2004-9-28
We cleaned off the two combines here and brought them back to the main farm. All the trucks were fueled, the combines and headers are loaded, and now everything sits in Berthold ready to move tomorrow morning back to Evansville.
2004-9-27
Yesterday afternoon we finished up the wheat around here and swapped back over to canola. I blew another rotor belt which we changed under a yard light since it was about 10:00 PM. That one brings my total to 5. Shortly after that we finished off that field and moved to another. Opening up a field after dark is somewhat of an adventure, especially when it is new territory. We ran till about 2:00 AM since the dew was not setting in. Today started at 8:00 with the news that I will be driving truck 9 down to Cresbard, South Dakota for the guys there. Brent is bringing truck 7 hauling the 8010 so that it can run soybeans there with some our 2388s and another 8010 that the farmer owns. They have been cutting soybeans in that area for several days already. Upon arriving back in Kenmare, I found that it had been a really bad day in the canola. I think the list of broken things includes 4 rotor belts, a disintegrated rotor drive pulley, rotor gear box, and some knives off the straw chopper. This effectively means we are done with canola and will be going to soybeans once the combines get fixed. I now can see why a hydraulic rotor drive system, such as the 8010 has, would be superior to that of a belt drive system. I must say though, the canola isn't really all that hard to thresh, but any weeds mixed in with it, or "beaver huts" left from the swather seem to make the rotor very unhappy.
| YouTube Video South Dakota Soybeans |
2004-9-24
We have had a couple good days of cutting wheat. The 8010 is back cutting with us again and we all hope to finish up here so we can get started on soybeans. Jody left a couple days ago and I hear that harvest back home in Iowa is looking good. Everything in Tioga was finished yesterday so we used those trucks here today, which proved to be a good choice since the line at the elevator was really long. I've been driving trucks lately which is a nice change of pace from the combines.
2004-9-21
Yesterday my cousin, Jody, arrived from Iowa. Rain had moved in overnight so we were shut down for harvesting all day. We made a run up into Canada to say we had been there and checked out the coal mines in Estevan. It took about an hour to cross the border into Canada, but only 5 minutes to get back into the US. Today was sunny, but it will take more than that to get going on wheat here. We made a few repairs today, but that was about it. Things should get moving around here tomorrow. Things back in Iowa are starting to get going too as soybean harvest got started there yesterday.
2004-9-19
Yesterday we had a big day on canola. We got going around 10:30 AM and quit at 2:30 AM this morning. All that and I only blew 1 rotor belt. We started thrashing this morning around 10:30 again. Tonight the dew set in early so we quit at dusk. Right before we quit, I picked up a wad of wet grass that was so thick I had to take the header off to get it out. Rain is expected tomorrow so maybe we can catch up on sleep.
2004-9-17
We went over to Tioga to change oil on the combine there. After that, we checked the mustard and it was good so we finished that field. Around supper time, a couple of us headed back to Kenmare to get started on the canola.
| YouTube Video Cutting Mustard |
2004-9-16
Today we changed oil on a couple combines and checked on the canola. The canola needs more sun and wind, so we wait another day.
2004-9-15
We made a trip over to Minot to get oil and filters so we can change oil on the 3 combines here. We also did some shopping and had supper at Perkins for a change. No rain today, but there just isn't enough sun and heat to dry things out much. We probably won't thrash anything for another day or two. I heard from Iowa that some of the earlier planted soybeans are already being harvested in that area.
2004-9-14
Brent and Matt headed back to MN this morning with a couple trucks and the grain cart. The five us remaining here washed up the pickups and then went back to Tioga to get the other grain cart. It didn't rain today, but everything is still pretty wet. Also, in the last few days, the leaves on the trees have drastically started to change colors in this area.
2004-9-13
Rain moved into the area overnight so we won't cut anything for a few days. Brent cut some mustard last night in the Tioga area so we went over there this morning to take a couple truck loads to the elevator. After lunch we came back to Kenmare to load up the 9250 and grain cart so that it can go back to MN tomorrow.
2004-9-12
There was a demo derby back in Tioga today so we went to that since the canola around here was just not ready to thrash. After supper we tried the canola and the straw thrashed pretty good, but the grain was still too wet from the rain yesterday. There wasn't a lot of sun today to dry it out, and rain is in the forecast for tomorrow.
2004-9-11
Foggy, cold, and overcast. That seems to be the trend here. We needed to see several hours of sun today to even think about thrashing, which didn't happen. We dumped the canola we cut last night and that was it for work today. This evening we visited a local farm toy collection. What an incredible collection of toys including many that are hand made.
2004-9-10
Again it was a little foggy this morning, but today we have a mist of rain coming down too. We serviced the combines and dumped a couple trucks this morning. After supper the canola was just good enough to thrash, so we got a couple truck loads off the field.
2004-9-9
We awoke to find a heavy fog that lasted all morning. We tried thrashing around 3:00 and everything was good so we continued. Around 7:00 a storm came through the area, but split and went around the field we were on. There was one cloud in particular that looked to be the start of a tornado. We could see it swirling and sucking in some other smaller clouds near it, as well as a column starting to form below it. It dissolved and we continued till about 11:00 when we finished the field. Also, I blew up another rotor belt today.
2004-9-8
We went back to Tioga last night to sleep, but brought the crew trailer to Kenmare with us today. We started with replacing the rotor belt that I blew last night in the dark since its a bit difficult to do that in the dark. We thrashed all afternoon and everything went pretty good with the exception of blowing a rotor belt on the other combine.
2004-9-7
We loaded 2 combines and brought them up to Kenmare to get started on some canola. My highlight of the day was that I drove one of the T800s here and pulled my combine. However, the downside for the day is that once we got started on the canola, I blew 2 rotor belts.
| YouTube Video Sideview of loading the 9250 |