Combining Wheat

What a lot of the roads looked like in S. OK besides the main highways. It was a tight squeeze for machinery somethimes.
all lined up at night, ready to be worked on in the morning.
Washing off the windows, dust and bugs will cover it by the end of the day.
Busy getting everything ready to go for the day, everyone is already dripping with sweat by about 7:30 am, it has been 100+ degrees everyday, and it heats up fast.
Jon blowing off the combine with the leaf blower from Marg :) It has been very handy!
Useful in many ways.
Jeff and Jon discussing plans for the day.
The wheat has been looking pretty good where we are at. 33 to 46 bushel per acre averages, which is a decent yield, they thought it was going to be higher, but are happy with that. 1 field only had around 20 bu/acre average, the stand was thin and there were considerable weeds. The farmer with the poorer wheat had quite a few more acres of weedy fields and decided to not have us combine the rest. Low yields, and dockage at the elevator for weeds, it wouldn't be worth it for him hire us in the end. So he was going to swath the rest and bale it up.

Jeff needed a little rest :)

sundown
Everybody is dirty, tired, and hungry when we are done for the night.
Jon, looking for parts online. The first week of combining we had trouble with 1 of the heads on the combines. It was very frusterating and there weren't very many Case dealers close to us, or they didn't have the parts we needed. I drove 90 miles 1 day for parts, 3 hrs the next day, and then Jon & I drove 9 hrs the following day. thoses are all just 1 way. there were a few other parts needed that we picked up. It was hard, we just wanted those combines to be in the field.

Jon & I had to drive up to Marysville (KS / NE border) for a steel bar that runs the length of the head which the sickle and gaurds bolt onto. It had been welded and had busted again so it was time for a new one. we had to take the header trailer along to bring it back with, it is only a couple inches wide but 30ft long and all 1 long piece. We left around 6pm last tuesday I believe, and took turns driving, stopped in Wichita for a different part there and then continued on to Marysville. We were almost there and had to go through a small town (maybe Morristown size?). It was around 2 in the morning and there were a whole bunch of cars and teenagers in the way on a residential street. We stopped and a cop came up to us, he said we'd need to take a different way, about 15 miles around, there had been a homicide and it was under investigation. A murder in that small town?! It was an eery feeling. You can see forever and there was lightning in the distance all around us it seemed. We made it around to Marysville and loaded up the part they had out for us. We both had to use a restroom badly but there was nothing in that town open. So a few miles out of town we pulled over and both just peed in the ditch. Got back in the truck and not more than 2 minutes later the heavens opened up and it was a downpour, sheets of rain worse than anything I have ever seen before. I can't tell you how thankful I was that we got that part loaded up and was able to "use the restroom" before it started pouring like that. We had the weather on and it sounded like a pretty widespread storm. It was hard finding our way back, and the right roads. It was hard to see anything, period. I was scared, it is different if you intentionally go out driving in a storm, or are close to home and know you are almost there. We were a long way from home or the camper and did not know the area at all. It was windy and the rain came down so fast that the roads were practically flooding. The lightning was all around us, it was some of the most spectacular lightning I have ever seen. We took a wrong turn into a small town, got turned around and back on the right road. The radio was saying high wind gusts of 60+mph and possibility of hail, so we found a small gas station and pulled the truck under the roof. There were no tornado warnings thank heavens but we were right in the middle of the severe thunderstorm. The storms seem so much bigger here. After an hour or so it calmed down enough that we could get going again. We took turns driving and sleeping, stopped only for fuel and grabbed Subway to eat, we got back to the field around 1:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday. Our gaurdian angels were sure watching over us that night.