This has been a crazy weekend, but the harvest is done!
We had some wonderful weather it was time to get things done for the season.
Our combine had been repaired and we were ready.
I was privileged to get to ride in the grain truck with my husband to the grain elevator.
The line waiting to dump the corn was long so we had a chance to admire the beautiful sunset.
They unloaded the wagon hitched to the truck first.
Dean showed me all the levers and the things to do when dumping in the truck cab.
It'll take some time to learn how to use all the levers when dumping.
Then we were back at it in the dark.
You could see lightning off in the distance and we were hoping that we wouldn't get rained on.
We did finish the corn that night and put a tarp over the wagon to protect it from rain in the dark.
No one has lived a full life until they have had to put a tarp on a grain wagon in the dark only using a flashlight in the wind. There's no experience like it!
Early the next morning Dean took the tractor over to pick up the wagon of corn and I received a phone call that went something like this:
"Dear could you drive over to Dad's? I left the hitch pin in my pickup."
So my husband who was embarrassed quickly
received his hitch pin.
This is what happens when farmers get tired and that is when I get a little worried because farming accidents happen when people work 12 to 16 hour days to try to beat the weather.
Yeah--the corn is finished, but we have one more field of double crop beans to combine.
(A double crop is two crops in one season. We harvested wheat and planted beans late June.)
Changing the combine from doing corn over to beans takes some time to convert. I'd rather be changing needles in my sewing machine. It's easier, not complicated, and cleaner!
Oh no! When Dean has his tools out like this, it means there's some wrong.
Pictured below is a shaft that has enclosed bearings.
The bearings are going bad--what can we do to band-aid the situation?
We spent 2 1/2 hours shooting syringes full of grease into a pin hole to grease up the bearing just enough to finish the field of beans. I even microwaved some grease to warm it up so it would flow better through the needle.
Life on the farm can be interesting some days!
It was an extremely windy day today and combine fires can be a great concern, but Dean quickly combined the opposite direction so the wind would not blow the chaff into the hot engine compartment.
Yes, there is sunshine at the end of this story! Harvest is done and we are tired.
I am thankful that there were no accidents and the combine can be fixed at a later time.
Since the weather is getting colder, maybe I can spend some time on doing things that I really like doing like quilting.
Happy Quilting!
Kay Lynne
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