Harvest 2017

I was going to say that harvest 2017 is complete as of last night (Sept 16) but remembered that I have a few acres of late planted wheat here to swath and combine. Hardly worth the trouble but I guess since I planted it I might as well harvest it.

I had a whole series of "combine cab commentary" on the sd card in the Gopro that ran right through harvest. Unfortunately it seems to have deleted most of them except for the last day of harvest. So you get the economy version of this year's harvest video. I know there were a lot of other videos and photos on the card that now seem to have disappeared. Good thing I can't remember what most of them were or I'd be even more disappointed.

I was unable to get any drone  video of harvest as I was just too busy.

Its been a month since I started swathing and combining crops and was pretty near a not stop run of good dry weather. Like nothing we have ever seen. Harvest began and will finish early this year. It turned out better than expected but then my expectations were low considering the lack of rain all summer.



I was really needing my "flathead fix" not having had a chance to take the old Merc out for a spin. So today after a day of baler repairs and fencing,  I took a sunset drive. A good end to the day.

Harvest Days

Back at it for the second day in a row since the rain shut us down nearly two weeks ago. Slow going in a heavy swath with numerous piles of canola where the swather plugged. Some go through while others plug the combine feeder no matter how slowly and cautiously I approach them. I never needed the reverser working for years but this past couple of days I could have used it. So get out the huge wrench and crank it backwards by hand , pulling the tough and wiry canola stems out of the feeder.
The shock loads on the feeder drive are really tearing up the drive sprocket and shaft and I doubt it will run another day before it fails. Sounds like we have two more good days before rain hits again so hopefully I'll get to spend them harvesting rather than repairing.
Picture from today at sunset thanks to my truck driver.

More Miles, More Acres

Another ten miles on the road today with the combine as I moved to the last canola field. Moving all the equipment between farms eats up a lot of good working hours but thats how it is when your land is spread around 3 different ranges. Was lucky to meet no other vehicles but my SIL was not so fortunate having met several combines with wide headers and a house. Yes, a house moving along the grid road taking all the road and maybe some of the ditch. She was able to pull into a field with the 50 foot grain auger and avoid the moving house.
I didn't set any records for acres or bushels today but should finish the last canola field tomorrow (today as it already 12:30 am).
The wind damage was not nearly as bad as I had been led to believe from other reports. Yield still not great but better than I expected.

The venerable IH Loadstar had a minor breakdown last night which caused some concern until we found we could still start the engine even when the ignition key was twisted off inside the ignition. I guess 41 years and 115,000 miles of metal fatigue have taken their toll. It also threw a minor fit when one side of the Holley carburetor quit and it ran pretty rough for a bit til it "fixed itself". Thats the kind of problems I don't mind having.