Miscellaneous Pictures
2005-5-26
Lance here - It rained in Olney today, so nothing was cut. The truckers have been staying busy though, hauling grain from a local elevator in to Fort Worth. The rest of the crew has been in the shop working on Alex's combine. Yesterday he picked up a rock that went all the way through the machine. It did a lot of damage as it went though. Most of the concaves had to come out, one of which is completely destroyed. Three of the rasp bars on the rotor were broken off, and some of the fingers were broke too. Not to mention the straw chopper that now is missing some knives. Alex said they were picking up chunks of cast iron behind the combine. They are hoping to locate some parts near by, but it may take 3-4 days to get everything. BTW, this is on a machine that is 3 years old. Its replacment is sitting at the dealer in Ellinwood, all ready to go when they get there. In addition, earlier this week his machine sheared off a shaft that drives the augers in the bottom of the hopper.
Olney is a town of about 1000 people, maybe. From there, go east 10 miles to a town of about 10 people, then North another 10 miles to where their wheat fields are. Some of these fields are in very remote areas, not accessable by the trucks. Many of the fields have cattle gates so the headers have to come off every time they enter/exit a field. Alex said he had to dismount the header 4 times one day. Interestingly enough, there is a lot of wildlife in the area. Turkey, quail, and wild boars. The wild boars seem to be the biggest problem since they leave trails in the field and tear up the ground. In one spot, they put a four foot hole in a terrace. As for the crops, there are wild oats in many of the fields. People are saying it is the worst it has been in 50 years.
This week has already been a long week. The day usually starts at 7:00 AM and they cut till about 2:00 AM. If it drys out, they'll be done in about 2 days. They are planning to move North to Alva as soon as they are done here. Tonight though, the guys on the crew are relaxing a bit. There are probably about 25 people on the crew total. The have 5 combines in the area where Alex is, but they are split 3 and 2 to work in some smaller fields. They also have 6 semis here, which have been very busy going to Fort Worth.
2005-5-25
Lance here - Sounds like yesterday was a big day for the guys. As of 11:00 PM last night they had already cut 1000 acres and were still planning to cut till 2 or 3:00 this morning.
2005-5-23
Lance here - I spoke with Alex on the phone tonight. He spent most of the day on the road and is now in Olney, Texas. They arrived in town around 8:00 tonight and were out in the fields by 8:30. When he arrived in town, it was 97º F, but it had cooled down to 79º when we talked on the phone. They had all but one combine moving today, but shutdown a bit early due to the trucking situation. The elevator in Olney cannot handle the volume of wheat coming in so a lot of it is being hauled to Fort Worth, which is about 100 miles away. He said that when they drove through Frederick, OK, that there were a lot of people around. Looks like everyone there is ready to get going.
Update as of 5/25/2005: I'm not sure where the "bullet rotor" name came from, but I'm told that the rotor it isn't 3 feet longer like I previously wrote. Apparently it is just has more room in the engine compartment since many people complained about the tight spaces in there. In addition, there are now some pictures of the hinged unload auger posted on Alex's forum. I am also told that this machine is for testing a new 9.0L engine, but that might be old news by now.
They stopped at a Deere dealer in southern OK to check out a new experimental combine. It is known as the "bullet rotor" since the rotor is 3 feet longer than normal. Actually, the whole combine is 3 feet longer. Another interesting feature, the unloading auger folds twice. The second hinge is at the back of the combine. Instead of the auger sticking 10 feet past the end of the machine, it wraps around the back. He didn't take any pictures of the combine, but should be able to later in the season.