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View of the day-Last sunset for Kansas wheat.Well, the day started out with good intentions. It was foggy, with the usual high humidity and low temps so we didn't lose any combing to the repair day. Not a good day for combining, but we did see one combine going later in the day.
We went to the Case dealer to get the part we needed, we even had the part number off of our parts CD. After getting the part, we headed to the field and commenced dismantling the broken part, which required removing some very heavyparts. The working area isn't really " Kuntz" size, so that was working against us as well. We got everything off and grabbed the new part of the back of the pickup and wouldn't you know it...it was the wrong part. It wouldn't have been so bad except we had gotten our farmer to add some re-enforcing welds on the new one, to the same area that had broken on the old one.
Marilyn called in and they had the right part, so off to Great Bend for the switch. The parts man was quite accommodating, exchanged the parts, and even though the new piece was a heavier duty one than the first one, it was $20 cheaper! How often does that happen? With the extra welds added again...just in case
... it was back to the field, where Al had everything removed and ready for the new part.
So, a five hour repair turned into an eight hour repair, but we got it done and hopefully it will last for a while. We took the header off and moved 15 miles south and cut a patch to park the rest of the equipment, then called it a day. Al got to catch up on some TV while Marilyn went and did laundry...again.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a dusty one...
View of the day-Al gets his turn combining at the end of the field.
This time the day started out sorta sunny, but cool(relatively speaking). Al had left the grain truck at the elevator, so his first stop was to get it unloaded before he got to the field. Marilyn got her rig fueled and greased and then did a test. The moisture was a bit high, but with the wind blowing and the hope for a sunny afternoon, we started combining.
It was a weird day, low clouds eventually drifted up from the SE and it even seemed to get foggy later in the afternoon, it was really hazy. But we kept on going, with the moisture borderline. Unfortunately the elevator closed at 6, since there weren't a lot of other people combining and only a few trucks hauling.
Marilyn noticed the combine was vibrating in an unusual way, so once the field was done, Al checked up in the engine compartment, and a bracket holding the rotor gearbox in place had broken. Hopefully we can get the part tomorrow and fix it ourselves. This part has broken in the past and we had to replace it, so we should know what we're doing (old age and memory...), we'll find out tomorrow.
Marilyn's brother, Tim and his wife Naomi are visiting to the south of us at Cushing, OK, where Tim's daughter and family are living. Today is Tim's 5?th birthday, and I'm sure they expected to be spending it in the sunny south, but that area has been hit by heavy rains. Maybe they are cruising.
A lot of heavy parts to move, better get some rest...
View of the day-Post rock fence line with a wild Sunflower.
These post rocks make up a lot of the fence lines in this area of the state. A lot of them are made into signs in front of farms and houses, with the occupants names or sports allegiances carved into them. Millions of years ago, the central US was a sea bed and after everything dried up there were layers of sea life compressed in the earth. When the area was settled, there weren't enough trees around to make fence posts, so they excavated the layers of post rock, using clever method of drilling holes, then splitting of the posts. They are usually 8 or so inches square and 6-8 feet tall, the ones in the picture stick out of the ground about 4 feet, so they are very solid. There is a Post Rock Museum in LaCrosse, which is 10 miles from where we are cutting and we had checked it out about 15 years ago, if it had been wet again to day we would have revisited. There is also a barb wire museum there, it is unbelievable the different kinds of barb wire that would require a museum, but they have hundreds on display.
The day started out cloudy, as usual, but we could see blue sky in the west so there was hope. After Al had his Pizza Hut buffet fix, we headed out to the field to survey the repairs, wash the windows and do a test. We got rolling at the crack of 3pm and, wonder of wonders, there were no stops...well maybe one when the knife broke at the joint, but we're old hands at repairing that kind of thing, so we only lost 15 minutes.
Marilyn had company riding with her for a while, Maitland, 7yrs and Maddy 6yrs, two of Kevin and Mandy's (our farmers) children made a few rounds, then Mandy and Macy, 2yrs swapped out for their turn. Finally we are back to great harvesting conditions...sun, wind and warm temps. Al claims the temps were more like Canada, running in the high 70's, and when Marilyn got out of the combine at 10:30pm the temp was only 63 degrees...it felt like home in September. An 80 acre day even with the late start, the field is running around 44 bushels and the test weight is 59lbs, so that is uplifting.
A final shot of the terraces in the field. It is hard to explain them if you haven't seen them, but sometimes they're a treat to combine, especially if there is water laying in them....
View of the day-Changing of the "guards" on the header.
Another cloudy day, this time we never did see the sun shine. Al took the part off the wobble box to get the broken bolt stubs removed at a local machine shop. When he went in with it, he told the guy that he had the tools to try to take them out himself, but thought he should leave it to the "professional. The guy replied "That's a nice change. Normally these kind of things come in after the farmer has tried to do it himself and it's a real mess". He had it done in no time. After picking up the guards to fix the header, we had a quick lunch and headed out to the field.
While we were changing the guards, we could see a big cloud dumping just to the SW of us, then one to the SE, then the NE. We seemed to be surrounded, but nothing of any amount hit us, just the occasional sprinkle, but at times the elevator to the S of us disappeared in the mist. We kept going, and had a visit from Jeff, the mechanic from Straubs(the Case IH dealer), to check out the oil leak that we had repaired on Sunday. We discovered a gasket had blown, causing the leak, and since they hadn't started it when it was on the trailer at the shop, they couldn't check it under pressure. He had to go back to town to get the gasket, and we stayed back to take off one of the big side panels off the combine so he could remove part of the pump.
It sprinkled on us while we finished putting the wobble box back on, put on a new chain on the header and lubed up a sticky PTO shaft. Marilyn cleaned up the shop trailer and we headed into town to call it a day. Once back at the camper, we got the dish aimed, so we would have at least some TV to watch...no internet in the comfort of our home at this stop. Once Al was happy with the dish remote in hand, Marilyn was free to get some much needed exercise, doing laps around the WalMart Supercentre (24 hours...mmmmm).
The rig is ready to roll tomorrow...
View of the day-Moving north thru Albert, KS
Another humid day, really cloudy to start, and it looked like we might get some rain at some point during the day. We did a test around noon and it was 14.5, so we went into Albert to find some place to have lunch. We found Matt's Barbecue, a little place with an older couple running the joint. Excellent hamburgers, and they even brought us out a piece of cake, as they put it "for some extra energy this afternoon".
We got rolling around 1:30pm and finished the field we were on and headed north about 15 miles to another field. Once we got everything moved, it looked like it was going to be a late night of combining, although the straw was not cutting or getting chopped up like it should, the 44 bushel yield was probably a contributing factor. The ever present moisture, and the guards that the knife sections cut against on the header were in need of replacement, since they were so worn. The knife kept jamming up and eventually one of the bolts holding the knife in place, worked itself loose. Thankfully it didn't get lost, so after putting it back in we cut some more until finally the bolts broke off completely, which ended the day's cutting.
We took the wobble box off (that we had just replaced in Davidson) to take it into Great Bend to get it drilled out. Since everything was closed, and we didn't have anything else to do, we decided to do the weekly laundry thing.
Tomorrow we replace the guards, fix the knife and commence to cut once again...
View of the day-What a change, good yielding, standing wheat!
We started out the day moving the Freightliner load and the shop trailer out to the farm, about 20 miles west of Great Bend. Once we got out there, we unloaded the tractor and cart, and then came back to Great Bend to get the combine from the doctor's office. They claimed it was fixed, but it still looked like there was a leak, but since it was a small one, we thought we would roll until the low fluid alarms went off. We were just ready to leave the lot, when Al got an air leak in the cab of the truck, so we lost 45 minutes getting that rectified. We finally rolled out at the crack of noon, got to the field and unloaded the combine on the road, and commenced to cutting..
What a pleasant surprise the field was, all standing straight and looking like it was going to yield fairly well...Marilyn though she had died and gone to heaven...till the knife broke. It didn't take long to fix and we made dust till the humidity got too high around 10pm. It is very unusual to have such high humidity in this area, usually it is 95-100 degrees with about 15% humidity. Today it topped out at 84 and the humidity never got below 45%. The crop is yielding around 40 bushels/acre and the test weight is 60 lbs (the norm). 
Our farmer said this field was the one hit the worst with the last frost, they didn't think it would amount to much, and are really surprised (and pleased, of course). Their other fields should do alot better, as long as the weather holds.
It was amazing the number of fields getting combined between Great Bend and where we are just south of Albert (that's the town name where Al is hauling). It doesn't appear that any of the combines out cutting are custom crews, they all seem to be local farmers. Everybody is going like mad, and the farm reports on the local radio are talking about how there are no cutters around, which is going to slow down the harvest.
Beautiful weather, gorgeous views-everything is so green this year, great crop...Al is putting the rope away again...
View of the day-The loads from Cherokee, OK to Great Bend, Kansas.
Well we made it to Great Bend. We left with the first load of General, combine and header, at 8am and made Great Bend by noon. We had to drop the combine off at the Case IH dealer, and what a surprise...a Sunday, the service manager was working and there must have been four or five mechanics working on equipment! Did we mention it was SUNDAY??! It may cost a bit, but at least it is getting the repair needed so we can roll tomorrow...oh, and we probably don't have to pay the $10 after hours service call fee either...rant off.
We had a quick lunch and headed back to Cherokee to get the second load of Freightliner, tractor/grain cart and camper. Once everything was packed where it belonged, we hooked the shop trailer behind the camper and we were on out way out of Oklahoma by 5:15.
These water towers are in Pratt, KS...just couldn't resist...
We got to Great Bend right at 8pm and left the rig and the shop trailer on an empty lot and nestled the camper in to it's cozy spot at the Finer Mobil home park. Marilyn was a bit concerned the camper wouldn't maneuver into the spot on such a narrow street, but with the hand held radio to direct Al into the lot, it was accomplished without a discouraging word being uttered. We are half settled in and are getting calls from northern Kansas for more work, it could get hairy.
No internet at the campground yet, so it's off to the motel down the street to get signal to send this off...
... it was back to the field, where Al had everything removed and ready for the new part.
