May 6, 2014

View of the day-A throwback, actually. It all started with a handshake, this day, last year as we were getting ready to leave.

After years of listening to Al "suggest" it was time to retire from...as he likes to call it..."this lucrative business", we finally came to an agreement that Harvest 2013 would be our last run in the USA.  

While we had officially made the decision, we decided not to tell anyone, "just in case", we changed our minds...this had happened before.  There had been a couple of pre-harvest agreements, that there would be only five or three or two more years, then we would quit, but all those deadlines came and went. And we did the same...came to the US and went harvesting.

Knowing that we were firm in our choice, made the summer a lot more relaxed...sort of. We had some of our customers retire, pass on, or rent out their land, so we lost work during the year which meant future work. We still managed to get our usual acres from other sources, and even with the 52 straight days that we didn't combine, still came out okay.

The hardest part was having to let our remaining customers know that we wouldn't be returning this season. These were folks that we have known since before we had even gone harvesting out on our own. These were friends.

When we made the trek to Wichita for the US Custom Harvester's convention, we made a point of swinging down through Cherokee, OK and Great Bend, KS to visit one more time and officially say good bye. Although we hope to visit again at some time in the future. We have seen other crews retire and wonder how they could handle the transition in the spring, but life is a vacuum...when one thing goes, another takes its place.

We certainly didn't miss all the paperwork headaches that come with getting prepared for the run...and the cost involved. The mad panic to get everything in order and loaded to make two 1200 mile trips...without incident. If we were lucky. With everything we had going on at home, we would have been ready for the straight jackets, of course, we might not have taken on so much if we knew we would be leaving. There's that vacuum.

We will not be getting out of the harvesting business. We have always had lots of work to do here in Canada and actually found some winter wheat to do in the southern part of the province, near Carlyle, which means our season will just start a couple months later than usual.

Anyone who is familiar with our outfit, knows I never wanted to quit the southern run...it has been so much a part of what we have always done in the summer. I will miss those fields that we have combined year after year. Miss those towns we have lived in for months at a time...one day we will go through Al's journals to see exactly how many days we have spent in each place. On the other hand, we will forge new territory here at home.

Part of the deal to retire the southern run was that we would be able to do something we had always wanted to do, and that was take the camper and tour Newfoundland and the maritimes. We had planned to leave the last week of May and spend the month of June touring around...we were looking forward to it, although, Al would not drive unless we had each day's destination confirmed...he didn't want to drive too far and end up looking for a campground. There had to be a plan.

No problem with the planning until I discovered our date to leave was coming up in just over a week...where did the time go?!

Now, Al had been talking about the Lamoure, ND toy show in the middle of June, which would have thrown a wrench into the maritime tour..that's a long loop around. Then Al got a call from the CaseIH dealer in Chamberlain, SD, where we had purchased farm toys over the past several years. He had wanted to purchase a particular piece of advertising memorabilia and they would never part with it, but now they were planning an dispersal and were offering it to him before the auction...which was in June a few days before the Lamoure show. How convenient.

So we had decided to save the maritime trip for next year and do the ND toy show loop. Then we noticed that the weekend before the auction and toy show was...the Summer Farm Toy Show...in Dyersville, IA. Road Trip! This time we might get our Mississippi riverboat cruise. So now we will be taking three weeks to go to Dyersville, Chamberlain and Lamoure. 

What is tough now, is following Facebook and Twitter, seeing all the rigs that are heading south and starting the harvest. The bad part for them is the disastrous crop conditions that they are heading into. Another plus for us not going on the run...but not enough of a plus that it takes away the feeling that I want to be on the move, too.

For the past 10 years, I have hauled all our harvesting photo albums along, going all the way back to 1991. My intention was to scan them all and put them into our digital photo frame so we could "trip down memory lane" as the pictures scrolled through. Even though Al has the rule, "if it doesn't get used, it doesn't come back in the camper next year", they always made the run, tucked away in a place Al never looked. Now with all the time I have on my hands, I want to get the job done and post some of the past years on the blog, there are some classic harvest pictures that need to be shared.

So, just because we aren't harvesting in the US, doesn't mean the blog will stop. It might not always be about harvesting...at least until August and the Canadian harvest starts.

Countdown to June 1 and our "Farm Toy Tour"...

May 4, 2014

View of the day-This was a common sight for us this winter/spring...almost 4 months of it.

Well, it's been a long hard winter up here for us...and busy. Between trade shows, toy shows, work and road trips, during one of the longest cold stretches we have seen in a long time, the blog has been put on the back burner.

We had the Saskatoon toy show first thing in January 10,11 & 12. It was a new venue this year, so we were unsure if the crowds would be as good as they had been in the past if no one could find the place, but our (Al's) fears were unfounded and it turned out to be a great show...the weather even co-operated. Here is a before and after of our tables.

The Crop Production show was in Saskatoon the following week, so the Sunday of the toy show, we got the booth set up for the Association of Canadian Custom Harvesters, but this time we didn't have to man it. Lynn Prevost had said she would do the Saskatoon show if we looked after Brandon Ag Days the following week. Worked for us.

Our golf cart was delivered to Crop Production and was brought to Yorkton with Jeff Just, one of the CaseIH guys manning their booth...who is also a neighbor, sort of...from the other side of Yorkton. Big thanks to CaseIH for the delivery.

We got back from the Toy Show/Crop Production, just in time to turn around and head east to Brandon for AgDays, January 20.

We got set up and had a chance to look around before settling in to the booth. We only had to work one day as Brad and Rhonda Martens, harvesters from Gladstone, MB, took over the last two days.

The Minot, ND Triple T Toy Show was next on our agenda, on February 1. As usual, we managed to find a few deals and pick up the several boxes of toys that had been shipped to Pingree and Kenmare.

Al's Toy buddy, Roger Miller, had flown in to Minot from Arizona and was getting a ride back to Canada with us, so we made a point of stopping in Kenmare to visit a private museum that we had visited several years ago.

He was quite impressed.

Next on our calendar was the Yorkton Toy Show and Auction, Feb 7,8 & 9. We were organizers for the auction, which was held on the Friday night, so between getting set up for that and getting the tables set up for the toy show at the other venue...we were hopping! There were 225 lots that sold, most consigned, but a lot were cleaned out of the closets at home.

This is also the third year we have had a tractor painted up to raise money for a family in the area who is going through a rough time. 
This year we had a Versatile 2335 which was painted by Mike Kardynal from Minute Muffler in town.Another successful auction, with a lot of notes for next year...hopefully we find them when the time comes. Al came up with the idea of having a "show" tractor for the Yorkton show, so each year we have to make boxes and decal up the tractors. 
These are this year's model...and there are only 35 made.

Now, we were going to be able to be the participant and take it, kind of, easy...we were heading to Wichita, KS for the US Custom Harvesters annual convention.  Al had purchased a certificate at the Canadian Custom Harvesters convention, which included a membership, registration and rooms for the event. 

We took the scenic route on the way down, first to pick up some rims and hubs to dual up the Magnum in Aberdeen, SD, then we stopped in Waconda, SD to pick up some of the toys that Al had purchased online. We also made a detour over to Great Bend, KS and Cherokee, OK to have a visit with the farmers that we have been fortunate to have worked for, for the past 20+ years. The amazing thing about this trip was that we had snow on the ground all the way down, to Cherokee.

We had a good chuckle at the snowman that was built outside the newspaper building in Cherokee...it was even reading the Messenger!

Back in Wichita at the convention, it was great seeing our extended harvesting family, once more, but this time it was under more laid back circumstances.

We had a tour of the AGCO factory in Hesston, KS...we covered a lot of miles going between the buildings, but it was still pretty interesting...Al was even considering changing colors for a short time, but Marilyn said the cab was too small.

We got to enjoy their hospitality, took in the big trade show and learn a lot at the various sessions that were held...and we sat on our hands during the auction. No treasures this year.

Our travel time wasn't over yet. We nicely got back from Wichita, then four days later, we were on the road to Morden, in the southern part of Manitoba, for the last toy show of the spring season. 

Once we were back in Yorkton, living through the longest stretch of -40ºC weather we have seen in our time, Al was getting into the start of the tax season rush at H&R Block and Marilyn started helping out there, too, after she was finished at Staples for the day.

Marilyn had theatre business, with the preparations for a drama festival, clear across the province. It was a small cast, but the set required three bathtubs...with showers and running water. Nothing too it...on paper at least...finding claw foot bathtubs for the director was something else. 

Right in the thick of rehearsals, Marilyn got to go on a "sewing retreat". She had been invited to fill the fourth position for a trip to the garment district in Los Angeles, CA. Her friend, Brenda's sister, Colette, who owns Colette's Sewing Machine Plus(where she got her embroidery machine and serger) had a shopping trip planned through one of the ladies that had brought a workshop to Yorkton. Colette, Brenda, Marilyn and Monika, one of Colette's regulars, took off April 8 for a full week of, all things sewing.

We got to learn how to create our own personalized patterns, then we met some of the people that dress the stars. The shopping was amazing...streets lined with bolts of all materials imagined...too bad we didn't have the cargo trailer to haul our treasures home. The weather was great, we got to tour the usual traps and even got to see Book of Mormon at the Pantages theatre. 

Getting our purchases home was a different story. We had to buy extra cases, make sure we were under 50lbs per bag(no easy task, when you can buy material at $2.50 a pound). we did have to get our dress forms shipped to Kenmare, since they were being custom made for us. We're already looking forward to next year's trip. Marilyn just needs to get sewing.

Back in the real world we managed to get our play, The Drowning Girls...based on a true story from the early 1900's about a man who married, then killed three of his wives by drowning them in the bathtub...all put together...thanks to the spare water pump from the camper, as you can see from the monitor in the green room. All the hard work paid off as we came home from the 6 day/6 performance festival with the Technical Merit, Best Characterization, Best Novice Actor, and Runner up to Winning Entry.

One last encore performance May 17 in Yorkton, then Al can have his toy hauling cargo trailer back...minus the tubs and plumbing.

We got through the tax season in one piece...nobody got choked and we are still waiting for the weather to smarten up. We had lots of rain and there is still a snowbank on the north side of the house.

Bring on the summer...

December 8, 2013

View of the day-Not a great start to the harvest convention weekend, but we did stay ahead of the storm. This was on the #1 highway west of Moose Jaw, just after it had reopened.

What a hectic couple of weeks we have had! Marilyn was back at work, plus getting set up for the dinner theatre and getting ready for the Association of Canadian Custom Harvesters convention that was coming up. Al was getting everything organized for his big farm toy auction that is coming up in February in conjunction with the toy show.

After the performances on Nov. 22 & 23 in Yorkton, Al was good enough to empty out the cargo trailer for his toys so that the "damn theatre group" could use it for the road gig they had in Spy Hill, just over an hour away on Nov. 30. Those small town audiences are a real treat and that was the best performance to date.

The harvesters convention was in Lethbridge, AB, Dec. 4, 5 & 6 with registration starting on the night of the 3rd. There had been weather warnings that a severe blizzard was due to hit on Monday, so Al decided we should not take any chances and leave Sunday afternoon, right after we had gotten the cargo trailer unloaded back at the hall in town.

There really wasn't anything serious as we left Yorkton, but we had heard the #1 highway was closed for about 30 miles due to several semis that had been in a wreck...the freezing rain was the cause. By the time we hit that stretch of highway, we had about an hour wait, then crawled for several miles before we were able to open it up again.

There was thick fog along with the icy highways, so we couldn't really drop the hammer to make up the lost time. Fortunately, it cleared off by the time we got to Swift Current and the rest of the way was clear sailing. Perfect driving weather.

We got to Lethbridge, got registered and were settled in to wait for the storm...and to wait for Lynn and Gerry Prevost to show up with the setup for the convention. We didn't have to wait long for the weather...just after midnight it started snowing and blowing...HARD.

The next morning we looked out the window...what we could see from our window with the view of the roof...and the flags were straight out with the wind. Not fluttering, but looking like they were frozen stiff, the wind was blowing so hard. We did venture out to see what was happening and it wasn't good. Thank goodness for the 4x4 on the Dodge.

And not a good day to go combine shopping.

Lynn and Gerry managed to make it through the storm and got to relax after the chaos, while we just stayed in the room to watch Monday Night Football.

Tuesday, we had to make a run to Costco for a few things, so Al drove Marilyn, Lynn and Amy, one of the other ladies that had come with a trade show booth. We got our shopping done, then went back to the hotel to get the registration set up. Unfortunately, Lynn was getting a lot of calls from people who were cancelling out...not a good sign after all the setup that had gone into it. Attendees cancelling was one thing, but the presenters were cancelling too, so there was a scramble to fill a lot of the slots that were left open.

We had some good sessions from the big three and the swag was pretty nice...coins, hats and other stuff.

Here are a few of the snazzy items. It was neat watching the JD centrepieces getting made by one of the guys...he was getting the ribbon curling down to a science by the end of the jars. Someone made the comment that the grain in the bottom of the jar was from throwing over...it didn't matter, they were really neat. Too bad we didn't win the one on our table. It was looking good when they said the oldest at the table had to stand up, which was Marilyn, but then they added a couple of other moves and we were out. We might have to do that with a red one for the toy shows.

Thursday the ACCHI had our business meeting and there was a new executive elected. Lee Petersen, from L. Petersen Farms, moved up from Vice President to President and Shawn Thacker, from Thacker Harvesting, came back on the board as Vice President. Marilyn stayed on as Secretary-Treasurer.


The weather had cleared up and the city was working hard at getting the streets cleaned up, but the deep freeze had kicked in...which was good for the six huge pumpkin pies that were in storage on the back of the pickup. It is Celcius, but "feels like" -46º is cold in any language...although it does translate into -50.8ºF!

So we were down to the last night, and it was auction night...lots of treasures to behold. We had decided this year we were not going to get anything big...just do the silent and the bag auctions. That didn't last long.

It was nice to see the big three changing colors for the auction. Louis from CaseIH was having a hard time modeling the JD jacket, but with a little help, he got it on.

Mike from JD lost a wager and had to "model" the CaseIH flag during the auction and Louis was recalled to model the New Holland flag, which really wasn't that far from CaseIH. 

We were lucky to have Jim and Tracy Zeorian make it to the convention from Nebraska. Tracy is the Past President of the US Custom Harvesters, and is now the Office Manager for their association. They have made the last few conventions, so we were concerned if the weather was going to keep them away. They flew in to Calgary and Gerry drove through part of the storm to pick them up. One of the items they had brought for the auction was a certificate for a membership to the USCHI, two registrations for their annual convention in March and three nights accommodation.

Marilyn was working at the front with Lynn, keeping track of the bidders and their items. She was surprised when she found out that Al was the winner of the USCHI certificate. Now he had no excuse not to go this year.

When the big ticket item came up from Case, we had decided on an amount that we wouldn't go over, but we knew we would have to up it a bit, since everything else was going so high. This time it was Marilyn's turn to bid, which is never a good idea, since she won't lose an item because someone is "slightly" over her limit. She got what we wanted.

And isn't it a beauty? They put stickers of combine headlights and a feederhouse on the front and some fabulous art work on the sides. Of course, we don't golf, but Marilyn did get a lovely CaseIH golf bag a few years back at one of the other convention auctions and it should look pretty darn nice on the back.

Al wants to haul it to auctions, so that when they make him park a mile away from the site, he just has to unload the rig from the trailer and hit the auction.

Now we will both have something to drive in the parade...and it has cupholders!

We left Lethbridge around noon on Friday after finishing up a meeting with the sponsors, and started the 500 mile trip back. The roads had all been cleared, and it was four lane most of the way, so we made pretty good time, getting home around 11:30pm. 

Marilyn had another performance Saturday night, so she spent most of the day at the hall getting ready. Sunday was a super day off, just getting back into the "zone"...for Marilyn, work, for Al, maybe the same since he is going back to H&R before the year ends.

Even though we aren't in "harvest mode", Marilyn will still post occasionally...there are, after all, several toy shows coming up. 

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas with friends and family, and a prosperous new year.

Now we have to make room to park a golf cart...

November 16, 2013

View of the day-Before and after for the combine. It's official and it has been put away for the season.


Time for an update...it's been a hectic couple of weeks. Al's journey to Dyersville was short and sweet. The guys left on Wednesday morning and were back home on Sunday...a lot of driving. It was a nice ride for Al and Roger, as Ken took his truck and did all the driving and all they had to do was sit sit back and enjoy the ride. No pictures this year, unless we get some from Ken.

Marilyn finished the combining and got the combine cleaned up while he was gone. We had a couple of gorgeous days for cleaning, which made it just slightly less painful. 

This was also the weekend that the theatre group was attending a short play festival in Regina. Ours was the last of 7 performances over three days, and although we didn't bring home the brass, we did get a couple of honorable mentions. We also were adjudicated, so some of the suggestions from the workshop should go a long way to sprucing up our next five dinner theatre performances.

Since we both got home on Sunday, we had enough time to get clothes washed, load them back in to a suitcase and get ready for another road trip Monday morning. Al said AIS was to be 6:30am, since we had to drive over to Roger's farm near Lipton...which isn't far from Balcarres...then we had to unload our little cargo trailer and reload Roger's larger cargo trailer. Apparently the guys had done some shopping in Dyersville.

Once Marilyn worked her packing magic and got everything in, we went in to have lunch with Roger and Linda, then it was go time. We were pulling the cargo trailer with the dually, while Roger and Linda came in their SUV.

There were a lot of weather warnings out, but most of them had been scaled back in our part of the province, so we started out for Red Deer, Alberta and the Agri-Trade show, where the guys were setting up tables for the toy show.

We knew the first stretch of road would be horrendous, even without the bad weather, but we figured it was shorter, so we would bite the bullet and take a chance.

It was bad, but got progressively worse as we neared the Alberta border...and the last 45 miles seemed to take forever. They had gotten a lot of snow and the highways hadn't been cleaned or sanded, so it was rough and slippery.

We finally got there and were thankful that we had gone a day early. The show didn't start until Wednesday, so that gave us an extra day to set up. Now, when Al goes to toy shows, he generally gets 4 or 5 table to set up on, but because there is such a waiting list to get into the Red Deer show, they were only able to get 3 tables...two for Al and one for Roger. Oh, boy...Marilyn and Linda had their work cut out for them. Also, it was upstairs and there was only one elevator.

A lot of stuff ended up stored under the table and brought out as soon as a spot was vacated...and there was a lot of that over the four days. It turned out to be a really good show, but now the guys are worried that they won't have enough stock for the upcoming shows . That must mean more shopping.


There were a lot of interesting displays at the show...not a lot of dioramas, likely due to the lack of room...but here are a few pictures of some of the displays.

A shop display.

At the elevator with a truck dumping.

The truck being hoisted up to dump.

A custom built rig...very detailed....on Oliver row.


A custom made JD combine with a grain vac on the back, for anything coming out the back.

And the best one of all...a prototype harvester. Header width is proportionate to capacity.

The show ended on Saturday at 3pm and we were ready to face the task of packing up the tables and getting everything into the trailer. We decided earlier in the week to stay over on Saturday night and leave early in the morning, that way we wouldn't have to be in a panic to get loaded and on the road in the dark.

The shop trailer was no where near as loaded as when we came, so the packing time was greatly reduced. It had been packed to the ceiling pretty much all the way to the back when we started out.

We left at 6:30am and it was foggy and snowing. We were going to take a different route back, travelling south, then cutting across to Saskatoon and down Hwy 16, but Al got so fed up with the tailgating and swirling snow, that he turned around and drove to Edmonton and got on Hwy 16 there. Just a bit out of the way...1000 km/632 miles as opposed to 870 km/540 miles...but with four lane all the way and no snow, we still made pretty good time.

Once we finally got home, it was time for Marilyn to get back into the "zone"...the Staples zone. She had gone in to help get Christmas stock out at Liquidation World after closing time in the evenings, but now it was time to get back into the 7am frame of mind....and rehearsals were still going on.

Al had some cargo trailer rearranging to do, so he was running back and forth to Lipton. We still had a couple of beautiful days, so he was able to get the headers cleaned up...Marilyn had to leave something for him to do. He took the pickup head over to Roger's quanset to spend the winter and the MacDon will go down to Kim and Marg's for the winter.

Marilyn had ordered Al's birthday present for him, way back in the beginning of August, but it was forever on back order, so he went without. Marilyn assured him it was the best gift she had ever come up with, but wouldn't tell him what it was and now it was almost Christmas and he had just about given up, when it arrived.

It was massive, meant for two or three people to curl up in with three cup holders in each arm and a cooler on the side. Once Marilyn set it up in the living room, it dwarfed the "bridge"...Al's big LaZBoy recliner...he had to use a step stool to get into it! What a conversation piece.


So now we are pretty much settled in and now that we finally got our new furnace put in, old man winter can "bring it on"...

October 29, 2013

View of the day-The other day the water wasn't as "hard" on this slough...that's ice with a skiff of snow on it now.

Al was busy combining, even though it was a late start and an early finish most days. He got the straight wheat finished, then had to come back to take the straight head off to finish the swaths. Fortunately, he wasn't that far from the yard, so he just roaded the combine back to change heads.

Marilyn was working on getting her costume sewed for the competition performance coming up this weekend. While she worked on that, we were getting a new furnace installed, so the guys were there all day getting that job done. Since we don't have a basement in our house, the furnace is in a room just off the garage, so the access was really good for hauling in and out.

Al got the swaths done, then came back home and loaded the pickup head back on the trailer. Now he had to move the straight header a few miles south to a patch of standing oats. He left the header there and called it a night.

This morning, we woke to a thick layer of frost on everything, so Al wasn't able to start much before noon. Once the combine was warmed up, he went down and got the oats cut...a tangled, downed mess...but at least there wasn't a lot of it. 

He came back to the yard and switched headers out for the last time...there was a small patch of canola to do, but he wasn't going to start tonight.

He had talked to another guy from 25 miles south of Yorkton, who had some canola to do, but since he was only able to send the combine, the farmer said he would work on his own and see how far he could get. Al told him if he still had some left after November  11 he would be able to help him out. He also got a call from another farmer he had talked to a while back, and they had just picked up their last swath, so they were done, too.

So tomorrow, he is on his way to Dyersville, Iowa for the National Farm Toy Show, with Roger and his neighbor. That means Marilyn gets to combine the last field of the year...then clean the machines while he is gone.

He gets back Sunday, then we are off to Red Deer, Alberta to set up at a toy show at Agri-Trade for the week.

There won't be any pictures from Dyersville this year...