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View of the day-Another one from the drone.
It was Staples working weekend, hence the break in the blog. Al held down the fort for the weekend and had it pretty slack. There were enough sprinkles to put the brakes on combining and when it wasn't raining, the dew held things up.
The green ones are having a time of it with breakdowns, which has to be frustrating for them. A chopper, then some bearings and a few other assorted issues. At least they don't go down together...very often.
Today combining started around 10:30am...no thanks to the dew...it was slow going until late in the afternoon. This gave the combines some smooth sailing until around 10pm, when the rain started. They kept going until it started to run off the headers, then shut down.
Hopefully it is just a short shot and we won't have to wait too long to start tomorrow...
View of the day-Out the camper window...lots of action today, considering the bins each hold one and three quarters Super B's worth of canola. Lots of auger moving.
Another early day for Al as the guys went to finish off the last of the canola down south. Marilyn brought lunch out and rode around until the field was finished, then helped to get some of the trucks moved back to the yard.
The next field they moved to was just a mile from the yard, so it will be a short trip home at the end of the day.
Of course, that could also mean working later because it is so close...
View of the day-First thing this morning, everything looks so peaceful at the lineup.
Al had come home with bad news last night. He had picked up some fence wire and it had wrapped around the front of the rotor...seems to be an annual ritual. They were pretty much finished for the night so Al figured we would go out bright and early to clear it out in the daylight.
It had gotten down to freezing temperatures last night, so this morning was fresh, to say the least. With several layers on, we headed to the field to get the wire out of the rotor. With the header raised all the way and a piece of coroplast down on the ground to protect the knees from the canola stubble, Marilyn was able to get set to start.
Al helped get the trough underneath pried open and held that way with the four inch side of a 2X4. Not a lot of room to work with...but that's all we had. It took better than an hour, but eventually we got the four foot piece of barbed wire unwrapped and we were back in business.
Al started combining and Marilyn went back to the camper to make lunch and clean up after the dusty job under the combine. While she was in repair mode, she decided to take the motor off the rear stabilizer jacks on the camper, which had quit working late last year. God forbid we should have to crank manually when we have the technology to push a button and have the RV level itself on its own. All we needed now was to get the motor tested/repaired/replaced.
Marilyn took lunch out for Al and rode around a bit, then he decided to take the afternoon off and let Marilyn combine for a change...just in time to do the dance with the power poles. After checking his eyelids for cracks and getting caught up on some season premiere episodes on the DVR, he came back out to the field to swap out again.
Marilyn rode around a bit too long after he came out and got the drone out just after sunset. The wind had completely disappeared and it was all but impossible to see anything when all the combines were close together.
She had been hoping to get some aerial shots of all the dust, but just as she got it in the air, a whiff of wind started up...as did the mosquitoes, which made the flight even shorter.
Another cold night forecast...good thing the propane got topped up...
View of the day-Still dumping...this time it is the end of a field, so we can all move to the new one empty.
While doing the morning servicing, Al discovered a bolt was missing from the chain drive pulley on the pickup head. He called into Windthorst to see if they had the right bolt...they had one that would work...so he took a road trip in to pick it up. Once that was repaired, it was back to picking up canola swaths.
Marilyn had water work to do back at the camper. Even though the anode rod had been changed, she figured the hot water tank should have gotten rinsed out to get the crud out of the bottom...it was starting to smell again. She also wanted to regenerate the water softener, which requires a half a box of salt mixed with water. No salt in the camper meant a road trip to Kipling...we needed propane anyway.
After picking up the salt and a few groceries, she threw together a lunch on the road and headed down to Kennedy where the combines were working. Once Al had his lunch and she rode in the combine for a round or two, it was back to the camper to get the water refreshed.
With the softener filled with brine and soaking, the water heater got drained and the inside scoured out. Time to kill before filling everything backup again, so she decided to clean out the cargo hold. There was a lot of tools and water hose parts in tubs...an attempt at organizing. She brought along one of many empty toolboxes sitting around in the garage at home, hoping to at least get all the tools organized.
Once the cargo hold was organized...along with several "so that's where that was!" comments after finding the odd treasure, it was time to get the water running. Everything was fresh again, all tanks filled, the propane tank was back in it's spot, heating the water for the much needed showers later on.
Al had called in the middle of Marilyn's repairs to say the air filter alarm had gone off, so he cleaned it out as best he could in the field, but thought it was time for new filters. Marilyn was on the road again to Windthorst to get filters and bring them back to the field so we could install them. They had just finished the field and were making the move to the next one a mile down the road, so the timing was good.
Marilyn decided to use one of her many cooking gadgets to make some little tarts. She had picked up crust and pie filling and had everything all set to go when she opened up one of the cupboards...looking for the tart/cupcake machine...and discovered all the ziplock containers that she thought she had left at home. Another one of those-"so that's where those are...I knew I brought them!"...unfortunately, what she didn't bring was a can opener. Oh well, the tarts were delicious, made with fruit cocktail from two little lunch size containers she managed to find.
More of the same tomorrow...
View of the day-The view from Al's seat.
Early morning for Al today. A trip to Windthorst to get some disappearing fingers for the pickup head auger, then back to install them. Not all of them, though. A couple of the holes in the almost brand new auger were hammered up pretty bad from the "log" incident. There were enough in the auger to pull in the canola swaths, so now we have a couple extra backups.
We had been in a weather warning all afternoon and we could see the fluffs of clouds slowly building in the east. They eventually turned into large thunder heads, but stayed in the east, for our viewing pleasure. It's been a while since we had any bad weather and it was nice to see it pass us by...not so nice for the areas getting hit by it.
The drone came out for a short flight today. The wind has been really strong for the last couple of weeks, so it has been grounded. The wind was still pretty brisk, so it was a quick trip up, around and down.
Long day and more canola tomorrow...
View of the day-All lined up and waiting for servicing.
We were both up early today...AIS was 8 am. Marilyn wanted to get the windows cleaned for her afternoon shift and Al wanted to get the filters blown out. We got that done and Al started combining while Marilyn went back to the camper to get lunch together.
Al had a few issues with old stumps getting in and breaking a few disappearing fingers...in addition to the ones from yesterday. He also had issues with netting from the cow guys and their baling. The left over net that they would wrap the bales with would be bundled up and get caught in the pickup teeth, then start wrapping...it did not want to let go. Al got a knife out and made short work of it, but it still took time away from combining.
The field we are on is two sections, which is one mile wide by 2 miles long. The swaths run the mile long run, so as you can imagine, the buggy man has his work cut out for him. Not only is it a long trek back and forth to the trucks, he has to deal with the long swaths cutting him off from the five combines, which are on every other swath...and he can't drive over the swaths. Yes, he has to have a plan...and hope that everyone works along with it.
Al came back to the camper to watch the CFL football game between rivals, Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Marilyn got to drive combine while he was cheering on the Riders...it must have helped, they won. He came back out to the field after the game and switched out with Marilyn, until they shut down at 8 pm.
Weather looks promising for the next while...
View of the day-Change of crop, so a midday break to change headers, then fill DEF and fuel.
Big wind meant another early start to the day to finish off the last of the spring wheat. Everyone moved back to the yard around 2 pm to service and change headers from straight cut to pickup, then headed south to Kennedy to start picking up canola swaths.
We parked the straight head out in the field by the yard, then hooked up the shop trailer to take out and blow off the chaff and straw that had collected. At this point, we are done with it for the season...although, you never know.
Al started combining with the rest of the crew and Marilyn got the straight header all cleaned off, before bringing the shop trailer out to the field for radiator blowing tomorrow. Picking up swaths going east was quite a task with the wind blowing the dust and chaff to the front of the combine.
We had the header jam once and when Marilyn went out to pull out the crop to see what was in there, she got quite a surprise. there was a 6 ft half burned log that was about 8 inches across laying just under the auger in the header. She was able to pull it out and wrestle it to the ground...no camera handy for that performance. We ended up with a couple broken disappearing fingers, but were able to continue on.
The wind never slowed down after sunset, actually, it seemed like it had gotten stronger by the time we shut down just after 9 pm.
Lots more canola coming up...
