poor farmer/logger

Nice. I’ve been looking around debating what to move up to next. Would like to get something newer too just don’t know what yet. Been debating over all the colors.

Great pictures especially the ones in the hills. Hard to beat the colors of fall they sure make for a nice backdrop. Did you guys pick up a newer combine? Forecast for next week doesn’t look to bad or at least last time I looked it wasn’t to bad so hopefully there’s some good weather left yet. Technically I’m not done yet either so I’m still hoping for a week or so of nicer weather too. Got lots of other projects I’d like to catch up on too before the snow comes.

Very nice combines FarmerFixEmUp and Farmerboy72. They both look pretty shiny yet.

How’s harvest coming along? Hopefully things have been moving along nicely for you guys. Forecast is pretty ugly here for the next few days. Had hoped to spray today again but it’s been heavy overcast all day and looking like it could rain any minute. Had a really heavy fog this morning that settled in and saturated everything. 4:30 now and your boots still get wet walking through the grass.

Well managed to get the rest of that tank from yesterday sprayed out at least this afternoon. Rained pretty hard for about 20 minutes this morning but it cleared off by noon again. Got the sprayer boom back together and gambled on the forecast as there was nothing on the radar for rain. Almost bit me in the but though. Got out to the field and got going then the storms started building up southwest of me. Grabbed another gear and sprayed it out as quick as I could. Got home and it was a hour before the rain started here so I should be good. Lots of thunder,lightning and even some hail. Not sure I’ve ever seen that this time of the year. Pretty late in the year for a thunder storm. South of us got it pretty good I think. I was out taking a video and caught the lightning in it. You could hear the clouds roaring up above and they’re was big white columns coming down that looked like hail. Really cooled off after too.

Been some really mixed weather here the last few days. Been working away at getting everything sprayed. Covered almost all our acres a few days ago then the wind moved in and set me back a couple days. Got going this afternoon after it rained this morning but it was short lived. I broke the cylinder yoke on the boom old cylinder this afternoon. Only got 24 acres done. Managed to get it folded up on my own and driven back home again. Of course was on our furthest field. Got it appart and welded back up this evening but I got a bit of spatter in the threads so fighting with that a bit at the moment.

That certainly doesn’t look like much fun. The plugged rotor sounds like even less fun lol. I’ve done it twice now over the years. Snapped the rotor belt the second time trying to get it moving. Had to use the winch on my quad to help get the rotor moving back the opposite direction. Was packed so tight I struggled to get the concaves out even.

Don’t forget to feed your dishwasher lol.

Hopefully not ours lol. Last winter was kind of sad for snowfall so hopefully this winter makes up for it to a certain degree.

Looked at the long term forecast this afternoon and saw this. First signs of snow early oct. wouldn’t be the first thanksgiving we got snowed under. Doesn’t look like there’ll be much but they’ve got the snowflakes on there along with the rainfall again anyways. Not sure how I feel about that yet lol. Gives me a bit of a kick to get the old sled fixed up again anyways lol.

Well that’s basically a wrap. Have that tiny bit of canola left that I cut a few days ago but if by chance it snowed under or something happened where I couldn’t get it I sure wouldn’t loose any sleep over it. Need to do some spraying now calling for a frost tonight so might have to wait for a couple days. They were calling for rain Sunday so if that comes true Monday might be a perfect day to spray. The dust at home tonight was unreal. I couldn’t see anything most of the time kind of driving by feel almost lol.

Some guys still trying to do their first cut here. Sandier land that didn’t grow much all summer now has a little bit of growth finally. Not sure how it will winter being cut so late though.

Well today was a bit of a interesting day and not in a good way. Kind of started out last night in a way. Clipped a moose or horse on my way home from the field with my duramax. No real damage thankfully. It came up on the road last minute in the dust at about 11:00 last night. Hit the brakes and swerved last minute. Could just hear a slight thump. Hit my bumper and pushed it in a little bit. Fast forward to this morning and we were nicely getting set up for the day. I hadn’t been out yet and sad was just getting ready to go out the door. I could hear this noise rev up east of the house. Sounded like someone driving by. Went and looked and I could see this blue cloud of smoke. Peeled out the front window and here’s a police Yukon suv parked. They were out and on the move already. I went back to the kitchen window and pointed opened it and said look south. Some little ******* had run off on them in I assume what was a stolen vehicle. They dumped it just east of our place and ran across the field into our yard. Cops said were chaising a guy that has a gun so stay in the house. I asked if he wanted me to put the drone up but he declined. Hung around for a few minutes and the cruiser left the yard in a hurry. Killed a half a hour or so then went and unloaded the semi. I decided to hop on my quad and go take a look around. Another Yukon was parked just past the corner and a tow truck was there so I went to see what was up. They’d caught them all by them and found the gun. They’d dumped it on the road just a little further east again. Everything settled back down after that again. Don’t exactly need that kind of bs to wake up to though that’s for sure. Got some more canola off today and filled the rest of my bins so it was a kind of early finish for the evening. Have a load on ready to go to the elevator in the morning. Price isn’t great but I don’t exactly want to buy another bin either.

Got done the straight cutting yesterday. Got moved out to my swathed canola this morning and started making some headway on it. Had a spreader drive bearing go out this evening so hot crap down for a bit. Had a good old bearing in the cab so I got it tore apart but my absent mind took the pulley off not thinking. Shaft was flared a bit so I had to clean it up. Didn’t have to the tools with me so I’ll have to finish that job in the morning. It’s all back together otherwise though just need to put the pulley back on. Canola has been yielding pretty good so I’m happy about that. Too soon to know what the swathed stuff will do but I got 55 out of the straight cut stuff. Best over ever done and more then I thought it would do judging by the stand. It was fairly short but bloomed a long time. Hopefully my swathed stuff gets close to 50. It has some poorer spots and that green piece that I haven’t even swathed yet. Taking the swather over tomorrow I think to nock it down. It’s turning now. Not a lot in the pods though unfortunately. Thankfully it’s only 5 or so acres.

What’s the moisture for rice coming out of the field like that? Looks like tough chewing alright. Bet it takes lots of hp.

Morning started out looking rough. Drove the combine to the field and had rain drops on the window. Thankfully the stuff that the radar showed this morning missed us. Managed to go till about 5:00 and the rain finally caught up with me. Had it come by within a mile or so a couple times but managed to keep going. Last time it opened up and poured down for a minute or two. I was trying to fill up the hopper and was off back on a small field doing the first round. Unfortunately didn’t get back to my opening cut before I wrapped up the pea auger with straw. Hopper was full by then anyways but I had to backtrack back to the road. Felt different to be siting at the table at supper time lol.

Doesn’t take long to shine them up that’s for sure. Floor on that header is in pretty rough shape though in a couple spots. Should be replaced but I’d like to find a newer platform with pickup to replace the whole thing.

Well we’re on the home stretch now. Close to 3/4 done. Going to straight cut my canola that I sprayed a whole back tomorrow. Had a look at it tonight and it’s good a ripe now. Some is actually way to dry I’m afraid but it is what it is. Actually wouldn’t feel bad if it rained a little bit overnight or tomorrow morning. Could use a break anyways lol. Canola On our north quarter yielded pretty good. It almost averaged 55. Just a little bit short. Still the best we’ve ever had regardless though. Ironically on our poorest quarter lol. It’s not as bad on that side of the field but still has a fair bit of sand running through it so it just shows how much yield we could’ve had at home if we’d had the rain when we needed it. It’s not quite all done yet so not positive what the yield will be but thinking in the 45-50 range. Mines up in the air yet. Hoping to get surprised in a good way as the other canola yielded a little better then I thought it would so hopefully that trend continues. I wouldn’t complain if I ran out of bin space. Lol.

Well the cereals are all done now. Finished up the last little patches of barley this afternoon. Spent the later part of the afternoon going over the combine and servicing it. It needed a oil change a few little things addressed. Hopefully get going on canola tomorrow and maybe make up some lost time if things go smoothly. Shouldn’t have to haul any more grain into the elevator so that frees up a few hours of the day. Water pump went out on the combine the other day so had to run to Melfort late afternoon and grab one. Easy repair at least. Not quite half done yet. After tomorrow maybe, depends how the day goes.

Well few more Smokey days here again. Was really bad for a couple days. Today it cleared up real nice for a change. Had a little set back tonight while combining though. Got out of the combine and could hear wheat raining down. First thought it was the overfull hopper but not so lucky. Found a hole in the hopper under the unload cross auger. Not sure if it was plugged up with dirt before and started to leak or if it’s new. Pretty sure it wasn’t that big before so thinking something broke through but don’t know for sure. Have to rig up some kind of patch tomorrow I guess and look for a liner kit later on again. Couple options in the states but haven’t found anything locally at all. Wheat is about half done now. Barley is basically all done. Have about 4 acres left that I need to swath yet. Canola is all swathed except for what I sprayed so hopefully it will be ready by next Monday. That will be 2 weeks. Stuff at home would likely go by the end of the week but don’t want to push it either. Little rain wouldn’t hurt. Talking a slight chance tomorrow but nothing for sure. Wheats running decent for the year. Seems to be around that 50-60 bpa. Considering our best average is 71 I’m happy with that. Barley was only about 65. Grade isn’t great but it should make a #3 yet. Haven’t hauled any in yet. It’s not quite dry either but it will keep for a while anyways. Coming off around 15-16. Was unloading the semi this afternoon and heard this awful racket. Thought something was coming apart on the auger for a second lol. Quickly realized it was the spray plane going across the road. Got out in time to see him buzz the church and make a couple more passes.

Finished up my canola yesterday afternoon aside from those green patches I cut out. Got the swather moved homE safely again. Pow wow traffic wasn’t to bad thankfully. Last night there was sure a pile of cars on the road though. Got started back up combining barley late afternoon. Got tough around 8:00 though. Managed to get the semi full again and quit at 9:00 though. Was odd I was up in the middle of the night and it had actually warmed up outside. The grass was dry again and the wind was slightly blowing and the very heavy smoke that had moved in was mostly all gone. Helped me get a early start on spraying my canola. Not sure if that was the best move yet but we’ll see I guess. Shelled out a little bit and of course trampled some.

Well little more progress today even though it started out wet. Started swathing at about 9:30 I’m the rain. Couple hours in the sun started to come out again. Managed to start making decent time. Got the one small field all done and then got to work on the bigger one. Was just getting to the point where I could clip along at 5-5.5 mph and I broke down. Was heading east and could smell a odd smell. Was kind of like burnt oil but also kind of like what canola dust smells like. I couldn’t see any smoke behind me so I carried on the last couple hundred feet to the headland. Turned and headed back west and all of a sudden I could smell it more and see a blue haze blowing past me. Turned the swather out into the open and jumped out to see what was up. Here it had a loose fiting on the front hyd pump. I didn’t have the tools needed to tighten it so I called home. Mom and dad brought out some wrenches and I figured I’d be good to go. Unfortunately I discovered that the o-ring had also blown out when the fitting came loose. Trip to town in the morning I guess as I don’t have any orb kits here at all. Mean time while I was waiting for the tools to get to me it poured down rain again. Field was actually getting muddy.

Finally made a little bit of dust today. Took another load of barley on this morning and got stuck in a big line up so I didn’t get back as quick as I’d hoped. Was going to spray my canola when I got home but the wind had picked up pretty good so that got put on hold again. Talking rain for tomorrow maybe so I’ll hopefully get a good bunch of my canola cut down if it does. Pow wow starts on the reserve on Friday so I want to avoid as much of that traffic as I can. Moving the 30’ swather on the 20’ road isn’t all that much fun when it’s as busy as a highway lol. Shut down fairly early tonight. Swore I could see a few rain drops on the window just before I quit and it sounded like it was getting kind of tough. When I got out of the combine at the semi though it felt nice out yet. Lights aren’t great though and it was getting hard to see anyways. Need to do some upgrades on it but not sure what yet. Barley isn’t running great but there’s a little bit there.

Moved out to the reserve and started swathing my canola yesterday. It’s still a touch green so I left it and came home and got the combine set up to do barley. Got one hopper off last night before it got tough. By 8:00 the tires were shinning on the combine 😢. Got up at 5:30 this morning to this mess. Heavy heavy fog. Practically zero visibility. Just so happened the coop was supposed to be bringing out the hopper cones and bin packages this morning. Had my doubts they’d come when they didn’t but they took all the back roads and made their way here safely. Got another load of barley hauled in and the bin crew was just finishing up when I got back home again. Roughly 3 hours a bin to put them up. That’s a little on the high side probably. Have to level them and position them yet but they’re here that’s the main thing.

Cut down some canola this afternoon. Didn’t do a whole bunch but got the field opened up so I can cut a bunch tomorrow hopefully. Cut out a few green spots along the outside of the field and where I brushcut last fall. Wont be able to do the whole home quarter but probably 80 % looks like the pictures.