Hot Day In July

Yes, by our standards today was a hot one. I saw mid to high 90s for the first time this year. Humidity was high too and a hot wind blowing. Not good for flowering canola but it did bring on a good old thunderstorm which left me with 6 tenths rain, if I can believe the gauge. It looks wetter. A few hail stones too just to scare us.
Its no use me complaining about the heat over on the ag forums as the guys from Southern U.S. always have me beat for heat and humidity. But they can't figure how I function on the farm in our winters extreme temps either.
I took the drone up for a short flight mid day. Showing the canola which is fading fast in the heat. Some blossom fall-off is normal at this stage but the heat and wind will accentuate it and is hard on the crop.
Still sitting with a broken down haybine and more hay to cut.  I could (and might) use the swather to cut what hay is left but it is a little weak in the wobble box and I don't want to stress it out too bad as it has a couple of hundred acres of canola waiting on it in a few weeks. Combine needs some major disassembly and repair as well. Or do I keep pouring oil through it for another year? Seems lately that everything I own leaks oil. Or anti-freeze.

March 11 53 Merc Update

No big news here but I thought it was time for an update in case anybody was curious. The cold weather limits my ambition and endurance for working in the shop. I don't want to increase my carbon footprint too much by running the oil furnace and actually working in comfort. The world is warming up though. Snow was melting at the south doors of the shop in the bright sunshine.

I actually got the new brake shoes installed on one wheel. Then did it over again twice when I found some little detail I had left out. At this point I think I will need to remove them again, at least partially. The old wheel cylinders are seized and won't allow enough clearance for the drums to slide on over the new shoes. Getting lots of practice anyway.



Did I mention we had a lot of snow recently? Of course, you have seen the videos. Just in case you missed them, here is a drone shot from a few days ago. Looks like ideal snowmobile conditions, if I still had a working snowmobile.

Wheat Crop July 16

About time for  a blog update but its late in the day so I'll just post this video of one of my wheat fields from the weekend.

Crops still looking pretty good in spite of the continuing dry weather and lack of rain. Complete turn around from last year when we couldn't miss a rain and wished it would stop.

I went out with the haybine today and cut a few more patches of hay as my normal hay patches did not yield what they normally do.