wasn't until later in the day that we started to have a backlog and had to wait. With 3/4 to a mile long runs, machines were never together enough to make unloading efficient. They got it done, though.
Later in the day, the wind started coming out of the NW and the temperature dropped dramatically...down to 23C. Marilyn was wishing she had a jacket stashed in the combine, it seemed downright chilly with the wind. The wind was also making it tough when unloading on the go into the cart. Good thing it's a big target.
Tomorrow we should finish the barley...
View of the day-Picking up barley on a HOT August day.
We have been having high heat weather warnings all week and they weren't wrong. We almost hit 40C/104F...at least there was a good wind to cool things down. Relatively speaking.
Al went out and started where he had left off in the barley last night. Marilyn got lunch ready and was just about to head out, when Al called and told her to hook up the shop trailer and head over to the bins. It didn't sound good.
At the bins, Al had the cover plates taken off the table auger on the pickup head. A shaft holding the disappearing fingers that pull the crop into the feeder house, had come out of the holder inside the auger tube. When we took the last cover plate off, we could see it was more serious than first thought...the bearing holder had torn the plate that it was mounted on. It looked like it was beyond repair...at least for us to do.
We called around to see if there was someplace we could get it done professionally, but then decided it would be better in the long run to get a new drum, so we wouldn't have a repeat wreck. Although, we have never had this happen in all our years of combining.
With the decision to go new and it being the weekend, we had to find a pickup head to use. Luckily our next farmer wasn't ready to start combining until next week, so we managed to rent his pickup head. We were back in business.
We were working in the barley with another red combine, but he had bearing issues that put him out of commission as well. We both got back into the field just after noon and the rest of the combining day went smoothly...except for plugging the rotor a couple of times. The hydraulic reverser on the rotor saved the day both times.
We didn't have a grain cart in our field, so a lot of time was spent driving to the trucks to dump. This took a lot more time since the barley was running close to 90 bu/ac, which meant the combines were filling fast and the trucker had to be on his toes...and he was. There was never a wait for a truck.
More heat tomorrow...
View of the day-The "Heritage Fleet" expands rapidly.
Today we started our 2018 harvest. Al is on his own down at Langbank, picking up barley, while Marilyn finishes off the last of her current shifts at Staples.
Not much for the first day of combining, since Al is without internet and was likely to overwhelmed with reacquainting himself with the combine. Rumour has it, the rotor might have gotten plugged...can't confirm or deny...
More background on the pull-type combines and the threshing show finds to come...
View of the day-Going "old school"...round and round the piece, staying together as you can see in the mirror. At least for a while.
