Harvest tales

Once upon a time… a girl operated her Case 7010 combine in a field of dreams, err… soybeans, with a Crary air reel, no less.

That dream was lovely, acres were being combined and the yields were good. And then, it rained. And it rained and rained. A whole week was lost due to rain.  Darn weather!

Well, she figured, it gave time to get little repairs done and troubleshooting to prevent bigger repairs from occurring. Dad, however, was a little down in the mouth and worried about the crops.

Since the start to that lovely dream it has been a slow awakening to the reality of pms’ing weather, that can’t stick to the seven day forecast.  Ahh, well, that’s farming, right?

So I work in fits and starts. My work day (actual combining work) doesn’t start until after lunch (the dew overstays its welcome)

and we’re done by the time the sun sets. That darn dew sets in early and then the bean stalks become so chewy that my combine rumbles and grumbles.

Then one day the alarms, bells, whistles went off. All it was missing was that disembodied voice saying, ‘warning, warning, break down eminent. Break down eminent.’ Uff da. So I stop, immediately throwing switches turning off the rotor and bean head and then throttling down the rpm’s down to idle. Dad pulls up in his truck, already throwing open doors to get tools out. I turn the key, sigh and then climb down the ladder from the cab.

We discuss how the clean grain alarm was going off so we start there. Opening the shields we eventually determine the problems.

But first…

How to get out of combining for the day:

The pulley for the clean grain elevator twists and pops off. No grain goes into tank, done for the day. Unless, of course, it’s already sunset.

Reapply pulley. Proceed to check the clean grain elevator. Loosen the chain in order to turn it. Manually turn pulley and check all paddles in elevator.

'Forget' to tighten elevator chain. No worries, this will come back and 'help' you in a couple of days. (The loose chain will cause the pulley to jump off like a synchronized pair of divers off a springboard, stopping grain from going into the tank.)

Not one, not two but seven paddles are in various stages of disrepair. Some may be completely missing their rubber paddle.

Hmm, done for the day? Well, stopped for a couple of hours until they can be properly fixed.

Run out of fuel? Ha, what a terrible excuse!

Rain showers spit through the area. Yeah, you might be done for the day (any maybe the next day too).

Mysteriously put a rock through the combine (yes, it would skate right over the rock trap), make a lot of noise, break a pair of chopping knives and counter knives on the straw chopper

Forget your lunch, snackies, water, etc. Yeah, get out of here!

Ahh, the adventures of farming, you can never predict the next day or have to worry about a boring day at the office. My office is the great outdoors so boring isn’t in my vocabulary (unless it's winter and I have to face down the mountains of work, as in the variety of bookwork).