2006-9-2
Just adding pictures. Scroll down for the blog from this stop.
2006-6-3
Finished 372 acres, crew is done in Alva.
I talked with Alex tonight via phone. They've been cutting between the rain showers that keep showing up. Today they ran from Noon till about 4:00, covering 372 acres which had a lot of terraces. One machine got loaded and hauled up to Caldwell this afternoon, and Alex's machine will go that direction tomorrow. The other machines from this area were roaded over to where another part of the crew is cutting at, since they have 600 acres yet to cover there. As of 10:00 tonight, they were pulling into Mc Donalds for some supper.
2006-6-2
Worked on cutting again today, cut around 300 +/- acres.
2006-6-1
RAIN again...
2006-5-31
Slept in until around 10:30 when two good looking house keeping ladies woke me up and asked if I needed towels, so I graciously told them I would appreciate a few. So then I got around and took a shower and headed to the field to service machines. I tightened the sickle guards in place, replaced my broken knife on the sickle, and tightened the clean grain elevator chain and tailings return chain in addition to the feeder-house chain. We went and ate lunch in Dacoma at the little cafe there, then back to the motel for another day of relaxation. More pictures soon, I promise.
2006-5-30
I got up around 10:30 or so this morning as we have it off since it rained. Ate lunch at a little Mexican cafe here in town, good food but not what I'm used too at home with San Juan's. Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow so I have no idea what to expect. I will keep updating as soon as I can. Enjoy the pictures and I'll try to get more for you guys. It's hard to work and take pictures.
Until next time -Alex
2006-5-29
A 4th combines showed up this morning, #7. We cut about 500 acres from 9:00am till about 5:00pm when it started RAINING and HAILING. It was okay until I helped the trucker Lawrence tarp his truck in the hail and rain and 65+mph winds. We bent his tarp pole so we'll have something to do on another rainy day, which may be the 31st if it rains again tomorrow.
2006-5-28
We cut about 25 acres and moved to the "Ranch" up north. There are about 600 acres up there to cut so we got started on that. My AC went out in #2 again today. Long story short, they've replaced the whole system now, except the hoses and one other piece I forget. Levy (my brother) and Bryan left this morning about 10:30am. We combined a little over 250 acres with 2 machines after lunch today, when my AC got fixed. We got another combine, #6, at the Ranch so we got rolling tonight. We cut another 50 acres or so and called it a night.
2006-5-27
#2 combine is fixed for now, ran for an hour and plugged the year beater. The factory didn't put the belt on properly so it chewed up a belt already and we had to replace the beater belt and the chopper belt, which is one of a few we've replaced on other machines already this year. We finished our 100 acres and roaded both machines back north. We cut some wheat 200+/- acres that ran 13.5. That what was seed wheat going into a bin. My phone died on me so my brother and buddy brought me my old phone and stayed the night.
I talked to Alex Thursday night and he said they finally climbed into their combines that morning and started to roll. After just a short time, Alex realized his air conditioning wasn't working. So they called John Deere and as of Friday night it still wasn't fixed. They had a little rain Thursday night at Alva, so Friday morning they took 2 combines and went south just a little way to Arvard and were able to cut there. (Alex is currently running his bosses combine until his gets fixed.) According to the monitors on the combines, the wheat at Alva, was making about 17 bu/ac.
Alex has taken many pictures so far, but hasn't downloaded them yet. As soon as I get them, they'll be posted here. With the low yields, it really does surprise me that they are letting a combine sit. And for anybody who things A/C is optional, weather.com tells me that yesterday's high was 97 in Alva. I'd let the combine set too.
2006-5-26
Tried the wheat and it was a little wet still. It was around 14.5 and needs to be about 14.0 or we get docked at the elevator. We roaded machine #1 south and started on 100 acres we knew would be ready. We serviced the combines after their first day of service to make sure there were no problems. Come to find out on machine #2, the condenser plug in the AC didn't get removed at the factory and managed to find its way into the system and plug it.
2006-5-25
I'm running combine #2 while Aaron the crew boss runs combine #1. We are running headers #6/7 respectively they are both year old drapers. Ryan is running the 8410 and 1084 Brent cart but never been around harvesting so it's a learning curve. We are currently cutting west of Alva about 7 miles and north about another mile. We get up around 7:00am everyday and go eat breakfast then head to the field. My combine #2 didn't run at all today as the AC went out (never worked actually). We did manage to cut 120 acres of Jagger with machine #1.
2006-5-24
We got up early at 7:00am (the usual starting time) and myself, Ryan, Cornei (Not sure on the spelling, he's South African), and the crew boss Aaron went out and set up combines. We put up the bin extensions on the 6 combines that where already here, put the choppers in place, and put on the antennas. We serviced the grain carts and shut all the traps and got them ready.
2006-5-23
Arrived in Alva at 6:00pm. Checked into the Budget Inn motel in Alva. Brought down 10 combines instead of 12 due to the poor expected wheat crop. We seen some wheat, it's still green in places and the next field will be ready tomorrow, so we'll have to see what it brings.
Alex finally left today at 2:10.....
Well this marks the beginning of another season. Long days, short nights, the smell of diesel in the morning, and several million bushels of grain waiting to be harvested. All the combines and trucks are already moved south, and they are just moving some of the last support equipment down today.